The rollout of Macao’s 500 new black taxis is nearly complete, with the Transport Bureau announcing yesterday that 461 of the vehicles were in service as of 15 January.
The new black taxis were the result of a public tender for 10 taxi licences that the Transport Bureau launched in October 2023. Each licence allowed the successful bidder to operate a maximum of 50 regular taxis, bringing the total of new cabs to 500.
With the additional taxis on the road, the Transport Bureau noted that the city’s taxi fleet now exceeded 1,750 vehicles. When compared to the 1,220 cabs from the third quarter of 2024, the current total represents a jump of roughly 43 percent.
However, the number remains woefully insufficient, especially in light of the significant number of travellers that are pouring into the city, which welcomed 35 million visitors last year.
[See more: Macao’s chronic taxi shortage highlighted in new survey]
Even without huge numbers of tourists competing with them for the small number of regular taxis, Macao’s population of 704,000 would find it hard enough, with just 1 taxi for every 402 residents.
Despite calls to legalise ride-hailing services such as Uber and DiDi – the latter is ubiquitous across the Chinese mainland – the Macao government has remained resistant, arguing that these “unlicensed car hailing services are not appropriate to effectively compensate for the lack of available taxis in Macao.”
Instead, authorities have preferred to issue more taxi licences and develop the city’s public transport infrastructure, with a particular focus on the Light Rapid Transit (LRT) railway system.
For now, the Transport Bureau has pledged to keep an eye on taxi demand, but for frustrated visitors and commuters the long wait for available taxis appears to be continuing.
