Macau Radio Taxi Services General Manager Wang Pei Shen has hit back at online critics who have accused the company’s employees of poor driving.
Speaking at a specially arranged press conference at Golden Dragon Centre in NAPE, Wang said recent online rumours claimed that radio taxis often “cut lanes”, “do not let pedestrians walk across the zebra crossing first” and “drive dangerously” based on the recent news about a radio taxi fatally hitting a senior citizen.
She said that her company has already extended its deepest condolences to the senior citizen’s bereaved family, adding that due to safety reasons the company has suspended the driver. She underlined that her company has already warned its drivers to strictly abide by safety rules, stressing that Radio Taxi would cooperate with the police investigation about the accident.
Wang said that the company has 700-800 drivers. She denied claims about overworked drivers, saying the company does not require them to work a certain amount of time. She said that, on average, drivers work for 10-12 hours a day, adding that there are one-to-two-hour breaks for the drivers to go to the washroom or eat.
Wang stressed that as Radio Taxi is monitored by the government, all its operations must follow official regulations. She pointed out that the company has been urging passengers not to call its taxis via unofficial channels, adding that the proper methods to call a radio taxi are via its app, call centre and WeChat public account.
Wang underlined that those taxi drivers who accepted orders via unofficial channels were penalised and have been warned not to repeat the same mistake, or else they would be fired.
Wang noted that Radio Taxi has been around since 2015, and has successfully completed nearly 7 million orders, 70 per cent of which were from local passengers, The Macau Post Daily reported.
