The rapid increase in the number of taxis has contributed to traffic congestion and management difficulties for HCM City authorities. (Photo: quochoi.org)HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City’s Departmentof Transport has asked for a revision of a taxi development plan to limit thenumber of taxis in the city up to 2025.
The original plan called for a limit of 16,520vehicles by 2025, but the city, as of the end of last year, had nearly 35,000traditional and app-based taxis with nine seats or below on the roads.
There are 11,000 traditional taxis operating inthe city, while the number of Grab cars totals 21,050.
As of the end of last year, the number of taxienterprises had fallen from 36 in 2010 to 21, while the number of traditionaltaxi vehicles had dropped from 12,654 to 9,605.
Under the original plan, the total number oftraditional and app-based taxis would have been limited to 14,460 by 2020 and16,520 by 2025.
However, since the approval of Ministry ofTransport’s pilot app-based taxi project in 2015, the number of newlyregistered cars of nine seats or below has increased greatly since early 2016,according to the municipal Department of Transport.
As of the end of 2015, the city had only 200-300traditional taxis running under long-haul contracts (longer trips to otherprovinces and cities), but the number of long-haul taxis soared to 2,437 inearly 2016 when a pilot app-based taxi service began.
The recent increase in the number of cars used byapp-based taxi services has worsened traffic congestion, according to experts.-VNS/VNA
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