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| People line up in front of Seoul Station to ride a taxi, Jan. 30. Newsis |
Measures follow reports on cabbies harassing passengers
By Ko Dong-hwan
The Seoul city government's recently toughened rules against ill-mannered taxi drivers to penalize first-time offenders, in a move the authority hopes will improve the public transport environment for local commuters as well as foreign visitors to the city.
The three-strikes policy on private taxi operators started last February when the Seoul Metropolitan Government introduced new regulations for both private and corporate taxi operators registered in the city.
From February to April of this year, three passengers who rode in a self-employed driver's taxi each contacted the city's grievance report hotline called Dasan Call Center 120 and filed complaints. They reported the driver was rude to them, engaged in a verbal argument and refused to take a route specifically requested by the passengers.
Maeng Joo-seong, a Taxi Policy Division official under the city government's City Transportation Office, told The Korea Times that the offender is a male and in his 60s, an age group most of the city's cabbies belong to.
"We are currently hearing explanations from him right now," Maeng said. "The penalization against him begins in early June."
The penalty includes mandatory participation in an ethics lesson for four hours and a six month-freeze on his monthly subsidy from the city government. The authority has been providing him and other private operators with 2,500 won ($2.00) each month.
For corporate operators, penalization gets handed down when customers' reports amount to 10. They are subjected to two month-freeze on the city subsidy of 5,000 won per month.
Bad-tempered taxi drivers have been under the city authority's watchful eyes, but the measure has been "extremely ineffective," the authority said. All of the reports were the subjective views of complainants and needed further investigation by the city authority to verify each filed complaint. Most of the reports, furthermore, did not have hard evidence to prove the drivers' offenses.
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| Seoul city government officials halt a taxi after catching it refusing to let in potential customers in this December 2017 photo. Korea Times file |
Last year, only 1.1 percent of the grievance reports against taxi drivers in Seoul led to the authority meting out punishments ― charging a 100,000 won fine.
To raise awareness among the city's taxi drivers about minding their manners in front of customers, the city government last February pushed ahead with the revision of laws under the country's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The city authority looked to revise the country's Law of Development of Taxi Industry and Passenger Transport Service Act to clamp down on offenders.
Should the revision pass the National Assembly, the country will introduce the new laws to prosecute taxi operators with harsher punishment including business suspensions for at least a month, fines starting from 200,000 won and the revocation of business licenses.
In 2022 there were over 13,000 grievance reports from taxi users. Most were about fare overcharging (4,030), while other major complaints included rude cab drivers (3,921), refusing to accept customers (2,921) and asking passengers to get off before reaching destinations (713). Drivers who smoked inside their cabs, demanded cash-only payments, failed to display a taxi license inside and failed to keep passenger seats clean were among the minor complaints filed by passengers.
The city government said, however, that the revision's passage does not mean more convenient methods of charging taxi operators with offenses. Verification of the offenses, the authority said, should not be based solely on testimonies from the victims, but still requires evidence to protect wrongfully accused taxi drivers.
The authority said it will comprehensively assess what is stated in grievance reports and what accused taxi operators have to say before deciding on punitive measures.
"Complaints from taxi customers have been gradually down over the past years but we should keep our eyes open," Yoon Jong-jang, chief of the City Transportation Office, said. "First, we will settle the new strike-out system for taxi operators and keep the drivers alerted regarding how to treat their customers."
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