Transport

When the taxi won't take you where you wish to go

JDM071113taxi.png
Walk home.

Taxi drivers in Beijing are forbidden from refusing to carry passengers. But what, exactly, does it mean to refuse to carry a passenger?

That question was asked in a court session yesterday, in which a cabbie tried to argue his way out of a 2000 fine.

Mr. Zhang, a 48-year-old taxi driver, picked up three passengers outside the Beijing train station last year. The passengers were headed toward Dongdan, not all that far away. After Zhang informed them that setting off on his side of the street would require a detour of 3km, the passengers exited the taxi, at which point Zhang was fined by a traffic cop. He sued, lost, and appealed.

At the appeals court yesterday, Zhang based his argument on the dictionary definition of "refuse," but the traffic agency took issue with his parsing:

"I looked it up in the dictionary: 'refuse' means 'no,' but at no time when the passengers were in the car did I say 'no.' And when the three passengers realized that it was more convenient to take a taxi on the north side of the street, they happily exited the vehicle. How can you call that refusal?" said Zhang.

Zhang said that the passengers were exercising their right to free choice, and that Beijing regulations prohibit taxi drivers from taking intentional detours.

"Although on the surface Zhang did not refuse, his actions in fact constituted refusal," said the representative of the Beijing Municipal Transportation Law Enforcement General Team. "Saying that it was the passengers' choice is a specious argument. He knew that they had just gotten off the train and that it was inconvenient for them to walk with so much luggage, yet he still convinced them to get out of the car."

The representative said...although there are taxis on the north side of the road, they are only there for quick drop-offs and pick-ups; taxis cannot wait for passengers.

"You can get cabs over there!" exclaimed Zhang. "There's actually a taxi stand there, too."

The Beijing Times reports that Zhang argued that he was carrying out Article 15 of the Beijing Taxi Management Ordinance: "Inform passengers of the true situation." A report from the China Court website quotes Zhang as invoking government buzzwords:

I just told the passengers that it'd be a long detour to go that way. I did it for "harmony"—is that refusal? I've been wrongly accused!

In an unrelated case, Wenzhou Evening News reported last week about a local taxi driver who was mugged by three passengers. He thought they looked suspicious and was about to drive off when they threatened to report him to the authorities for refusing to take passengers.

The newspaper asked for reader opinions on the situation:

Many city residents called and said that women, children, and the elderly should not be refused rides. Young people acting suspicious should be dealt with as the situation demands.

...Mr. Feng, head of the Taxi Volunteer Brigade...recommended that administrative departments issue a solution for "reasonable refusal": First, after 12 midnight, drivers may refuse to take passengers to city outskirts, distant areas, or on roads the passengers themselves are unfamiliar with; second, "passengers" who act suspiciously may be refused; third, drunks, the mentally ill, and other individuals unable to control themselves may be refused.

No decision was reached in Mr. Zhang's case yesterday. According to the government's representative, taxi drivers often use long detours and unfamiliarity with the area as excuses to refuse to take passengers to nearby destinations, so there's certainly reason to believe that he simply didn't want to lose his place in line to schlep three people and tons of luggage a few blocks down the road. On the other hand, is it now impossible for passengers to change their mind and get out of a taxi without creating problems for the driver?

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There are currently 8 Comments for When the taxi won't take you where you wish to go.

Comments on When the taxi won't take you where you wish to go

This story made my day: I didn't refuse, I just gave them a tremendous incentive to look for other options.

Interesting. On the one hand, I applaud the courts for coming down on the taxi drivers every once in a while. I live near Tian'anmen Square and Forbidden City. As such, I find it very difficult to find a taxi sometimes, as I have been told by the drivers who DO pick me up that they normally don't bother with laowai, because of the perceived language issues. On the other hand, I do feel for this driver, and the other cabbies, who are actually trying to be helpful. And having come out of Beijingzhan myself, I realize the issue, given that the driver would have had to go that extra distance because of the inability to make a left hand turn off of 2nd ring road. Poor bugger...

I side with the driver.

I think refusal should be any taxi driver’s prerogative.

I’ve never had a problem being refused a ride in Beijing or the rest of China. That’s not to say it’s never happened - it has. In those situations I get out of the car and 20 seconds later I’ve found someone else who is willing to take me.

I would even say that I’d prefer a racist taxi driver to refuse me than take me unwillingly. I don’t want him sitting next to me giving off bad vibes or even a scary ride just to score some points against me.

It’s when you force someone’s hand that you create resentment.

Right now, if you get a taxi at, say, the Beijing Airport, the driver's been in line waiting for a while, and he's probably counting on a pretty large fare for his time. They have a system where the driver doesn't have to go back to the end of the waiting line if his fare is too close, but if, like me, your destination is outside that range, he'll be sore at you for the whole journey (the way around this is to conspire with the driver to both tell the guy doing the exit check that you're going to Lidu or something, which lets him jump ahead in the line when he gets back).

If the drivers weren't required to take all passengers, there'd be routes all over the city that no one in their right mind would accept.

I've done the Lido trick at the airport myself a couple of times. But the thing that peeved me both times I did it was I got absolutely no thanks from the driver. In fact, one guy was rather indignant to me. I have to go pick a friend up at the airport on Friday. If I don't get a 谢谢 from the cabbie, my days of trying to help them out are over!

I remember shanghai hongqiao having two taxi ranks: one for short journeys and one for long. seemed to do the trick and did away with the all too familar pissed off beijing driver who thinks a journey from the airport to worker's stadium is not worth his while.

That cab driver is full of crap. He could have u-turned under the Jianguomen / 2nd ring road intersection and driven to Dongdan in well under 3km. The end cost for the customers would have been the same or at most 2 RMB more.

I hate it when cab drivers pull this stunt. Getting a cab can be difficult in the morning, and I regularly get drivers who do the "I'm not going that way, have to quit work" crap. By the time i've gotten out, someone else has invariably already grabbed the only other cab that will drive by for the next 10 minutes.

I also love the slow down to stop and then rapidly speed away when they realize you are a foreigner trick. This happened to me several times, and I see it happening to Africans all the time.

u-turning at that junction is not so easy. Have to first turn right onto southbound 2nd Ring and drive a fair distance before you can switch and come north. Then have to turn on to Chang 'an avenue. maybe not 3k but not far off. would be quicker to walk from station to dong dan. literally.

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