Taxi drivers protest low wages and long hours

On average, taxi drivers earn less than NT$20,000 per month after paying maintenance, insurance and parking fees and fuel costs

Taxi drivers from around the country gathered in front of the Council of Labor Affairs yesterday to protest their low incomes and to urge the government to restrict the number of cabs in the country.
Representatives of a taxi union said that in 2009, cab drivers were working an average 270 hours per month and earning NT$71 (US $2.3) an hour, as statistics from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) showed.

This was a huge drop from NT$119 per hour in 1997, the union representatives said.
On average, taxi drivers earn less than NT$20,000 per month after paying maintenance, insurance and parking fees and fuel costs, which could amount to more than NT$16,000 monthly, said Chu Chin-hsin, a union spokesman.

This situation is “embarrassing” for middle aged household income earners whose teenage children may be earning at least NT$98 per hour -- the minimum hourly wage -- in part time jobs at the convenience stores or gas stations, he said.

The soaring price of fuel, the increasing number of free shuttle buses and higher passenger volumes on the mass rapid transit all constitute a threat to the livelihood of cab drivers, Chu said.

The best solution to the problem is to restrict the number of taxis in the country, suggested Peng Chih-yuan, who has been driving cabs for more than 20 years. Increasing taxi fares will only harm business, he said.

Since the global financial crisis in 2008, there have been too many taxi drivers in the country and a decline in the quality of service, Peng said.

Currently there are about 30,000 cabs in Taipei City and more than 90,000 throughout the country, according to MOTC figures. As a result, the unoccupied rate is over 80 percent on average, the figures show.