News released by Government Information Office

Release Date: 2006-1-17

Translated by Cara Steenstra

During the Chinese New Year holiday period,taxi drivers will continue to provide services to the public, and after discussion between the City Government and related labor groups, it has been decided that from January 28th till February 2nd, a total of six days, an additional NT$85 will be added to all Taichung City taxi cab meter fares.

The Transportation Bureau expressed that regarding there have been reactions from the public that this fare increase during Chinese New Year is too high, as it is higher than most other counties and cities. However, this rate has been decided according to the difference between taxi occupation rates in different counties and cities. Taichung City has a higher rate of unoccupied taxis overall. And in order to avoid the situation where taxi drivers stop working over the Chinese New Year period due to a fare increase that is too low, thus affecting the rights of citizens to ride taxi cabs; thus, it was decided that and additional NT$85 will be added to the meter fares after discussions with labor groups. Whereas even though other counties and cities have a lower fare hike, their fare increase period is longer when compared with Taichung City. The fare increase period of Taichung City is between Chinese New Year's Eve (2006-01-28) and Day Five of the New Year (2006-02-02), a total of six days only.

To prevent misunderstandings and communication problems with foreign passengers during this Chinese New Year fare increase period, the City Government has already printed fare increase explanation pamphlets in six languages, including Chinese, English, Japanese, Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese. These pamphlets will be distributed to labor groups for display inside taxicabs, so as to lessen communication problems and avoid misunderstandings created by language barriers.