By Kim Rahn
Seoul City will step up its crackdown on illegally-operating “call vans,” or vans for luggage-carrying passengers, in Seoul following incidents of foreign travelers being cheated.
It said Wednesday 48 city officials will regularly monitor such illegal operations at major tourist districts including Dongdaemun, Myeong-dong and Jongno.
The measure came after it was reported that a Japanese traveler taking a call van was forced to pay 330,000 won for 2 kilometers from Dongdaemun to Chungmuro in January, and the driver locked the door to confine her until she paid. The charge should have been 4,500 won if she took a legally operating large-sized cab called a“Jumbo Taxi.’”
“The existence of illegal call vans damages Seoul’s reputation. We started clamping down in February ahead of the peak travel season in spring. We will seek to root out the practice through tougher punishment by revising related laws,” said Baek Ho, city’s transportation policy bureau director general.
Call vans usually seat three to six persons and are registered as vehicles for “cargo,” which only carry passengers with over 20 kilograms of luggage. Unlike taxis, the fare is not decided according to metered distance but through an agreement between the driver and the passengers before departing.
Some call vans have been found to disguise themselves as taxis for foreigners who don’t know Korea’s transportation regulations. “Misusing the rule that they cannot install a meter, some charge ridiculous fares to foreign tourists,” Baek said.
Other illegal activities include: call vans attaching “van taxi” signs instead of “cargo”; installing a meter; charging unreasonable fares by fabricating the meter; installing a taxi-like lamp on top of the car roof; remodeling three seaters into six seaters to get group tourists; and attracting foreigners by attaching signs such as “Japanese-speaking driver.”
“Those cargo vans look similar to a Jumbo Taxi. Even Koreans can’t easily distinguish the two types of vehicles, and with the illegal meters, foreigners are easily deceived,” he said.
The city launched the crackdown on Feb. 20, and has caught 26 illegal operations.
Besides the clampdown, the city government is operating an email account: happyride@seoul.go.kr, where foreign passengers can easily report illegal operations or being cheated.
Pervious reporting system required them to leave personal information such as phone numbers.
“Foreigners can email in English, Chinese and Japanese. To confirm the illegality, we need them to attach a photo of the vans’ license plates,” Baek said.
The city has posted information about how to report call van illegality and how to distinguish call vans from jumbo taxis on Seoul tourism-related websites.
Along the measures, the city government will promote changes in related laws together with the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Maritime Affairs to root out such unlawful operations.
“The punishment is only 60 days of operation suspension or a 600,000 won fine. We’ll seek heavier punishment including license cancellation. We’ll also promote to have call vans adopt a meter-rate system like taxis,” Baek said.