The air is laced with cigarette smoke and Cantonese profanities as half a dozen taxi drivers hang around by their fire-engine-red cabs on a quiet nook of the gritty Prince Edward neighborhood of Hong Kong.
It’s the afternoon handover, when day shift drivers move their taxis to these working the night time shift. They’re surrendering wads of money to a taxi agent, a matriarchal determine who collects lease for the autos, manages their schedules and dispenses unsolicited recommendation about exercising extra and quitting smoking. The drivers wave her off.
There could also be no more durable process on this metropolis of greater than seven million than making an attempt to vary a taxi driver’s habits. Usually grumpy and dashing to the following fare, cabbies in Hong Kong have been doing issues their means for many years, reflecting the fast-paced, frenetic tradition that has lengthy energized the town.
However taxi drivers are beneath stress to get with the instances. Their passengers are fed up with being pushed recklessly, handled curtly and, in lots of instances, having to settle fares with money — one of many strangest idiosyncrasies about life in Hong Kong. The apply is so ingrained that airport workers typically must alert vacationers at taxi ranks that they should carry payments.
The federal government, each due to the complaints and to revitalize tourism, has tried to rein in taxi drivers. Officers ran a marketing campaign over the summer time urging drivers to be extra well mannered. They imposed some extent system through which dangerous conduct by drivers — resembling overcharging or refusing passengers — can be tracked and will outcome within the lack of licenses.
In early December, the federal government proposed requiring all taxis to put in techniques to permit them to just accept bank cards and digital funds by the tip of 2025, and so as to add surveillance cameras by the tip of 2026.
Predictably, many taxi drivers have opposed the thought of nearer supervision.
“Would you need to be monitored on a regular basis?” mentioned Lau Bing-kwan, a 75-year-old cabby with thinning strands of white hair who accepts solely money. “The federal government is barking too many orders.”
Maintain On to Your Seats
The brand new controls, if put in place, would sign the tip of an period for an trade that has lengthy been an anomaly in Hong Kong’s world-class transportation system. Each day, tens of millions of individuals commute safely on smooth subways and air-conditioned double-decker buses that run reliably.
Using in a taxi, by comparability, will be an journey. Step into one in every of Hong Kong’s signature four-door Toyota Crown Consolation cabs and you’ll almost definitely be (what’s the reverse of greeted?) by a person in his 60s or older with a phalanx of cellphones mounted alongside his dashboard — used generally for GPS navigation and different instances to trace horse racing outcomes. Pleasantries won’t be exchanged. Anticipate the fuel pedal to be floored.
You’ll then reflexively seize a deal with and take a look at to not slide off the midnight-blue vinyl seats as you zip and switch by means of the town’s notoriously slender streets. Lastly, earlier than you arrive at your vacation spot, you’ll prepared your small payments and cash to keep away from aggravating the driving force with a time-consuming exit.
“After they drop you off, it’s a must to type of rush,” mentioned Sylvia He, a professor of city research on the Chinese language College of Hong Kong who, like many residents of this metropolis, feels conditioned to stroll on eggshells round a cabby. “I don’t need to delay their subsequent order.”
To many cabbies, the impatience and brusqueness are a mirrored image of their harsh actuality: When they’re scraping by in a enterprise with shrinking monetary rewards, no time will be wasted on social niceties. Lau Man-hung, a 63-year-old driver, as an example, skips meals and loo breaks simply to remain behind the wheel lengthy sufficient to take dwelling about $2,500 a month, barely sufficient to get by in one in every of the costliest cities on the earth.
“Some clients are too mafan,” mentioned Mr. Lau utilizing a Cantonese phrase which means inflicting bother and annoyance. “They prefer to complain about which path to take. They let you know to go quicker.”
An Business’s Fragile Economics
Driving a cab was once a good option to make a dwelling. However enterprise has gotten more durable, made worse by the fallout of mainland China’s financial slowdown. Town has had bother reviving its attract with vacationers, whereas its bars and nightclubs, as soon as teeming with crowds squeezed into slender alleyways, now draw fewer revelers.
Even earlier than the downturn, some house owners of taxi licenses have been struggling. Taxi licenses are restricted by the federal government and traded on a loosely regulated market. Some house owners suffered large losses after a speculative bubble drove costs as much as almost $1 million for one license a decade in the past, then burst.
Immediately, licenses are value about two-thirds of their decade-ago excessive. Many companies and drivers who personal licenses are targeted extra on recouping losses than on enhancing service.
Tin Shing Motors, a family-owned firm, manages drivers and sells taxi license mortgages and taxicab insurance coverage. Chris Chan, a 47-year-old third-generation member of the corporate, says Tin Shing is saddled with mortgages purchased when licenses have been value rather more.
To chip away at that debt, Mr. Chan must lease out his taxis as a lot as attainable. However he struggles to seek out drivers. Many cabbies have aged out, and younger folks have largely stayed away from the grueling work. Revenue margins have dwindled, he added, particularly with the price of insurance coverage nearly doubling lately. Uber, regardless of working in a grey space in Hong Kong, has additionally taken a piece of shoppers away.
“It’s more durable and more durable to earn cash,” Mr. Chan mentioned.
On the backside are the drivers, about half of whom are 60 and older. Many can not afford to retire. They must make about $14 an hour to interrupt even after paying for fuel and the lease of their autos. To them, money in hand is healthier than ready days for digital funds to clear.
A Blue-Collar Job Professionalizes
Stress between the general public and taxi drivers performs out with mutual finger-pointing. When the federal government launched the courtesy marketing campaign final yr, a driver informed a tv reporter that it was the passengers who have been impolite.
In some ways, Hong Kong’s taxi drivers embody the high-stress, no-frills tradition of the town’s working class. Their gruffness is not any completely different from the service one will get at a cha chaan teng, the ever-present native cafes that gas the lots with egg sandwiches, immediate noodles and saccharine-sweet milk tea. Servers are curt, however quick.
“Individuals are inclined to have one dangerous expertise and keep in mind it for the remainder of their life,” mentioned Hung Wing-tat, a retired professor who has studied the taxi trade. “Consequently, there may be an impression among the many public that each one taxi drivers are dangerous when most of them simply need to earn a dwelling. They don’t need any bother.”
Certainly, there are cabbies like Joe Fong, 45, who sees no worth in antagonizing his clients and has tried to adapt to his passengers’ wants.
“Why struggle?” Mr. Fong mentioned. “We want one another. You want a journey and I would like your cash.”
Mr. Fong maximizes his revenue by splitting his time between driving a non-public automotive for Uber and a cab for a taxi fleet known as Alliance. Mr. Fong has 5 cellphones affixed to his dashboard. He welcomes digital funds, and he didn’t elevate an eyebrow when Alliance put in cameras in all their taxis final yr.
“I’m not like these outdated guys,” mentioned Mr. Fong, who drives one in every of Hong Kong’s newer hybrid taxis made by Toyota, which appear to be a cross between a London cab and a PT Cruiser. “The world has modified. It’s important to settle for it.”
Olivia Wang contributed reporting.
