The results of the public tender for Macao’s new taxi licences are now publicly available, and the vehicles should be on the road over the next ten months. That’s according to the Transport Bureau, which says that the winning companies will be required to begin operating the taxis within ten months of receiving notice of their accepted bids.
The news will be a huge relief to frustrated tourists and residents, who have long endured a chronic shortage of taxis and lengthy wait times for a vacant cab. It also comes in the wake of a recent call from local taxi operators for a timeline on the introduction of the new vehicles, especially as the retirement of 180 vehicles this year threatened to make the shortage even worse.
The bureau says that the new taxis will be required to provide credit card and e-payment options such as Visa, Alipay, Apple Pay and WeChat Pay, in addition to accepting cash, solving another long-standing gripe.
[See more: Macao can forget about being an international destination until it fixes its taxi problem]
Launched in November 2023, the government’s public tender saw 40 companies making bids for 10 licences, each of which permitted the operation of up to 50 regular black taxis, meaning that the initiative could add as many as 500 new taxis to Macao’s fleet.
Of the 10 firms listed, the highest bid was made by Macao Nova Era Taxi, which offered 3.8 million patacas for its licence.
As of the end of last year, there were just 1,220 regular cabs operating in Macao. The number is far from enough, especially with the continuing surge of tourists entering the city, which totalled almost 9 million in the first three months of this year. The taxi shortage is made worse by Macao’s ban on ride hailing apps like Uber.
