Police prosecute 357 illegal taxi service cases in 2015

Local police prosecuted a total of 357 cases of drivers providing unlicensed taxi services in the Macau Special Administrative Region last year, of which nine involved drivers using taxi-hailing mobile applications, according to a press release by the Public Security Police Force (PSP) yesterday.
Business Daily asked PSP yesterday whether these nine cases involve the controversial taxi-hailing mobile application Uber. However, a PSP spokesperson told us that these nine cases involve “any mobile application providing illegal taxi services”, whilst declining to reveal their names.
During the Policy Address in early December last year, Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak told legislators that local police had prosecuted seven cases of drivers providing illegal taxi services via Uber as at December 1.
In yesterday’s announcement, PSP highlighted that the design and the profit model of the taxi-hailing mobile application(s) involved in the cases would not allow them to run legally in the city. It added that it would pay close attention to the development of taxi-hailing mobile applications, as well as continuing to combat illegal taxi services in the city.
The global ride-sharing application Uber, launched in the Macau Special Administrative Region in October last year, was deemed illegal by the city’s Transport Bureau (DSAT) and PSP just days following its launch.
Currently, local law mandates that drivers providing unlicensed taxi services in the territory are liable to a fine of MOP30,000 (US$3,750).