Most taxi’s in Shanghai are Volkswagen Santana’s, with an occasional Passat thrown in. But since early 2005 Dazhong taxi also introduced light blue Mercedes-Benz E-class taxi’s. They are quite popular, because they are the same price as the old Santana’s. But that low price may mean that soon the Mercedes taxi era will be over in Shanghai. Yesterday the Shanghai Daily already mentioned that there were rumours among taxi drivers that Dazhong taxi would discontinue its Mercedes-Benz taxi fleet. And today they write that this is indeed true: out of 100 MB taxi’s 45 will be discarded soon.
The reason? Mainly the fact that the company is not allowed to charge higher fees for luxury cabs. The operating costs of a Mercedes is of course much higher than a Santana (not only the depreciation, but also gas, repair and spare parts). I would not mind to pay double or triple the price for a decent taxi, but it is just not allowed in China. Therefore many MB taxi drivers refuse to take people on short rides (they earn less on those), and try to get rides to the airport or other cities for fixed prices.
According to the article another reason is that it is quite difficult to get spare parts on time, because they have to be imported from Germany. I wonder if this is really true. I am quite sure many spart parts are on stock at dealers, especially because the E-class is now produced in Beijing as well.
Taxi’s in China normally have anti-robbery plastic boards, roof taxi lights and seat covers. But many customers asked the drivers to take these off, so it looks like they are not using a cab, but their own luxury car! Because drivers are not allowed to do this this often led to disputes and complaints. As all the taxi’s are light blue and there are no other light blue Mercedes E-class cars in Shanghai, it is quite obvious that these customers are riding a taxi. But they seem to forget that in their efforts to gain face by showing off.
So what will happen to these 45 discarded taxi’s? Nobody knows yet. But if you are looking for a well-maintained, but heavily used, second-hand Mercedes-Benz you might want to give Dazhong taxi a call.
(See also an earlier blog post about a similar problem in Hangzhou, where Mercedes taxi drivers literally kidnapped their taxi’s because they lost money on them)