Taxi Fares to Rise in Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung 北北基計程車改85元起跳 停等縮短為1分鐘

The starting taxi fare for the Taipei, New Taipei City, and Keelung regions is set to increase from NT$70 to NT$85, while the payment increment period has been decreased to 60 seconds. The changes won't take effect until April 2023 because time is needed to adjust taxi meters.

It's raining, and taxis are doing brisk business. Many passengers say they can accept an increase in taxi fares that is scheduled to take effect in April 2023 for Taipei, New Taipei City, and Keelung.

Resident: “The prices of everything are rising, so you can't say they're not allowed to increase prices, right? You have to be reasonable.”

Resident: “It's cheaper here compared to other places, the taxi fares are cheaper so it's acceptable.”

The Taipei City Public Transportation Office approved the taxi fare adjustment plan. The starting fare will be increased from NT$70 to NT$85, while the payment increment has been changed from an additional NT$5 per 80 seconds to NT$5 per 60 seconds. Other fees were not adjusted. Taxi driver unions had originally proposed hiking the starting fare to NT$100, but the deliberation committee considered the rights and benefits of consumers and referenced the standards in other cities and counties to decide on an increase to NT$85.

Taxi Driver: “Adjusting it will help us a bit. The cost of car maintenance has increased by a lot.”

Taxi Driver: “If you increase it by too much, no one's going to ride anymore, right? If you increase it by too much, then many people won't want to ride and you're back where you were during the pandemic. ”

Hung Yu-min, Section Director, Taipei City Public Transportation Office: “The committee members referenced the adjustments made by other cities and counties during this year.”

The office said unions also proposed an extra fee of NT$50 during times of "torrential rain or typhoons," but it decided not to adopt this because it hopes to deter people from going out during typhoons and there might be consumer disputes if the three cities don't act in sync to suspend work and classes during a typhoon.

民眾依序排隊上車，下雨天，計程車生意特別好。聽到明年4月起，車資要漲，乘客多半能接受。

民眾認為：「現在整個都漲啦，你說他不漲也不行啊，對不對？應該是合理的。」

也有民眾說：「台灣算便宜的，計程車價格算便宜的，所以我覺得還可以。」

台北市公共運輸處審議通過的計程車調價方案，起跳價由現行70元，調整為85元；延滯時間計算基準，從停等80秒收5元，調整為停等60秒就開始收費，其餘運價項目維持不變。原先計程車公會提出的版本是起價要調到100元。審議委員考量消費者權益，也參酌其他縣市，拍板起價85元。

計程車司機表示：「加減補一下而已啦，車子維修那個成本都增加很多。」

另一名計程車司機擔心：「哎呀，漲多了，沒人坐不是一樣，對不對？你漲這樣算，漲多了，是不是很多人都不坐？又回到疫情之前，那有什麼好？」

北市公運處科長洪瑜敏指出：「委員審議的時候，他們同時也會了解其他縣市今年度，就是他們調整的狀況。」

公運處表示，針對原先公會還提出豪雨颱風加價50元方案，考量颱風天希望減少民眾外出，加上萬一北北基未同步停班課，可能衍生消費糾紛，因此不予採納。