Hailing a taxi in Macao could soon become much easier, after Macau Radio Taxi Services announced that it will be incorporating standard black taxis into its service.
Currently, passengers looking to use the Macao radio taxi service may only pre-book one of the 300 radio taxis on the road via the company’s mobile app (Maas Plus) or call centre (+853 288-12345). At least in theory. Frustrated passengers often complain of long waits and difficulties in booking a vehicle in advance, since drivers appear to only be interested in immediate pick-up.
With the addition of regular black taxis, however, the response rate for pre-booked cabs could increase.
Speaking to the media yesterday, Sunny Wang Pei Shen, a senior representative of the Macau Radio Taxi Services, said that around 400 regular black cab drivers would join the company’s service. This figure represents a little over a quarter of the 1,463 black taxis that were in service as of last month.
[See more: Opinion: Macao can forget about being an international destination until it fixes its taxi problem]
She pointed out that the plan is for the black taxis to be included in the radio taxi app from the Labour Day break and stated that, moving forward, her firm would seek to recruit more drivers of black taxis into the scheme, noting that they are not charged for their participation.
Over the years, Macao’s taxi sector has become notorious for its inability to meet the growing demand of residents and visitors.
The small size of the fleet simply cannot keep up with the demand at peak times and holidays, and despite calls for the city to reinstate ride hailing services such as Uber, the SAR government continues to remain non-committal.
This month, Macao chief executive Sam Hou Fai said at a press conference that his administration would look into the feasibility of implementing ride-hailing services in Macao, noting that it was important to balance the interests of such services with that of the taxi industry.
