Media reports say that it is no longer easy to get a taxi in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Some cabbies even feel that it is normal for them to refuse passengers "sometimes", says an article in Guangming Daily. Excerpts:

As high as 92 percent of the about 80,000 netizens polled in an online survey said they had been refused by taxi drivers. In fact, some taxi drivers feel it is normal to refuse passengers.

In market economy, every customer is equal. Therefore, a service provider should treat every customer equally.

Moreover, city rules say a taxi driver cannot refuse any passenger. But many cabbies don't follow the rules. There are three reasons for that.

First, the number of taxis in many cities has remained unchanged for years while populations have increased greatly. And since more demand than supply makes it a sellers' market, some cabbies are confident of getting a passenger who'd travel a longer distance and thus bring in more profit even after they refuse passengers bound for shorter distances, or crowded or remote places.

Second, many cabbies have to pay huge amounts to taxi companies and, hence, have to choose their passengers "carefully" to make enough money in a day to earn a decent profit.

Third, the supervision department has not done enough to restore order in the market. Any rational person would sacrifice a smaller amount to earn a bigger amount, and that's what many of the cabbies have been doing. It's, therefore, the relevant departments' responsibility to fix things and protect customers' interests.

(China Daily 11/01/2011 page9)