Seoul Extends Support for Taxi Card Payment Fees Until Next Year

Small Card Payment Fees for Taxi Fares: 5,000 KRW or Less During Daytime, 8,000 KRW or Less at Night

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 24th that it will extend the support period for taxi fare card payment fees until the end of 2023 to ease the burden on the taxi industry, which is experiencing business difficulties due to COVID-19.

When taxi fares are small amounts, the per-transaction card payment fees charged to individual taxi drivers or corporate taxis are compensated. The card payment fee rate is 1.6% for corporate taxis, and for individual taxis, the fee rate has been reduced from the previous 1.1% to 0.88% or less from February, applying a small business discount.

Seoul City expects that by supporting card payment fees for small fares of up to 5,000 won during the day and 8,000 won at night, it will alleviate the reluctance of taxi drivers to operate short-distance trips, and the taxi industry will save about 5.9 billion won in costs.

As non-face-to-face payments have become preferred due to infectious diseases, card payments have been activated, and the card payment rate for taxi fares has increased significantly to 85.2%, increasing difficulties due to the rising fee burden. In particular, the corporate taxi industry is experiencing severe business difficulties, such as a decrease of 830 billion won in transportation revenue due to COVID-19, a reduction of 9,400 corporate taxi drivers, and a record low operating rate of 30%, making support measures to reduce the burden urgently needed.

Meanwhile, the city is also preparing various measures to support taxi drivers. It promulgated the ‘Partial Amendment to the Seoul City Taxi Basic Ordinance’ to broadly establish the basis for revitalizing the taxi industry and providing financial support to the industry. In addition, it plans to simultaneously promote improvements in treatment, such as support for card payment and operation information communication fees, and the establishment of a 112 automatic reporting system for a safe driving environment.

Baek Ho, Director of Urban Transportation, said, “As the difficulties of transportation workers are severe due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, we will strive to continuously prepare support measures so that the burden on the taxi industry is reduced and the convenience of citizens is promoted.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.