Hanoi pulls the plug on small taxi firms

The decision came based on the provisions in Item 7, Clause 17 of Decree 86, which required that from January 1, 2016, businesses and cooperatives trading in passenger transportation and using taxis must have at least 10 car units in their fleet. For special-class cities, the minimum requirement is 50 units.

Hanoi Transport Department statistics show that as of January 15, 2016, the city was home to 18,829 car units carrying the department’s Taxi Hanoi insignia, managed by 80 businesses operating taxi-based passenger transport services. Out of these, 15 have below 50 car units in their fleet.

Of these 15 taxicab firms, 12 have applied for fleet expansion, while the other three have yet submit such requests.

According to newswire dddn.com.vn, if these firms were given leave to expand their car fleets to meet the requirement, the added cars would number a minimum 435 units, raising the total number of taxicabs in Hanoi to 19,264 units.

Following the Ministry of Transport’s regulation, Hanoi Department of Transport sent a proposal to the city’s management authority requesting permission to assess city-based taxi firms’ fulfilment of the conditions set in Decree 86 on the basis of their amended business plans.

Taxis firms up to par (having at least 50 cars in their fleet) will receive the Taxi Hanoi insignia for their full fleet.

After January 31, the department will revoke the passenger transport licenses and Taxi Hanoi insignia from unqualified firms.

Earlier, Hanoi Department of Transport had proposed the Ministry of Transport to seek permission from the government for prolonging the time to implement the regulations of Decree 86/2014 in special-class cities to the end of June 2016, while simultaneously allowing taxis firms having less than 50 cars to continue carrying the Taxi Hanoi insignia until the end of June.

However, feedback to the department’s proposal from the government and the Ministry of Transport still remains forthcoming.

In light of Hanoi’s taxi-based passenger transport plan to 2015 with vision towards 2030, approved by the Hanoi People’s Committee in October 2012, the permissible number of taxis for Hanoi is 20,000 cars in 2015, increasing to 25,000 cars during 2016-2020.

If current below-par taxi firms were allowed to expand their fleet to meet the requirement, the total taxicab number in Hanoi (19,264 units) would still fall under the permissible limit.