Taxis are vital public transportation especially in the capital cities. Slightest delay or its inefficient operation can cause lot of hardships to the users in their conveyance. Of late it has been observed that there is an increasing demand for transportation but taxi services are decreasing. Capital spoke to some taxi drivers at different stations and gathered viewpoints from members of the taxi owners' association.

Taxi drivers usually do not want to work at peak hours. There are certain lines that only get passengers one way of the trip. The increase in fuel price has decreased the profitability for us.

Alemu, Taxi owner/ driver, old Airport area

There are guys that are working to regulate the turn. They charge us 50 cents per travel and we usually take 5 trips per day earning 35 birr per trip. So in order to compensate the cost we overcharge passengers.

Alemseged, Taxi driver, Abenet area

We usually can not find stations where we can drop and pick passengers at the side of the road. There is high congestion in that limited area; if we do not take up the line we are penalized up to 100 birr; so we just have to pass by the passengers in fear of the penalty.

Eshetu,Taxi dirver, Kazanchis area

Some taxis come and work without their duty station because they know either the road is free or passengers are available in both ways. Those that are working without their duty station charge extra or oblige the passenger to take it or leave it.

Mesfin, Taxi driver, Kolfe area

Most of the time we are provoked by the passengers. In order to take revenge we increase the payment or we just chose to pass by waiting people even if there is space.

Mola, Taxi driver, Merkato area

Taxi shortage calls for serious rethinking

By Mina Yirga

Segon, Nib and Selam are the leading taxi owners associations that liaise with the authorities to resolve taxi problem in the capital Addis. The three associations have been working jointly starting from 1989 EC in ensuring the implementations of the traffic regulations; in settling disputes between the taxi drivers and the authorities and in creating favorable environment for the stakeholders, according to Ato Fisheha Mamo, organizer of these associations.

“The government used to adjust taxi stations during 1977-1985 EC by dividing the city into 5 zones which for the past 14 years are regulated by the taxi owners. As a result we could not meet the needs of the users very precisely, he said.

“Since we do not have the map of the city we have tried to identify the taxi terminals through experience. For the 3.3 million people in the city there are 7836 mini buses and 600 salon taxies (taxis with four seats) that are working in about 110 lines in the capital.

Those in number serve 1.3-1.5 million people a day (in the case of city bus, it serves 600-650 people per day) which makes the taxi the major road line share.”

“People having driving licenses are increasing in number and so are the private cars. Besides, roads are narrow at present that need improvement to overcome increasing traffic density. Though taxi and bus bays are off the road, the overall traffic has aggravated the congestion,” Ato Fiseha said while listing some of the setbacks.

On a short-term trial basis, we have started carrying one extra passenger per taxi. This method to some extent has minimized the problem and has worked as a good measure of cost sharing following the increase in fuel tariff. But this solution is not without compliant; passengers are complaining of their discomfort.

“40 cm is the estimated amount of place that can be taken by one person and most of the taxis have back seats of 1.20 cm. In order to solve the problem the fender (a small seat adjacent to the back seat) has been set at least to give the passenger to travel relatively with less discomfort. Public buses are too unhygienic and we expect the public at least to take this into consideration and be tolerant.”

“It's impossible to oblige Salon taxis to do the same service as the mini buses are doing since there is no one to cover the roaming cost for them. The passengers pay extra tariffs in order to reach their destination. As a proposal we have suggested to apply fair tariffs on certain places that have no such taxi so that both taxi drivers and passengers can benefit out of this,” he added.

He also complained, “ There are some associations that are confusing the society. They have organized turn regulators a nd they are giving them ID cards for 20 birr. They have no legal entity and they have not signed any operation agreement. They are just working for their own benefit. In order to avoid this problem, we have proposed to pay monthly wages for turn regulators after normal working hours. Most of them have understood they have been tricked and have started to follow our way.

He finally suggested that the drivers and the pubic use road properly till the five year plan improves the road condition and proper checks and balances in the public transportation is enforced.