The City of Cape Town says it is working closely with e-hailing platforms, e-hailing operators and their associations in an effort to lift the temporary prohibition on applications for operating licences.
In February 2021, the City of Cape Town imposed a moratorium on the metered-taxi operating licences, with the intention to ensure the long-term sustainability of the industry.
This, after the provincial government was concerned about an over-supply of metered-taxis in the city. Since 2015, the number of metered-taxi operating licences increased from a mere 685 to 4 300 operating licences by January 2021.
The metered-taxi industry includes vehicle drivers operating from a rank, base or an e-hailing platform.
The moratorium was imposed to allow the city to undertake an inventory of all metered-taxi operating licences in the system and develop a model to determine the demand for metered-taxi services which will govern support for new metered-taxi operating licences in future, it says.
The announcement comes after the members of the Western Cape E-hailing Association yesterday delivered a memorandum of grievances and demands to the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility, councillor Rob Quintas.
In a statement, Quintas notes the city will lift the current moratorium on applications for new operating licences within the next few months – well ahead of the original planned date of December 2023.
“I have informed the leadership of the Western Cape E-hailing Association that the city is making a huge effort to gather the data we need to determine the demand for and supply of e-hailing services in Cape Town. Once this data has been compiled and analysed, we will be able to determine how many operating licences are needed,” he says.
According to Quintas, the moratorium does not prevent new e-hailing platform providers to establish businesses in Cape Town, and metered-taxi drivers who are already in possession of operating licences are still able to sign up or join any new e-hailing platforms, if they so wish.
The city is aiming to conclude this process within the end of the first quarter of 2023 at the latest, he adds.
The Western Cape E-Hailing Association is being urged to participate in the survey that will be conducted for developing the metered-taxi service demand method.
According to the city, this survey will resume soon and more information will be made available in due course.
“I encourage commuters who make use of metered taxis and e-hailing services, the e-hailing operators as well as the e-hailing platforms, to work with the city to gather as much data as possible on how their services are used.
“I also request e-hailing platforms to make all existing data available to the city. The data we receive and gather will guide us in making an informed decision about the number of licences that can be supported, or whether the market is saturated. The more data we can get, the better.”
The e-hailing associations have been advised to also use this platform to raise concerns within the industry, and propose possible solutions.
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