After whittling down the number of Yangon’s bus-lines last month, the Yangon regional government has unregistered taxis in its sights as part of efforts to decongest Yangon’s city streets.
To curtail the increasing numbers of unregistered taxis in Yangon, the regional government is eyeing at a two-pronged approach that would see the creation of a central system to operate taxis and the introduction of ride-hailing app Uber to Yangon, according to a chief minister.
“We have met with the Southeast Asian Uber Company and learned that since we do not have a systematic taxi association, unlike other countries whose taxi association protested the Uber system, we have a chance to implement an Uber system in Myanmar,” said Phyo Min Thein, Yangon chief minister.
Uber’s Asia Pacific branch told Myanmar Business Today they had “nothing to announce at this time” about the possibility of them entering Myanmar.
Uber has sparked protests in major cities such as London, Paris and San Francisco where taxi drivers say the app bypasses laws and licensing and amounts to unfair competition.
The Yangon Government doesn’t yet have the official number of taxis operating in the Yangon region but there are thought to be over 50,000 legal and illegal taxis in operation contributing to the city’s crippling peak hour traffic jams.
Official taxis are required to display special number plates but increasingly, private cars acting as unofficial taxis can be seen on the streets of Yangon as taxi licensing rules go unenforced.
“Some taxis will be turned into private cars if they are deemed unnecessary,” said Phyo Min Thein. Uber could be an employment option for those driving unofficial taxis, he added.
Source: Myanmar Business Today
To learn more about the challenge the Uber and Grab will face in the Myanmar market go to https://consult-myanmar.com/2017/08/14/the-road-to-taxi-reform-can-ride-hailing-apps-help-fix-the-market/
