Bucharest Cabbies Scrap Fare Hike Plans On Lower Business

Cab companies said business started declining this autumn, as people became more and more concerned with the international financial crisis that is making its way into the country.

"The number of orders decreased 10-15% this autumn. That’s why we’ve scrapped plans to raise fares to over RON2 per kilometer by the end of the year," Ilie Anghel, owner of Cristaxi and Confort Taxi, which have over 850 cabs, told MEDIAFAX.

The oldest cab company in Bucharest, Cobalcescu, which operates 800 cars, also saw a drop of over 10% in business recently.

"The fact that we get fewer calls is explained by people’s reticence to overspend in this period. Regular customers haven’t cut back on cab rides, just occasional ones," said Giusepe Bacaliaro, manager of the Taxi division at Cobalcescu.

The company had also planned to raise the fare from the current RON1.95 to over RON2 per kilometer.

"We can’t afford to raise prices in the upcoming period, but we can’t speak of lowering them either,” Bacaliaro added.

However, Meridian Taxi, which operates over 1,100 cars, is considering charging lower fares.

"If we have to, we’ll even lower prices, but that would be suicide because we wouldn’t be able to cover our costs. In the meantime, we haven’t raised our fare to RON2.1 per kilometer that we had planned for October,” Lucian Marin, executive manager at Meridian Taxi, told MEDIAFAX.

He added Meridian Taxi’s business also declined 10% in recent months. Marin also said January and February 2009 will be critical for the cab industry.

"There will be companies that will go bankrupt at that time. These have always been rough months, but given the current circumstances, they might prove disastrous. Car part prices have increased in recent months, leasing installments have gone up as well. If we, for instance, paid EUR200,000 in leasing installments in August, we had to pay up to EUR230,000 in October," Marin said.

According to data provided by companies in the industry, Romania has about 30,000 cabs, of which more than 9,500 are in Bucharest.