Taxi drivers rue decline in earnings

KATHMANDU, March 26: Kumar Karki from Chitwan district has been driving taxi in the capital for the last 12 years. These days, however, he has begun to wonder whether he should continue working here or try his luck in some Gulf country like many of his village folks.

“It´s not that I am tired of driving taxi. The problem is dismal income,” said Karki. “Even though I never made a lot of money in the past, whatever I earned was sufficient to run the house. But now, after giving Rs 600 to the owner, I am virtually left with nothing,” added the 36-year-old. [break]

It is only recently that he has been grappling with the sudden decline in his income. Responding to public frustration against exorbitant taxi fares in the Valley, three concerned government authorities -- the Transportation Department, the Metropolitan Traffic Police and the National Standards and Metrology Bureau -- joined hands to address the problem from January first week.

The move has forced thousands of taxi drivers like Karki to think about better opportunities.

Taxi driver stage protest. (File Photo: Keshab Thoker)

In the initial days, the traffic took action against around 15 to 25 taxis per day. "But the taxi drivers were alarmed after we strengthen monitoring and we have had to book much fewer taxis of late," said Deputy Superintendent of Police Pawan Giri.

“So far, we have taken action against 1020 taxis. Of them, we have seized the meter boxes of 22 taxis,” he added.

According to Giri, earlier, the driver and the owner of a taxi pointed fingers at each other whenever their taxi was found cheating customers.

“The taxi drivers never paid the fine and the owners had to come to pay the fine. The owners, on the other hand, accused the drivers for the fault and engaged in long disputes to free the taxi without paying the fine,” Giri said. “To hold the drivers accountable we started punching holes in their driving license whenever we found them cheating.”

In the 3-month period, 827 taxis were held for tampering with the meters, 148 for breaking the meter shield, 133 for running taxis without having the meter in working condition, 17 for having no meter box at all, 75 for charging higher fares, 251 for not agreeing to go by meter, 6 for denying to take passengers and 63 for not carrying necessary documents.

(Photo: Keshab Thoker)

Generally, the traffic police charges Rs 2000 in the cases of irregularities. It has punched the driving license of 200 taxis drivers till date. "This is not fair," argued driver Karki. Transportation department reports that there are 8,000 taxis in the Valley.

“If some passengers are willing to pay higher fares, the traffic police has no reason to interfere. We will not be able to save a penny for ourselves if we are denied that opportunity,” Karki explained.

He said that he has not been able to save more than Rs 200 to 300 per day for the last 3 months due to the stricter approach of the traffic police. “Earlier, I made up to Rs 500 to 600 per day; sometimes even more. Everything is becoming so expensive every day. It would be better if I could find a job in Dubai or Qatar. My friends say that they are earning good money there.”

Upset with the sudden traffic intervention in their otherwise attractive business, disgruntled taxi drivers like Karki took to the street merely two weeks into the campaign.

The protestors said that they were being victimized in the name of monitoring irregularities and demanded revision of fares, among several other provisions. However, this hardly made any difference to the campaign launched by the traffic.

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VOX POP

As the authority tightens monitoring, no one thinks it is important to address our problem

Prakash Lama, 34, taxi driver

I have been a taxi driver for 8 years now. Earlier, I used to drive a taxi owned by someone else. I bought a new taxi through finance last year. But now I am a bit worried. The fare is just Rs 32 per kilometer. It is the same when the cost of petrol was Rs 97 per liter. Now, we have to pay Rs 130 per liter of petrol. Earlier, people happily paid Rs 100 to Rs 200 even for a short distance. We didn´t even bargain much. But now, customers have become so aware that they want to go only by meter. On the other hand, the traffic police have been charging a good sum of money even for minor mistakes.

What the police are doing is not wrong. There should, indeed, be uniformity in the fare and passengers should not be cheated. However, our problems should be addressed as well. For instance, we suffer a lot due to the lack of parking areas. In absence of parking places, we have to roam around a lot without passengers. While the authority is tightening the monitoring, no one thinks it is important to address our problem.

I pay Rs 5000 in rent, Rs 3000 to the school where my children study, and there are so many other expenses. Those who drive taxis owned by others are suffering even more. They have to pay certain amount to the owner every day irrespective of how much they earn.

Anju Katuwal, 32, businesswoman

We can see the change in the way taxis operated. I remember having made to fork up Rs 500 for even a short distance. We had to pay whatever they demanded. They would not agree to go by meter, nor would they lower the fares. Normally, the taxis tried to take advantage of people who were coming out of hospitals or the airport. But now due to the strict checking, they cannot indulge in such acts anymore.

After the change, I have traveled in taxis twice and the fare was reasonable. On one occasion, the driver himself insisted to go by meter. Even my friends have noticed that taxi fares are no more as expensive as in the past. But it is hard to know how long such situation will prevail.