HONG KONG - About 500 Hong Kong taxis will be used in a strike on Nov 22 to protest the government’s unwillingness to crack down on ride-hailing services like Uber Technologies Inc.

Drivers will stop taking customers from 11 am local time for three hours, and will start in the Tai Po area, according to Mr Wong Yu Ting, chairman of one of the associations that will participate in the strike. The small number of vehicles and location, far from Hong Kong’s bustling centre, is unlikely to cause major disruptions and the action comes after talks between officials and 17 taxi driver groups failed to result in an agreement.

“We met government representatives this morning but we are not satisfied with their answers, so the strike will take place as planned,” said Mr Wong. “We have two main requests, solving the illegal ride-hailing service issue and the proposed demerit point scheme for taxis.”

Uber has a complicated presence in Hong Kong. Officially, it’s illegal but it’s grown to about 14,000 driver partners since launching in 2014. In 2021, it acquired the HKTaxi app – a popular platform used to hire cabs – and it also offers Uber Taxi, which allows people to book a ride with a taxi-driver partner through the firm’s own app. 

Its growing popularity has made it a frequent target of the Hong Kong taxi industry, which has estimated Uber costs it more than HK$20 million (S$3.43 million) in revenue each day, creates unfair competition and hurts the recruitment of new drivers. Taxi drivers previously went on strike in 2018, but the lack of definitive action from the government to back an outright ban on ride-hailing apps since then has been the source of ongoing tensions.

Hong Kong’s iconic red taxis are a common sight on the busy streets of the financial district, but have been the focus of growing safety concerns after a spate of accidents involving elderly drivers. In January this year, one 87-year-old driver was involved in three accidents in just nine days.

About 55 per cent of the more than 200,000 people who hold a full valid licence for driving a taxi are aged 60 or older, according to government data. The actual number of active drivers is about 46,000, and there are about 18,000 taxis in the city. Last year, almost half of taxi traffic accidents involved drivers aged 60 or older.

The taxi industry is also viewed as old fashioned, as many cabs do not accept credit cards or e-payment systems. There is currently one way around that though: Uber-owned HKTaxi allows users to pay in-app with a credit card. BLOOMBERG