As the government presses ahead with plans to replace the country's taxis, the taxi drivers themselves are becoming increasingly unhappy with the scheme, as Mai Samih explains Egyptian taxi drivers demonstrated last month in front of the Ministry of Finance building and the National Council for Human Rights in Cairo against problems with the second phase of the government's plans to replace all the country's taxis with newer, more fuel-efficient cars. Companies involved in the scheme under its first phase, introduced in 2009, have now withdrawn from aspects of the scheme, taking their financial subsidies with them, and this has led to the taxi drivers' demonstrations. Arguments between passengers and the city's taxi drivers have become part of many people's daily routine, but perhaps not everyone realises the challenges faced by the city's drivers. Doaa Samir, a university graduate, had no problem with Cairo's familiar white-and-black taxis, though, she says "the new taxis are cleaner, faster and cheaper than the old ones. However, I still have problems with the new meters." "Whenever I take a taxi ride, I find that the counter with the image of the green horse seems to go faster than the other, digital one, and I end up paying more than I usually pay for the same journey. What I really can't stand about the new meters is that they don't stop when you are stuck in traffic, making you pay double in some cases." "Nevertheless, I feel much more comfortable with the new system, now that you don't always have to bargain with the taxi driver about what to pay for the ride. I don't even bother stopping an old black-and-white taxi anymore," she said. Complaints about Cairo taxi meters, or the lack of them, are nothing new, and one official who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity said that whether or not a driver would be sanctioned for what he charges depended on whether the meter was working or not. According to Article 70 of the relevant law, any taxi driver found not using a meter risks having his licence withdrawn, together with a fine of between LE300 and LE1,500. Should the meter be found to be out of order on inspection, the driver could have his licence taken away for two months, and a car cannot be used for taxi purposes without a functioning meter. However, the problems are not all on the passengers' side. Sayed Desouqi, who rents one of the new white taxis, summarises the problems faced by his fellow drivers by pointing out that "the car I work with uses LE900 worth of petrol a month." Since Desouqi works on night shifts and earns around LE800 a month, his earnings do not even cover what he needs to spend to drive the car. "We also have to pay LE3,000 a month just to rent the car. The problem is that it is extremely expensive to run a car in Egypt now. Spare parts and maintenance are both very expensive, and if you cut corners with either of them you risk losing your licence." According to a statement from the Ministry of Finance in 2009, the new taxis, often manufactured in Egypt, benefit from a discount of 30 per cent on spare parts, and drivers could expect further reductions by using approved maintenance centres. All this has come on the back of a plan, announced in March 2009 by Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali, to replace all Egypt's old black-and-white taxis, in many cases manufactured 30 years ago, with new ones. The aim of the project is to reduce pollution, as well as to enhance the incomes and status of taxi drivers. According to the ministry, under the plan some 35,000 older cars would be replaced by new ones. Ghali said that the new cars would be exempted from customs duties and sales tax, sometimes as much as between LE7,000 and LE13,000 depending on the make of car. Advertising agencies would be awarded concessions for advertising on Egypt's taxis, the minister said, in return for payments to drivers. These could take the form of insurance payments, or additional payments that could amount to as much as LE1,200 to 2,000 a year. Under the plan, drivers would be encouraged to exchange their old black-and- white cars for new white ones. Each driver would receive a one-off payment of LE5,000 for his old car, following approval from the Ministry of Interior. This money would then be put towards a loan for a new car, organised by the banks in cooperation with the companies running the new white-car franchises. Even with the paperwork, the whole exchange process was only supposed to take around 10 days, with the taxi driver then being the proud possessor of a brand new, fuel and pollution-efficient car. He would then pay back the money advanced to him by the banks under the scheme on a monthly basis. Under the plan, two basic repayment schemes were envisaged. Under the first, a driver would make a monthly payment of LE1,430 on a car worth some LE72,000. Under the second, the figure would be LE620 a month on a car worth LE45,000. The project started with the participation of three banks and five companies. By May 2010, 3,000 taxi drivers had signed up under the project, and by August 2010 some 26,500 cars had been replaced as part of the project's first phase. A second phase was then announced, under which a further 50,000 cars would be replaced in governorates outside Cairo. By November last year, some 33,000 drivers had signed up to the project. However, there have been problems. In February 2010, drivers protested at the taxi companies' decision to stop paying the LE100 they had promised for drivers carrying advertising on their cars. Under the scheme, drivers were also supposed to use petrol supplied by the government at regulated prices, but this turned out to be more expensive than the petrol available on the regular market. In May, Deputy Minister of Finance Nabil Rashdan said that drivers participating in the project's second phase would have the same benefits as those who had signed up for the first. A ministry press release explained that the second phase had begun on 15 April, but that the advertising payments made under the first phase would now be discontinued, since the market could not absorb the extra capacity represented by thousands more cars. In November last year, a Ministry of Finance statement said that the operators of the new cars would benefit from a 40 per cent discount on spare parts. The banks responsible for managing the scheme would decrease interest rates on the loans to six per cent, and pay-back periods could be extended to six or seven years from the initial five. The ministry also made an agreement with the insurance companies to decrease insurance premiums on the new cars. However, real problems with the scheme emerged in December, when the companies responsible apparently withdrew from some of their financial responsibilities, leaving drivers to face the burden alone and leading to the demonstrations. According to Desouqi, the scheme has been a bitter disappointment. "The insurance companies have now refused to keep their side of the bargain, meaning that a driver who used to have an old car and who has now exchanged it for a new one finds himself paying up to LE1,500 under the second phase of the project, while a driver who joined under the project's first phase only pays LE700. This is scarcely fair." For Samir, this represents a significant financial burden for drivers. "Paying over LE1,000 is too much for drivers to bear. There are a lot of taxis out there, and they may not all be able to support these costs if the companies are not there to help them." For Desouqi, any solution will have to involve lifting the financial burden off drivers. "The problem is that the instalments are too high. Spare parts are too expensive. We used to be able to get our cars fixed by regular mechanics, which was much cheaper, but now there is the obligation to go to approved centres." There should be more car-repair centres and fewer financial obligations on drivers, he concludes.
