That is partly why there is a clause in the new rental car service that says if a municipality decides that it needs to move some of the rental cars into de facto taxi service, then the municipality can just decide so, and MoTC will never say no.
Yeah, because it is meant to separate the rental versus taxi.
Can override.
No. I think that’s a misunderstanding. We’re very happy to clear that misunderstanding.
There is exactly the same clause in the regulation for e-taxi. The e-taxi clause basically says, because it’s not painted yellow, it’s not allowed to just be hailed by anyone hailing from the pedestrian lane.
That’s what clause means. It means it cannot be hailed to stop on the road. It’s the same wording as e-taxi. We’re not saying e-taxi has to return to garage after each trip, either.
I would concur that the 立法理由, the third column, the explanation column, is a bit ambiguous. That, I would concur. If you look at the text itself, not the rationale, the text is actually the same as the e-taxi.
If this is interpreted into that you have to return to garage after each trip, that it will actually apply to e-taxis. I don’t think that’s the motivation. I do think the rationale could be clarified.
Sure. Actually, have you seen the short video at 志琪七七 ?
It contained that clarification from the MoTC Department of Railways and Highways.
You would need a written statement?
Of course. It’s now during the consultation period, and your ask is very legitimate. I’m sure it will be treated as part of the consultation input. They will, of course, address that as part of the reply to consultations. That will be the time point.
They certainly have.
Yes.
The first thing is that clarification is badly needed, because many have misinterpreted the return to garage rationale. It’s a stretch, but I can convince myself to read the rationales column that way, although it’s not intended that way.
I think the MoTC do need, after consultation period, to make a version that is free from ambiguity. That will be very helpful to everybody involved. That’s the factual part.
Many people worry about the difficulty in converting from the existing rental car investment into e-taxis. That’s something that the MoTC is actively looking for. We know that there are sufficient licenses, but we haven’t a very clear communication around that matter, especially by municipality. That is something MoTC is actively looking into.
Finally, the municipal override part. I think that is intended as any mayor can decide that within their municipality, they don’t actually want to add on the number of taxis. If so, they can do an override. That part, MoTC need to communicate more clearly as well.
For the driver, it’s relatively simple. They just pass the exam. If there is already available license for them to partner to, then it’s usually just a matter of a couple of weeks or so.
They have their own apps as well.
They have the optional to carry over to the e-taxi.
License.
That’s right. That’s very important.
Of course. Those are two tabs in your app, one for rentals and one for taxis. You don’t want to abandon one of the two tabs. That I do understand.
Like the majority of them.
Well, they are already competing now.
What we have heard is that surge pricing doesn’t concern them at all, but the undercut pricing does. It creates a competition environment that they cannot actually compete, because no taxi driver is allowed to under meter or to offer a discount. Some fleets tried that years ago, and it’s not legal.
If you talk about deregulation, as in giving the freedom for taxi drivers to offer discounts, I don’t think that can be addressed by the current consultation on rental cars.
That we can totally do, as long as it doesn’t undercut the meter.
I understand that.
We hear the same wish from the local fleets that develop their own apps, too.
You’re asking, essentially, that in the off peak hours, to have the freedom to offer discounts?
Do you have any numbers that says, during the off peak hours, if you can get, I don’t know, 10 or 20 percent off over the current meter, that covers a large majority of the cases?
Other e-taxi fleets are actually asking the same. If we’re saying all e-taxi fleets are allowed to have a off peak discount by some definition of off peak, and if that covers both your needs and the existing e-taxi fleets’ needs, because the e-taxi policy is a regulation, it’s easier to change.
It is just like the optional meter installation which is also something pretty much all the e-taxi fleets are asking. You just signaled that you would like that as well?
That’s right. Of course, then we would say that in the app you have to offer exactly the same information that you would have on a physical meter.
The e-taxi regulation is not immutable. It’s not like we were keeping it fixed forever.
It would be really productive if the current e-taxi operators and the de facto... Actually, you’re partnering with the Crown Taxi fleet, right?
It’s an e-taxi operator.
If you can work with them a little bit to get maybe your internal consultation to what it wants from the new e-taxi regulation, that would be very helpful.
Do you two have any municipal interest in getting the pilot running...? I ask because the local regulations —and fines too — are the municipal’s business, right?
If you don’t have the mayoral buy in for this, actually, there is very little what we in the central government can do.
There may be unforeseen corners, too, that people do not anticipate. You said there was a challenge in getting mayoral support here?
Especially a rural city... That’s really what MoTC wants.
Yes. You need to ask one of your three e-taxi partners to approach them.
You think that they’re not strong enough to resist that pressure?
If so, have you ever considered to get into the business of being an e-taxi fleet operator?
Then you wouldn’t have to depend on your partners to resist the push backs.
If the sandbox is small scale, would that still work for you? Is this mostly about publicity, or do you actually want a large municipality to get as much data as possible? As we talk about that, the larger the municipality is, the more entrenched the existing rental and taxi fleets are.
