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Officially, the 2005
Transport Proclamation clearly labels taxis, including minibuses, as public
service givers. But the answer is not that easy. As in any other country, a
commercial enterprise can also fulfil a public service goal.
It just seems that on the
streets of Addis Abeba, this distinction is causing more and more tension
between the operators and the passengers. And officialdom has begun hearing the
rising complaints.
For starters, customers who
remember the taxi system from the Derg era, remember a far more regulated time,
when minibus taxis conformed to fixed prices and well assigned routes. The era
felt a lot less freelance than today’s, claim passengers.
During the Derg, taxis were
forced to fulfil specific services and routes when the government believed there
was a shortage of public transportation. The 1976 Transport Proclamation, which
provided the regulation of road transport, stated that the government could
compel public commercial road transport vehicles, like minibus taxis, to operate
in areas lacking transport services.
The regime was not only
forcing taxis to provide services wherever it dictated them, but also had strict
control, introducing trip schedules for public transport vehicles. The Road
Transport Authority was responsible for preparing and implementing trip
schedules for public commercial vehicles and enforcing disciplinary directives.
It is with memories of this
more strict time that the Addis Abeba Transport Branch Office under the Federal
Transport Authority has prepared a study whose findings are similar in concept
to that of the previous regime.
The study requests that
routes be assigned and route plate names be installed on minibus taxis. The
office did the study around the end of last Ethiopian fiscal year and it will be
implemented after discussing the matter with the stakeholders involved in the
area, in the current fiscal year of 2006-2007.
The essence of the study
was based on complaints by commuters regarding the taxi service and driver
complaints about route regulators who cause taxi owners unnecessary expenses.
These self appointed route regulators are individuals or groups of people that
assign routes for taxi drivers and charge them from 0.50 Br to two Birr from
each minibus who leaves the taxi station. This, critics say, decreases the
number of shuttles as well as the income of taxis.
“The daily, weekly and
monthly schedule of the taxis routes will be assigned by an association to be
formed,” said an official from the Branch Office. “The new arrangement will
regulate the taxi service to the benefit of both the taxi owners and the
commuters.”
As an industry stakeholder,
Segon Addis Abeba Taxi Owners Association gave its inputs during the study and
the Transport Development Department undertook the responsibility of overseeing
it. Chairman of the Segon Association, Fisseha Mamo, is satisfied with the
study.
“The main problem with the
traffic congestion is rush hour traffic,” he said. “The assigning of routes will
regulate the flow of taxi services and save taxi owners from the unnecessary
expenses of route regulators.”
Route regulators are not
seen as the only problem. The need for regulation was exacerbated with the
recent increase in fuel prices, implemented last August. Some of that cost has
been passed onto the customer. The shortest ride on minibus taxis, for example,
is now 65 cents, up five cents.
And also offsetting the
rise in tariffs, which occurred alongside the fuel price adjustments, the
Federal Transport Authority has given minibuses permission to add one more
passenger in the back row of minibuses.
But even before any study
gets implemented, current regulation, Fortune observed, is lacking for
implementation. All across town in recent weeks, minibus taxis were seen idle
for several hours during the day, usually after lunch time; work breaks that are
not allowed according to regulation.
The reasons for the
illegally idle taxis seem to vary. Taxis in Piassa, for instance, queue so as to
wait for their turn to board customers while those parked in Saris are simply
taking a rest until the midday heat passes.
In the Saris case, drivers
and conductors (weyalas) usually gather together in one of the taxis, and
chew Khat while discussing day-to-day incidents they encountered during
work. But these types of afternoons are not exclusive to only those around
Saris, as most of the city’s taxi stops display similar trend.
In the worst cases, some
take the taxis to where they can find Khat and spend hours there. Last
Thursday afternoon, there were six minibus taxis parked in front of Doro Manekia
Khat sales outlets near Piassa; all drivers were in the back chewing
rooms.
Tariku Abera, who has been
a taxi driver for three years, spends two hours a day from 1:30pm onwards
chewing Khat. The taxi that he drives covers a long route that starts
from Saris Addisu Sefer to Autobus Tera via Kera. According to Tariku, he begins
work at 7am and finishes at 10pm.
He calculates that eight
shuttles cover what he has spent on fuel, the amount that will be given to the
owner of the taxi and payments to the controller and self appointed route
regulators, all of which cost him around 350 Br.
To get these expenses back,
Tariku has set new working hours: he now does four shuttles during rush hours,
which are most profitable.
“I know that my duty is
serving the people but for serving the people I do not want to take a risk of
losing my profit,” he said, claiming that driving a half filled vehicle outside
of rush hour is not affordable anymore.
He admitted of only going
short distances during those hours; longer shuttles are covered before lunchtime
hours and after 3pm. He told Fortune that he is off the road between 1pm
and 3pm.
Hearing of these holes in
service, authorities warned staying idle for too long had serious consequences,
even as far as revoking a license.
Tadesse Tefera, Head of
Transport Development Department under the Addis Abeba Transport Branch Office
of the Federal Transport Authority, wrote in a statement sent to Fortune
that if public service givers failed to provide the service, the office is
obligated to revoke their licenses.
But before the authority
jumped to such decisions, the authority first takes corrective measures he
wrote. First the service givers are fined, only repeat offenders are taken off
the streets.
Enforcement seemed far from
the minds of taxi drivers who had a number of reasons why they were out of
service for large chunks of the day. But Tariku said that since fuel price has
escalated a great deal, a taxi driver should follow the routes assigned by the
self appointed regulators. Making it up as you go along could prove to be
expensive.
Mulgeta Tsegaye, who has
worked as a taxi driver for four years, shared Tariku’s opinion. He said that
previously, he took risks and picked passengers on any street in his path, but
that now, after the fuel price adjustments, he chooses the assignment of routes
by self appointed route regulators. But, unlike some of his colleagues, he
fears getting fined everyday. For him, the cost of a fine would sink his
business.
And
these days, even though most of them have a monthly salary of 300 Br, they do
not take it for granted. Tariku complained that the strict fines for traffic
offences sometimes cost him his entire salary. The lowest fine costs 40 Br while
the highest reaches 140 Br. Maybe regulation then will not end up being such a
bad thing.
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