AMMAN — Service taxis shuttling between
Amman and
Irbid have raised their prices in an attempt to make up for the loss
of income due to capacity restrictions. But passengers aren’t happy about the
change.
اضافة اعلان
The passenger capacity has been raised from
50 to 75 percent as one of the government measures to mitigate the impact of
COVID-19 on economic sectors, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Still,
taxi drivers are only able to carry three passengers where they used to be able
to carry four, cutting into their profits amid a time of economic difficulty.
Fadi Ahmad, a passenger who commutes
regularly between Irbid and Amman, told
Jordan News that he is no longer
taking shared taxis because they charge high fares and the drivers violate
regulations by carrying four passengers.
“Like many others in Irbid, I have switched
to private cars (from taxis). Two to three passengers arrange a ride with
someone who goes regularly to Amman, meet with the driver at a scheduled time
and place, and pay him an agreed-upon fee,” Ahmad said.
“This way is cheaper and faster than shared
taxis,” he added, stopping short of mentioning that the practice is prohibited
under the law, as private cars cannot be used as taxis.
However on the other hand, taxi drivers
have expressed concerns about loss of income and the challenges of putting food
on the table during the COVID-19 economic crisis.
Mutasem Mohammad, a shared taxi driver
working on Amman-Irbid route, said in an interview with
Jordan News that
drivers “can hardly live and barely breathe” in such severe circumstances.
“Spending most of our income on gasoline,
we cannot afford basic food needs,” he said.
“Drivers are trying to offset the losses
caused by the lower passenger capacity given that the determined public
transport fares are disproportionate with the distances between cities,” a
shared taxi driver based in Irbid, who preferred to be anonymous, told
Jordan
News over the phone.
“When we ask passengers for more, they are
usually reluctant to pay; however, some of them do not mind to pay extra JD0.5
to be at work on time,” the driver said.
Not only Amman-Irbid shared taxi drivers have
been affected by the limited passenger load. Khalil Thabet, a service taxi driver
working in Al Qweismeh, told
Jordan News that the restriction has negatively
affected his income.
“When working at full capacity, the daily
income of a taxi driver is divided into two portions, 50 percent of which is
for gasoline and maintenance, and the other half is shared between the driver
and owner,” explained Thabet. “Thus, the absence of the fourth passenger led to
a decrease in drivers’ earnings.”
President of the Transport Services and
Taxi Owners Union, Ahmad Abu Haidar, said in an interview with
Jordan News that the Land Transport Regulatory Commission (LTRC) is the responsible agency for
the drivers’ price raises.
With the rise of
gasoline prices, Abu
Haidar urged the government to increase public transport fares and allow shared
taxis to operate at 100 percent capacity. He noted that drivers “are suffering
financial losses”, especially as the pandemic and its resulting restrictions
have gone on for over a year. Several experts have also recently predicted
price hikes on basic consumer goods in Jordan due to rising global shipping
prices, which may present further financial challenges to these drivers and
other citizens.
The daily losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
stood at half a million Jordanian dinars, according to the union’s president.
Abla Weshah, spokesperson of the LTRC, said
that the commission is considering passengers’ complaints in a comment to
Jordan News. He stressed that both the commission and the travel department are
monitoring public transport and will take legal actions against those who
violated the regulating legislations.
Weshah called for shared taxi drivers to
stand by the standard determined fare and the passenger capacity as regulated
by the relevant defense order.
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