Taxi Drivers Rally Against Pirate Cabs, Unregistered Economy
11 October 2009, Sunday
A fierce battle is raging between licensed cab companies and their unregistered counterparts, “pirate cabs,” on İstanbul's streets, and while in recent days authorities have taken measures to restrict the illegal activity, disgruntled drivers of licensed cabs say it is not enough.
A massive rally is scheduled for 11 a.m. today in İstanbul's Çağlayan Square. Organized under the leadership of the Atatürk Airport Cabbies Cooperative -- the world's second largest cab drivers' cooperative -- the “No to Pirate Cabs” rally is to bring together thousands of people whose household incomes depend on the taxi business to stand against illegal taxicab rings.
Speaking to Sunday's Zaman, cooperative President Fahrettin Can said the number of illegally operated taxis in İstanbul has been proliferating in recent years and that there are already three times as many illegal cabs operating in the city than registered, licensed cabs. “What began as a service that thrived in isolated new communities, like Halkalı and Ataköy, has reached deeper and deeper into the heart of İstanbul. In our view, these ‘pirate cabbies' are thieves, robbers, without honor,” Can said. “If nothing is done to stop them, they will overtake licensed cab services entirely.”
The fears of licensed cab drivers are not unjustified. Many İstanbul residents have a favorable view of pirate cabs, with the first and most obvious benefit in their eyes being cost. The unmarked, unlicensed pirate cab vehicles operate on a no-meter, fixed rate system -- which means customers can't easily be swindled by drivers who take the long route to a destination. While they don't pick up passengers on the street, pirate cabs have call center operators with phone numbers that customers use to call to request a cab, and often even have refrigerator magnets with their phone numbers on them, using a legal rent-a-car service as a front business for the illegal cab scheme. The service gains customers as news spreads by word of mouth from neighbor to neighbor in a district -- soon undercutting the business of licensed cab companies in the area.
Huge differences between tariffs
Despite the obvious illegality involved in the business, many people are adamant supporters and loyal customers of unregistered taxicab services. A taxi fare between the neighboring Halkalı and Yenibosna districts, for example, can cost anywhere from TL 18-20 depending on the exact pickup and drop-off locations. Pirate cab fares for the same distance are fixed at TL 10-12 depending on the “company.” For longer distances the difference in price and the service provided can be more drastic.
“In the middle of the night you can call a pirate cab based in Halkalı from where you are in Taksim; they'll come pick you up and drive you back to Halkalı for only TL 22. Using a normal cab it would cost you for their trip to pick you up as well as to take you home, and with the night rates could cost you around TL 90. It's like having your own personal chauffeur available night and day. The drivers are much more polite and respectful than the licensed cab drivers, so the choice is easy,” one pirate cab customer, Reyhan A., says. The so-called benefits of pirate cabs are undeniably intertwined with their illegality, however -- when a single complaint to the authorities could potentially spell the demise of an entire cab service, it pays for pirate cabbies to be polite.
The pirate cab business is not as benign as it seems to some, and the movement against them isn't about disgruntled drivers of licensed cabs upset that they're being undercut by better service providers. For starters, pirate cabs are part of a bigger picture of Turkey's problematic unregistered economy, sized by most estimates at between 45 and 50 percent. The Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) estimates that 47 percent of employment in Turkey is unregistered and therefore constitutes a major source of revenue loss, nearly $320 billion annually.
In recent days the police have been cracking down on illegal cabs, instituting a TL 537 fee when they catch illegal drivers and impounding their vehicles for one week. “This is a serious fine for us, we don't make much money,” says Murat, who drives a taxi illegally for a central İstanbul pirate cab ring. “If they're going to crack down and end our cab services, then the government needs to provide some sort of employment alternative. Thousands of families are sustained by this business; it's beneficial for both customers and drivers. The taxes for licensed cabs are too high, and we have no other choice, no other way to win our bread.”
Can, of the airport cab cooperative, however, says that people should not buy the pirate taxi sob story or view them as underdogs. “They are stealing the business of honest, hardworking people. In the past, laws were more strict when pirate cab drivers were caught, but that's changed now. The customers of these vehicles are no longer fined when caught by police. There are 18,000 licensed cab owners in this city who are being done wrong by these pirate drivers,” Can said. “The cost of traffic insurance for a private vehicle is TL 150-200. For a taxi cab, this is TL 1,500-2,000. If -- God forbid -- there is a death in an accident involving a normal cab, insurance pays TL 50-250,000. With pirate cabs, there is nothing.”
Can spoke of police busts of illegal cab services that revealed more than call operators, with such raids resulting in the discovery of weapons and illegal substances. “It is beyond me how people can feel safe in getting into a pirate cab. If drugs or weapons are found in the vehicle with a licensed cab, the customer can just get out and walk away. With a pirate cab, the connection between the driver and the passenger is unclear, and the unwitting passenger can easily become caught up in trouble,” he emphasized.
Can said that the rally planned for today should bring out thousands, including cabbies and their families, the people who work at cab call centers, and artists and public supporters who support the push to end pirate cab services. “We're calling on everyone to come out. This is people's bread money we're talking about -- it's being pulled out right from underneath honest people who follow the law. This money being stolen by greedy pirate cab drivers has to do not just with cab drivers but with their spouses and families, with their children's futures. An end needs to be put to pirate cabs immediately,” he said.
While the higher night fare for trips between midnight and 6 a.m. was eliminated last month by the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality's Transportation Coordination Center (UKOME), the body also decided to raise taxicab fares, upping the base fare from TL 2 to TL 2.50 and increasing the kilometer fare from TL 1.30 to TL 1.40. While this came as something of a relief to struggling cab drivers, it did not serve to decrease the popularity of pirate cabs. Ultimately, no matter how much the licensed taxi drivers push for the elimination of pirate cab services, it's likely that as long as such a large price difference remains between the services, there will be many who, despite the illegality, will continue to choose them time and time again.
Source; Sunday's Zaman - sundayszaman.com
Login
Register
FAQ
