Drivers balk at inflexible hours, lack of incentives of Hong Kong’s premium taxi fleet

Inflexible working hours, lack of incentives and resistance to change are among the reasons Hong Kong’s premium taxi fleets are failing to attract drivers, resulting in cancelled bookings in a trial run earlier this week, industry representatives have said.

Ho Chi-keung, who leads the taxi division of the Motor Transport Workers General Union, said on Wednesday that drivers were concerned about adapting to a structured way of working under the premium fleet.

“Working in a fleet might be more attractive to younger drivers. For the older ones, they might not enjoy being regulated or facing too many restrictions,” he told a radio show.

“They might wait and see if there are any incentives like a monthly salary, the number of holidays and how the employer-employee relationship plays out.”

Hong Kong’s premium taxis got off to a bumpy start when they hit the streets on Tuesday, as users found themselves unable to get rides from one of the operators JOIE despite booking an hour in advance.

Under the government’s push to offer taxi services of higher quality, JOIE and four other selected operators - SynCab Service, Big Boss Taxi Company, CMG Fleet Management and Sino Development - are required to begin operating around 3,500 licensed taxis by July this year, with a full fleet licence to be formally issued if authorities deem them fully ready for service after the trial phase.