Taxi service was suspended, and tricycle business was booming.
Master Li just bought a new car this year, and the dismal business has frustrated him.
According to this newspaper, yesterday, more than 100 taxis in Zhouzhi County gathered in Yunta Square, the county seat, and collectively stopped operating. Owners asked relevant departments to crack down on the "black three wheels". Yesterday afternoon, the Zhouzhi County government urgently convened the county traffic bureau, traffic police brigade, taxi management office, taxi company and owner representatives to hold a meeting and decided that the traffic police brigade would start to rectify the "black three wheels" today. The reporter learned that as of 8:40 last night, the suspended taxis were still gathered in Yunta Square.
More than 100 taxis were suspended
At 11am yesterday, taxis could only be seen sporadically on the streets of Zhouzhi county seat. "It’s so strange, why are there so few taxis on the streets today?" said Ms Wang, who runs a restaurant on Taibai North Road in the county seat. At the same time, more than 100 taxis that were supposed to operate were collectively "stalled" at Yunta Square in the center of the county seat.
"Due to the chaos of the taxi market, taxi operators cannot operate normally, their operating income is very low, and they cannot guarantee the minimum living requirements. We strongly urge all taxi operators, contractors, and drivers to collectively stop operating at Yunta Square at 8:00 tomorrow morning. I hope all colleagues will actively cooperate and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests."
There are currently 217 taxis in operation in Zhouzhi County. A taxi operator said that at least more than 100 taxis have been suspended, and many taxis are parked at home and do not go out.
Tricycle grabbing business becomes a fuse for outage
Taxi operators put forward five demands in the proposal, the first of which is to resolutely crack down on the "black tricycle". Some owners say that there are at least 500 tricycles operating illegally in the county seat, more than double the number of taxis. Due to the low operating costs, these tricycles can at least get a 30,000 of diversified profits from the operating market in Zhouzhi County. A taxi owner said that because of the profits, people from the surrounding martial arts and Xingping also drove tricycles to Zhouzhi County to operate.
Taxi operators say their profits are pitifully small compared to the illegally operated tricycles. Li Lianshe, the owner of the taxi, has calculated for the reporter that the taxi operation now earns up to 150 yuan a day, excluding the fuel fee of more than 80 yuan and the fixed fee of more than 30 yuan paid to the management department, as well as the driver’s salary of about 30 yuan, leaving the owner with little profit left. Taxi using natural gas is even more uneconomical. Since there is no gas station in Zhouzhi County, the taxi has to go to Yangling to fill up, so it takes at least two hours to fill up.
The reporter learned in the interview that the collective outage of taxis is also related to the problems existing in the management of taxi companies.
This is the third outage this year
Yesterday at about 1 noon, the reporter saw in Zhouzhi County Yunta Square that the number of taxis joining the outage was still increasing. In order to quell the conflict as soon as possible and allow the taxi to resume operation, Zhouzhi County Taxi Management Office recruited the heads of the four taxi companies to which the suspended taxis belonged, and negotiated face-to-face with the owners on the management problems of each company. The Zhouzhi County Transportation Bureau also dispatched a number of staff to persuade the suspended taxi operators and drivers.
A driver told reporters that this is the third time this year that taxis have resumed operations under the coordination of the Zhouzhi County Party Committee and the county government. "After the government coordinated, the traffic control department also investigated and dealt with it, but such investigations lacked long-term effectiveness. After the limelight, the illegal operation of tricycles resurfaced."
Traffic police say there is no law enforcement basis for banning tricycles
At about 2 pm yesterday, the reporter saw on the central street of Zhouzhi County that although most taxis were out of service, tricycles pulled passengers one by one through the street. The reporter contacted the captain of the Zhouzhi County Traffic Police Brigade by phone about the strong complaints from taxi operators about the problem of motorized tricycles. Liu Jianbin told reporters that there are more than 60 motorized tricycles operating in Zhouzhi County, and this number is far from the more than 500 reported by taxi operators. He said that many of these operating tricycles are battery cars, and some are mopeds, and the relevant laws are not clearly stipulated, resulting in the lack of legal basis for the traffic police department in the law enforcement process. In addition, most of these tricycles are laid-off and unemployed disadvantaged groups, which also increases the difficulty of their law enforcement. When the reporter left at the end of the interview, the deputy county head in charge of transportation of Zhouzhi County Government urgently convened the county transportation bureau, the traffic police brigade, the taxi management office, the taxi company and the owner’s representatives to hold a coordination meeting, and decided that from today, the traffic police brigade will start to rectify the "black three wheels".
Text/Wang Haipeng, Intern, Liu Xiaofan, Photo/Reporter, Zhai Xiaoxue
Editor in charge: Wang Yuxi