The air is laced with cigarette smoke and Cantonese profanities as half a dozen taxi drivers hang around by their fire-engine-red cabs on a quiet nook of the gritty Prince Edward neighborhood of Hong Kong.
It’s the afternoon handover, when day shift drivers move their taxis to these working the night time shift. They’re surrendering wads of money to a taxi agent, a matriarchal determine who collects hire for the autos, manages their schedules and dispenses unsolicited recommendation about exercising extra and quitting smoking. The drivers wave her off.
There could also be no more durable job on this metropolis of greater than seven million than attempting to vary a taxi driver’s habits. Usually grumpy and speeding to the subsequent fare, cabbies in Hong Kong have been doing issues their means for many years, reflecting the fast-paced, frenetic tradition that has lengthy energized the town.
However taxi drivers are below strain to get with the occasions. Their passengers are fed up with being pushed recklessly, handled curtly and, in lots of instances, having to settle fares with money — one of many strangest idiosyncrasies about life in Hong Kong. The follow is so ingrained that airport employees usually must alert vacationers at taxi ranks that they should carry payments.
The federal government, each due to the complaints and to revitalize tourism, has tried to rein in taxi drivers. Officers ran a marketing campaign over the summer time urging drivers to be extra well mannered. They imposed a degree system by which unhealthy conduct by drivers — reminiscent of overcharging or refusing passengers — could be tracked and will outcome within the lack of licenses.
In early December, the federal government proposed requiring all taxis to put in techniques to permit them to just accept bank cards and digital funds by the top of 2025, and so as to add surveillance cameras by the top of 2026.
Predictably, many taxi drivers have opposed the thought of nearer supervision.
“Would you need to be monitored on a regular basis?” mentioned Lau Bing-kwan, a 75-year-old cabby with thinning strands of white hair who accepts solely money. “The federal government is barking too many orders.”
Maintain On to Your Seats
The brand new controls, if put in place, would sign the top of an period for an trade that has lengthy been an anomaly in Hong Kong’s world-class transportation system. Day by day, tens of millions of individuals commute safely on glossy subways and air-conditioned double-decker buses that run reliably.
Using in a taxi, by comparability, might be an journey. Step into one among Hong Kong’s signature four-door Toyota Crown Consolation cabs and you’ll more than likely be (what’s the reverse of greeted?) by a person in his 60s or older with a phalanx of cellphones mounted alongside his dashboard — used typically for GPS navigation and different occasions to trace horse racing outcomes. Pleasantries won’t be exchanged. Anticipate the fuel pedal to be floored.
You’ll then reflexively seize a deal with and check out to not slide off the midnight-blue vinyl seats as you zip and switch by means of the town’s notoriously slim streets. Lastly, earlier than you arrive at your vacation spot, you’ll prepared your small payments and cash to keep away from aggravating the motive force with a time-consuming exit.
“Once they drop you off, it’s important to form of rush,” mentioned Sylvia He, a professor of city research on the Chinese language College of Hong Kong who, like many residents of this metropolis, feels conditioned to stroll on eggshells round a cabby. “I don’t need to delay their subsequent order.”
To many cabbies, the impatience and brusqueness is a mirrored image of their harsh actuality: when scraping by in a enterprise with shrinking monetary rewards, no time might be wasted on social niceties. Lau Man-hung, a 63-year-old driver, as an example, skips meals and loo breaks simply to remain behind the wheel lengthy sufficient to take dwelling about $2,500 a month, barely sufficient to get by in one among the most costly cities on the earth.
“Some clients are too mafan,” mentioned Mr. Lau utilizing a Cantonese phrase meaning inflicting hassle and annoyance. “They prefer to complain about which path to take. They inform you to go quicker.”
An Business’s Fragile Economics
Driving a cab was a good solution to make a dwelling. However enterprise has gotten harder, made worse by the fallout of mainland China’s financial slowdown. Town has had hassle reviving its attract with vacationers, whereas its bars and nightclubs, as soon as teeming with crowds squeezed into slim alleyways, now draw fewer revelers.
Even earlier than the downturn, some homeowners of taxi licenses have been struggling. Taxi licenses are restricted by the federal government and traded on a loosely regulated market. Some homeowners suffered big losses after a speculative bubble drove costs as much as practically $1 million for one license a decade in the past, then burst.
Right this moment, licenses are price about two-thirds of their decade-ago excessive. Many companies and drivers who personal licenses are targeted extra on recouping losses than on enhancing service.
Tin Shing Motors, a family-owned firm, manages drivers and sells taxi license mortgages and taxicab insurance coverage. Chris Chan, a 47-year-old third-generation member of the corporate, says Tin Shing is saddled with mortgages purchased when licenses have been price rather more.
To chip away at that debt, Mr. Chan must hire out his taxis as a lot as potential. However he struggles to seek out drivers. Many cabbies have aged out, and younger folks have largely stayed away from the grueling work. Revenue margins have dwindled, he added, particularly with the price of insurance coverage virtually doubling lately. Uber, regardless of working in a grey space in Hong Kong, has additionally taken a piece of consumers away.
“It’s more durable and more durable to make cash,” Mr. Chan mentioned.
On the backside are the drivers, about half of whom are 60 and older. Many can’t afford to retire. They must make about $14 an hour to interrupt even after paying for fuel and the hire of their autos. To them, money in hand is healthier than ready days for digital funds to clear.
A Blue-Collar Job Professionalizes
Rigidity between the general public and taxi drivers performs out with mutual finger pointing. When the federal government launched the courtesy marketing campaign final 12 months, a driver informed a tv reporter that it was the passengers who have been impolite.
In some ways, Hong Kong’s taxi drivers embody the high-stress, no-frills tradition of the town’s working class. Their gruffness is not any completely different from the service one will get at a cha chaan teng, the ever-present native cafes that gasoline the plenty with egg sandwiches, immediate noodles and saccharine-sweet milk tea. Servers are curt, however quick.
“Individuals are likely to have one unhealthy expertise and keep in mind it for the remainder of their life,” mentioned Hung Wing-tat, a retired professor who has studied the taxi trade. “Consequently, there may be an impression among the many public that every one taxi drivers are unhealthy when most of them simply need to earn a dwelling. They don’t need any hassle.”
Certainly, there are cabbies like Joe Fong, 45, who sees no worth in antagonizing his clients and has tried to adapt to his passengers’ wants.
“Why struggle?” Mr. Fong mentioned. “We want one another. You want a trip and I want your cash.”
Mr. Fong maximizes his revenue by splitting his time between driving a personal automobile for Uber and a cab for a taxi fleet known as Alliance. Mr. Fong has 5 cellphones affixed to his dashboard. He welcomes digital funds, and he didn’t elevate an eyebrow when Alliance put in cameras in all their taxis final 12 months.
“I’m not like these outdated guys,” mentioned Mr. Fong, who drives one among Hong Kong’s newer hybrid taxis made by Toyota, which appear to be a cross between a London cab and a PT Cruiser. “The world has modified. You must settle for it.”
Olivia Wang contributed reporting.
