Hong Kong insurers want devices in taxis to monitor bad driving, slash accident rates, before premiums can come down
- Database of traffic offences can help to weed out bad drivers, insurance body says
- Operators willing to install more safety devices in vehicles, but call for government subsidies
Hong Kong’s taxi operators will have more bargaining power to deal with skyrocketing premiums if they fix drivers’ bad habits and slash the number of road accidents, the head of a leading insurance industry body has said.
Selina Lau Pui-ling, CEO of the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers, suggested installing electronic devices in taxis to track cabbies’ behaviour on the road, and having a central database of their traffic offences to weed out the bad ones.
“To tackle the soaring premiums for taxis, everybody should take a step to address this issue,” she told the Post. “The government should enact a law requiring taxis to be compulsorily equipped with safety devices and provide the operators some subsidies to do so.”
Unhappy operators have been pressing the government to either allow them to charge passengers an extra HK$6 per trip as an insurance surcharge, or approve their request to raise fares by more than 20 per cent.
