Taxi service irregulrities 

souring shortage

BY WORKU BELACHEW 

For most residents and visitors of Addis, transportation hassling has been an inescapable daily encounter. Passengers who beat the bitter open air wrestling, and a short distance like race secures a trophy of getting themselves on board taxis. 

The Darwinian theory of “survival of the fittest” seems to hold water here. Pregnant women, elders, fellows with physical disability... have no choice than simply be observant of the street theater. One can see the power of scarcity as it is dismantling age old culture of sympathy for the needy which our society practiced. In some places passengers have to desperately wait in lines until their turn come to get taxis.

So called taxi coordinators who are organized into micro and small scale enterprises get busy collecting money from every passer by taxi doing almost nothing valuable for passengers. Only in few places they coordinate queues and rarely give protection from pickpockets.

 

The varied modes of public transportation, such as blue and white taxis, mid buses and city bus carry passengers to their brim, previously in peak hours but now throughout the day.

The situation has turned into a state of 'money cannot buy comfort' when it comes to public transport. Honestly speaking, a slight part of the shortage is artificial. There is still a kind of irregularities that the city's transport authority has overlooked.

Coming year is decisive in that it will bring the Light Rail Transit (LRT), deemed to downplay the shortage and irregularity, operational. But, until then sort of controlling to leverage the available modes into public need appears so essential. It is clear that the city transport bureau has put various mechanisms in place to bring the service back in track. Sadly but, their lone efforts and its results are insignificant compared to the chaos.

The blue and white ones have route plates. And particularly on week days until evening, they operate sticking to their routes. Owners of these taxis have organized themselves into associations and the route case is revised periodically by the associations. This is done to make the zoning system fair. For instance, if a taxi works in a route that road construction/maintenance is underway or in a place that has a high traffic jamming, then in the next round it will be assigned to better areas.

Let's put the irregularity here: For instance, some taxis are double licensed to serve both in the city and across regions tagging a name “supportive taxis''. Moreover, supportive taxis has no visible route plates.

If anyone knows the routes of supportive taxis, it obviously is the taxi driver, the attendant and transport authorities. Consequently, these taxis, at times when they can be out of the sight of transport controlling officers, break trips aiming to collect two higher fares or force passengers to pay extra fares or drive to a route that they can reap maximum gains. Such irregularities are furthering the transportation chaos.

No argument, transport controlling officers cannot be on the spot every time but a kind of system need to be put in place to ease passengers woes.

In the first place, the transport fare is vague to passengers. Yes, a passenger knows the route they regularly uses. But, when they have to move to places they rarely use, it is hard to predict the fare unless one asks that form someone else. The list of fare should be made available to anyone. It could be made visible somewhere in the taxi. This protects passengers from paying extra fares. As many argues, technology is underutilized nationwide in our case. Otherwise, the list of transport fare should be on the bureau's website so that anyone can either visit or download it.

In addition, transport officers assigned in particular areas need to carry mobile phones that everybody can report breaches such as cutting routes, paying extra fares... This is not to mean their personal cell phones, but the office should make them equip with that and the public know the number just by posting it in the taxis. There should be also toll free phone that properly functions so that passengers can report such inconveniences.

Concerning supportive taxis, as they are serving in the city, a kind of double standard felt now need to be noticed and neutralized. They need to put their route plate in a transparent place as the blue and white taxis do. And route does not mean something thrown away on a dashboard. It is an instrument placed on a visible place so that every passenger can see it. In addition, the font of the text telling the route of the taxi should be reasonably magnified. Most supportive taxis so called route plates are hard to be read even for a person with good eyesight. I doubt this is unnoticed by the transport officials too.

Quite often, transport officials headache centers on number of people on board to taxis. If extra persons are on board, they immediately stop the taxi to issue a penalty ticket to drivers. The traffic police also do the same. The taxi drivers on their side do not accept their mistake easily and turn off their engines and leave their seats to beg the transport officers or traffic police, to seek their pity and escape penalty. The question lies here. Is is appropriate to leave driver's seat while eleven people are on board? But the officers do not bother about this, according to my observation. 

To make matters worse, their controversy goes for minutes at the cost of passengers. This writer has no any intent to say that officers should not penalize offending drivers. That is enforcing the law. And they are doing their jobs. But let's raise another question. In a city where transportation shortage is critical, what if those taxis board extra persons in pick hours? According to the taxis specifications they can carry up to one thousand kilo grams, meaning more than 15 persons. It is a relief. Workers can arrive their destinations on time. Students can attend their classes too.

Previously the back seat of taxis were for three persons only. The transport bureau permitted to board one extra person sometime in the past. How can this be treated according to the law? Isn't it the shortage that forces the bureau to board three persons in the cabin of taxis including the driver? Otherwise it is risky and uncomfortable.

Hopefully, the Addis Ababa Transport Bureau would see into these artificial cases that is adding into the shortage and give a timely solution. And these writer may hold interview with the senior officials of the bureau on the issues treated above in the near future.