Friday, February 24/2017

Another dispute with Cyprus taxi drivers, loved by no one. They've met with the transport minister. "At the meeting, the two sides discussed long-standing problems faced by urban taxi drivers; taxi licences, piracy, and not enough taxi ranks. Taxi drivers have been striking or threatening to strike over the last few years over these issues." [Cyprus Mail] A bit difficult to sort out. Too many taxi licences but not enough taxi ranks? Taxi rates here are extremely high, given local cost of living, petrol prices, etc. They work very hard at maintaining a monopoly - preventimg shared taxi services, threatening violence to unofficial taxi drivers, etc. Doesn't seem to register that if taxi drivers were more pleasant and taxis were cheaper, more people would take them, and more frequently.