Closing Remarks
Dr. Dorothy Chan, JP, Deputy Commissioner
for Transport, Hong Kong SAR Government.
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Honorable guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The roundup of today aims to conclude the
forum today as well as help us to look forward
to further improve the taxi services in Hong
Kong. At first, I would like to congratulate
on the success of the Quality Taxi Services
Forum and I appreciate very much the efforts
of the staff for arranging the forum.
Today, all of us have put down our routine
heavy work to participate in this forum to
share our experiences to explore the ways
to upgrade the quality of taxi services. After
discussing for the whole day, I believe we
now have a better understanding of taxi operation
in the neighborhood cities. We also benefit
much from the use of technology and the training
of taxi drivers that in turn will be helpful
to the improvement of taxi services in future.
Neighborhood cities such as Singapore and
Shanghai have been very successful in the
improvement of taxi services and the use of
technology. In this aspect, the taxi industry
of Hong Kong has to spend more efforts. I
have been in the industry for a long time
and have got acquainted with some seniors
in the taxi associations. I think the taxi
associations have become mature enough to
show its capability. Today, I am very delighted
to know that some representatives of the taxi
organizations have the idea of helping taxi
drivers to improve their professional image
and their service quality. I hope this marvelous
plan can be implemented step by step. In Hong
Kong, each car is owned by a owner, it is
in fact very difficult to implement the above
plan; however, we must try our best to overcome
the difficulty. The taxi industry suggests
to use Internet to improve the taxi advance
booking system. This is a good attempt to
provide a better alternative for local or
overseas tourists. Besides, this is a good
start for the local taxi industry to attempt
to make use of information technology to upgrade
its service quality. Hong Kong has studied
the use of satellite orientation system to
help managing bus fleets. In fact, Singapore
has already substantiated the use of satellite
orientation system to manage taxis. The taxi
industry in Hong Kong should research further
on this.
Taxi services are vital in the public transport.
Under the current diversified transportation
services of Hong Kong, Transport Department
should act as a coordinator. With the support
of various government departments and the
efforts of the taxi industry, the LPG Taxi
Exchange Program is under satisfactory progress.
At the moment, there are already over 4,000
LPG gas taxis in Hong Kong.
Continuation of education to progress with
times is very important. Although each taxi
driver training program has its own characteristics,
the focus is always on the pre-service and
in-service training, and the content of the
training include customer service, service
skills, safe driving and familiarity of roads.
In order to help the taxi drivers to gain
new insights through restudying old material,
Transport Department has compiled a set of
self-study program for taxi drivers to facilitate
their learning at their leisure time and help
them to improve their language abilities,
service skills, taxi regulations and safe
driving habits. We also have the plan to provide
comprehensive pre-service training to the
taxi driving licence applicants. I hope the
taxi industry will continue to offer full
support to the plan.
In the past year, in order to provide more
convenient and flexible taxi services and
to avoid the conflicts between the passengers
and taxi drivers as they might not know that
there are restrictions in stopping the car,
taxi drop off points are set up in some restricted
areas to facilitate the passengers to get
off the taxi starting from January 2000. This
measure is very successful, and helps to strengthen
the point-to- point service role of taxis.
Up to this moment, the Transport Department
has assigned altogether nine taxi drop off
points, and there will be more to come. Whether
the scheme can succeed or not depends on the
co-operation among taxi industry, Transport
Department, Hong Kong Police Force and the
self discipline of taxi drivers.
The taxi drivers, monitoring organizations
and law enforcement organizations are very
important partners in co-operation. The speech
of Chief Superintendent of Police Mr. H.K.
TANG does not only outline the interactive
relationship required by good partners, but
also offers new ideas that provide food for
thought. Just as what Mr. Footman, Commissioner
for Transport has said this morning, the tourists
have very positive comments on local taxi-drivers.
I hope the taxi industry can further improve
on this. I also hope that Hong Kong Tourist
Association will continue to support various
quality taxi service programs.
To put everything in a nutshell, the training
of taxi professionals should be further improved
to provide quality services to passengers
and special attention should be paid to information
technology, training and resources allocation.
I hope various taxi operation programs co-organized
by the taxi industry, taxi owners, taxi associations
and the drivers' associations can continue
in the coming days. The forum today is a good
start for us to ponder deeply the direction
of future taxi services, and it is believed
that this is a great step forward for the
provision of quality taxi services.
I wish you have prosperous businesses in
the year of Snake.
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