Seoul to scrap taxi shift system to increase late-night taxis

In this photo from Nov. 3 taken late at night, a passenger in front of Seoul Station gets into a taxi with a sign on its door indicating that it receives ride-hailing calls online from KakaoT. Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

Seoul City will scrap its current shift system for taxi drivers in an attempt to make more taxis available late at night, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said, Tuesday.

The move is part of the city's attempts to revamp public transportation to increase service quality and improve working conditions for drivers.

The announcement on Tuesday focused particularly on taxis, as taxi demand skyrocketed after the government started lifting COVID-19 social distancing measures last April, though the supply has continually fallen short of demand, especially late at night. The Transportation Planning Division under the city government's City Transportation Office said that the daily number of taxis registered under the city and operating late at night averaged 20,000, about 80 percent of the figure from before COVID-19 first hit the country in early 2020.

Some 10,000 drivers from taxi companies have in the last two years moved to other jobs, mostly in the delivery industry as drivers, due to taxi companies' insufficient employee wages and declining incomes ― as both the pandemic and the high price of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) discouraged people from meeting and eating out. Many private taxi drivers are also retirees who avoided operating late at night when violence against drivers by drunk passengers is more likely to occur.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government previously rolled out measures in an attempt to replenish the insufficient supply by incentivizing private drivers and introducing stricter regulations to make taxi companies treat their employees better, but the measures haven't been effective in resolving the supply problem.

The latest measures aim to boost the number of taxis operating late at night from 20,000 to 27,000. It will shut down the current shift system, in effect since 1978, in which taxis with certain letters on their license plates are banned from driving on certain days, so that they can all operate anytime they wish. This move aims to draw 7,000 additional drivers. Instead, the late-night shifts for each week will be divided up according to the last digit of taxis' license plates, with the goal of allowing each taxi to operate on two late-night shifts per week.

People queue up to get a taxi in front of Seoul Station, Monday. The reduction in the number of taxis since the pandemic began has grown into an inconvenience for passengers. Yonhap

In December, the city government will allow drivers to charge passengers an additional late-night surcharge starting from 10 p.m., rather than the current midnight, increasing their earnings. It's the first change to the system since 1982, when the authority abolished the late-night curfew and introduced the system, which takes effect at midnight.

Starting next February, the basic fee for all Seoul taxi rides will also increase from the current 3,800 won ($2.74) to 4,800 won. The minimum distance required for passengers to travel will also be lowered from 2 kilometers to 1.6 kilometers.

Another upcoming measure will ban smartphone app-based online taxi-hailing service providers like KakaoT from revealing taxi hailers' destinations to drivers. This particular function has elicited increasing complaints from customers who claim that some drivers ignore calls from clients traveling short distances and accept only those going long distances. The new measure will ensure that drivers do not learn the passenger's destination until after they enter the vehicle.

The city government has also reinforced regulations for taxi companies so that they will provide fairer wages to their employees and don't take an excessive share of income for themselves.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government expects that, if all the measures are kept, the average monthly income for late-night taxi drivers will rise by 30 percent, from 2.64 million won to 3.44 million won. However, these conditions will also make passengers pay more. For a passenger traveling seven kilometers during the daytime, the fare will likely increase from 9,600 won to 11,000 won. If the ride is 10 kilometers and late at night, the fare will likely increase from 13,700 won to 17,700 won.

Starting Dec. 1, the authority will also expand the fleet of late-night buses by adding 37 more vehicles across 10 routes. It will reduce the waiting time between buses from the current 60 minutes to approximately 30 minutes

Between Dec. 15 and 31, 88 bus routes will also have their operating hours extended until 1 a.m.

Baek Ho, chief of the City Transportation Office, said that the measures come before the first year-end and New Year holiday season since the social distancing measures were eased last April. "The government, taxi companies and online taxi-hailing platform operators will continue to cooperate so that driver welfare, service quality and the taxi supply shortage will all improve," said the official.