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Cabs stop working in S China city

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-10 16:29

SANYA - No cabs were seen running in Sanya, a major tourist city in south China's island province of Hainan, on Monday.

More than 200 taxi drivers began to gather in front of the municipal government building at about 6 a.m., demanding intervention on issues including high monthly taxi rental fees and unlicensed vehicles to protect their interests.

Chen Chao, deputy secretary general of the government, and a senior official of the local traffic administration, arrived at the scene earlier in the day for talks, but none of the drivers was willing to sit at the the negotiation table as a representative.

In the afternoon a driver was sent to hospital after he fainted as many others were trying to stop a cab from working.

Police detained about ten drivers involved in the turbulence, that lasted for a few minutes.

The crowd dispersed at about 4 p.m. soon after the chaos.

There are about 1,200 licensed cabs running in the city, owned by six companies, taxi drivers said.

However, some of the companies ignored the municipal government policy that cuts down drivers' monthly fees from 7,200 yuan (1,054 U.S. dollars) to an average 5,300 yuan as of January 1, said a driver who only offered his surname as Zhang.

In addition, a large number of fee-dodging unlicensed cabs were operating rampantly across the city, further cutting into into their earnings.

The strike took place days after taxi drivers in China's fourth largest city Chongqing stopped work last Monday and Tuesday in protest over similar problems.

The government of Chongqing was taking measures, including cracking down on unlicensed cabs, to appease drivers angered by high fees, competition with illegal taxis, high fines for traffic violations and the unfair division of fares between drivers and taxi companies.