<Anchor> This is a
friendly economic time. Today (30th) I will be with reporter Kim Hye-min. They say that they have a lot of dinner appointments these days as their daily life is starting to recover, but it's so hard to get a taxi?
<Reporter> It
is very difficult to get a taxi outside in the evening. There were times when I waited for an hour. As the end of the year approaches, more and more people are experiencing this.
The biggest reason is that there are many people who want to take a taxi, but the number of taxi drivers has decreased. Compared to before with Corona, the demand for late-night taxis has increased by up to 100% in Seoul alone.
On the other hand, at the beginning of last year, there were over 100,000 corporate taxi drivers nationwide. However, by August of last year, when intensive social distancing continued, the number had decreased to 77,000. The number of taxi drivers has decreased by more than 20% compared to the past.
<Anchor> It
has decreased a lot. But why did it decrease so suddenly?
<Reporter> If
you think about the 4 steps of social distancing, we didn't have many dinner appointments back then. Taxi drivers' income also declined significantly during this time.
In particular, corporate taxis have a lot of money that they have to bring to the taxi company in the name of 'personal payment'.
In addition, platform companies such as Kakao Taxi took various commissions from drivers. That is why the number of taxi drivers leaving in search of higher-paying jobs such as delivery and surrogate driving has increased.
Therefore, in the case of corporate taxis in Seoul, there are a lot of vehicles that do not operate. It is said that the remaining knights are often elderly or not desperate for income.
<Anchor> That's
right. What reporter Kim explained now was that he was talking about the corporate taxi situation. That means that the number of drivers employed by the company has decreased a lot, and there are private taxis other than corporate taxis. However, the government will temporarily lift the three-part system for private taxis. I made this announcement.
<Reporter>
That's right. For private taxis, the working days are divided into Go, Me, and All.
Of these, if you work two days, you get one day off. There is a limit to the number of days you can work, so the Seoul Metropolitan Government released this for the time being to resolve the supply-demand imbalance.
From the 16th to the 1st of the next year, the night time period, that is, from 9 pm to 4 am the next day, was released, but the effect was not great.
The number of taxis per hour only increased by 869 on the late night on the 16th and 17th when the three-subject system was lifted. And even if the 3rd sub-system is lifted, it cannot fundamentally solve the riding problem.
The reason for implementing the three-part system is to prevent overwork of taxi drivers and to maintain vehicles, so the longer the working hours are, the greater the risk of accidents. It could also have the opposite effect of reducing taxis on the way to work the next day.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government also said that it would raise the operation rate by taking administrative measures against private taxis that do not operate without permission without a notification of closure.
<Anchor> Although it was
several years ago, as I was covering this issue once, most of the drivers of private taxis are very old. So, I was reluctant to drive late at night, especially for drunk people. There are situations like that, so I really don't know how effective this measure will be as reporter Kim said. At times like this, there are things that come to mind. Represented by Uber. So, if the ride-sharing service had been expanded in Korea, is there a possibility that this kind of problem would have been less?
<Reporter>
You might think so, but I can't really conclude that this is the case. Let's look at an overseas example.
First of all, in the United States, the number of taxis in New York reached 20,000 in March last year, but decreased to 6,000 in April of this year. The number of taxi drivers is not increasing even though the number of passengers increases with the recent economic recovery.
Ride-sharing services have rapidly eroded the taxi market, and drivers’ earnings have declined significantly.
Drivers are not working because they think it is better to get unemployment benefits.
Similarly, in the UK, the number of Uber drivers is declining and is experiencing a turmoil, who have left in search of other jobs and have not returned.
Countries that are experiencing a shortage of taxi jobs, including Korea, have one thing in common.
It's just that the treatment of the knights is poor.
The shortage of taxis will become more serious by the end of the year, but I hope that the government will find the cause right away and reduce the number of people shivering in the cold trying to catch a taxi on the cold night streets.