Taxi drivers threaten citywide strike over unlicensed ride-hailing services

Thousands of Hong Kong taxi drivers and owners may launch a citywide strike as early as March 5 if the government fails to crack down on unlicensed ride-hailing services, industry representatives warned on Wednesday. 

This follows a meeting on Tuesday night where over 80 percent of attendees endorsed a plan to suspend services for at least five days unless the government addresses long standing grievances regarding "white-license vehicles," a term for illegal ride-hailing services.

Currently there are 18,163 taxis and over 200,000 licensed taxi drivers. However, only about 40,000 of these drivers are actively working, according to the latest data from the Transportation Department.

Wong Yu-ting, chairman of the Hong Kong Tele-call Taxi Association, has been selected to present the industry’s proposal to the Transport Advisory Committee next Wednesday (Feb 19). 

An official strike announcement is expected after Wong’s meeting with the committee if officials do not provide a “satisfactory response” by then.

Industry leaders will finalize the proposal by February 16, with key demands including an immediate shutdown of unlicensed ride-hailing platforms and stricter prosecutions of drivers and operators of such services.

“The government’s heartless and unjust policies, along with 11 years of unfair competition, have driven down the value of taxi owners’ assets, hijacked our businesses, and plunged most owners into negative equity -- leaving them facing bankruptcy in the near future,” the statement said.

The industry escalated its warnings, threatening to surrender taxi licenses en masse, halt bank mortgage payments, and sue the government for financial losses if their demands are ignored.

In response, the Transport Department said it has arranged a meeting between the taxi trade as well as online ride-hailing platforms next Wednesday (Feb 19), as it called on cabbies to remain calm and rational and keep in mind citizens' interests.

"The department hopes that the sector will think of ways to improve personalized and point-to-point transport service in the meeting next week. We will roll out regulatory suggestions within this year after fully considered the opinion of all stakeholders," a spokesman of the department said.

(Ayra Wang)

(Updated 8.50pm)