Taxi drivers, Kakao agree to allow carpools during commute hours

Mar 08, 2019, 08:25 am

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A joint social dialogue group involving the ruling party, the government and the taxi and carpooling service sectors agreed to allow carpools during commute hours on March 7, 2019./ Photographed by Song Eui-joo (songuijoo@)

By AsiaToday reporter Lim Yoo-jin

A joint discussion body comprised of government officials, ruling party lawmakers and representatives from the taxi and carpool sectors on Thursday reached a final agreement on allowance of carpooling services and introduction of monthly pay system. They also agreed to launch a regulation-innovative platform taxi in the first half of this year, and implement a monthly salary system based on working hours in order to improve working conditions for taxi drivers.

Democratic Party Rep. Jeon Hyun-hee, the head of a carpool and taxi task force, and taxi industry officials announced the agreement at the parliament. It has been 45 days since the launch of the dialogue committee.

Under the agreement, carpooling services will be permitted from 7-9 a.m. and 6-8 p.m., while weekends and holidays will be exclude. In order to improve working conditions for taxi drivers, they agreed to adopt a monthly pay system.

Participants in the dialogue body also agreed to seek deregulation in the taxi industry. In order to do so, they plan to regulation launch regulation-innovative platform taxi to promote coexistence of taxi industry and shared economy.

They decided to seek ways to reduce the number of private taxis driven by super-aged drivers for the sake of national security. The taxi industry pledged to improve the quality of transportation services by eradicating refusal of passengers and providing friendly service to passengers.

“We plan to immediately set up a working-level discussion body involving the government and the ruling party to implement the agreement,” Jeon said. “The taxi industry will cooperate for normalization as well,” she said. “It was a difficult process since I had to meet officials from the taxi and platform sectors for more than 150 times and persuade them. But eventually we reached an agreement.”

With the dramatic settlement, the National Assembly plans to focus on passing relevant bills pending during the provisional session of the National Assembly scheduled in March. “In order to implement the agreement, we will make efforts to pass the relevant legislation, which is either pending or to be proposed, at the provisional session of the National Assembly in March,” Jeon said.

The agreement was signed by representatives of four taxi organizations, including Korea National Joint Conference of taxi Association and Korean Taxi Workers’ Union; Jeon Hyun-hee, the head of a carpool and taxi task force; Kakao Mobility, the operator of the country’s largest taxi-hailing app; and officials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

#taxi #carpool #Kakao #Jeon Hyun-hee #National Assembly