The government of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Tuesday responded to the demands of the city's striking taxi drivers with a series of measures intended to deal with their grievances.
A municipal spokesman said the city would revise the division of fares between drivers and companies in favor of the drivers.
However, the details and methods were yet to be decided, said Zhou Bo, vice publicity director of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Chongqing Committee.
The government was still considering whether direct supervision of the companies or legislating on income was the best move, but it was studying issues, including administration costs and the workloads of drivers.
The municipal government would also increase the daily supply of 100,000 cubic meters compressed natural gas (CNG), which fuels most cabs in the city, to ease the fuel shortage.
Unlicensed cab drivers would be penalized to protect the interests of licensed drivers, said Zhou.
Taxi companies vowed to persuade drivers to end their strike, which has turned violent at times with vehicles being smashed.
Shortages of CNG, competition from unlicensed cabs and high fines for traffic violations ignited the strike on Monday, said a worker at the municipal transport administration.
Drivers must wait up to three hours to refill their CNG tanks at a limited number of fuel stations, and each taxi needs to be fueled four times a day.
Striking driver Tan Daihua said he had promised his wife that he would bring home 100 yuan (14.60 U.S. dollars) a day when he began work for a cab company. "However, I have given her 100 yuan in the past four days. The government should do something to help me back to work."
A cab driver in Chongqing has to pay company owners 380 yuan to440 yuan a day in fees, and owners are believed to have profited massively by extracting ever higher monthly payments in return for the right to drive.
About 800 of the 9,000 urban cabbies in China's fourth-largest city returned to work by 2 p.m. on Monday, some with transport officials in their passenger seats as protection from their striking colleagues.
Chongqing had 34 taxi companies that own more than 100 cabs each, including two owned by the municipal government, said Wang Shiqi, director of the city cab association.
Source: Xinhua
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