HCM City puts lid on taxis to reduce congestion

Ho Chi Minh City is set to ban fleet expansion by taxi companies as it seeks to improve oversight of taxi operations, which has become difficult due to an explosion in the number of vehicles.

A new regulation passed by the Department of Transport, which takes effect on June 1, allows the city's 36 taxi businesses and co-operatives to only replace old vehicles.

The department said the number of taxis on the city's streets had skyrocketed to 12,551, or 84 per cent of the number originally expected to operate by 2020.

There were many taxis running without licences, it said.

The new regulation aimed to restrict the number of taxis to enable oversight of their operations and ease the congestion on the streets, it added.

Duong Hong Thanh, deputy director of the department, said the department consulted the taxi operators to get their opinions before issuing the new regulation.

The chairman of the HCM City Taxi Association, Ta Long Hy, who is also an executive at Vinasun, one of the two biggest operators in the city, said his association was willing to comply with the new rule.

But he said he wanted the enumeration to be done based on the number of taxis operators had registered rather than on the number that currently carries the operators' names.

The department, on the other hand, has chosen the latter criterion to ensure accuracy because many taxi operators have hired out cars to companies on long-term contracts.

Hy also referred to another issue. He said Vinasun signed a deal to buy new taxis before June but had yet to get delivery, adding it had asked the department to allow delivery in future.

Another major operator, Hoang Long, also said it had signed a contract to buy 20 cars.

The department has said it would consider contracts signed before June 1, adding it would make long-term plans for the operation of taxis in the city to make it more efficient.

Taxis meet 2 – 3 per cent of the city's public transport need, Pham Xuan Mai, head of the HCM City University of Polytechnic's Transport Technology Department, estimated.