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Mercedes-Benz taxis await holiday travellers
By Shao Xiaoyi (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-01 06:08

HANGZHOU: What do you do with 40 Mercedes-Benz taxis that no one seems to want to hire?

With the week-long National Day holiday starting Saturday, drivers of two local taxi companies in Hangzhou, the capital of East China's Zhejiang Province, just hope their business gets better than it has been since the luxury cars went into service in February.

The Hangzhou Foreign Affairs and Tourism Taxi Company and the Sifang Passenger Transport Company, which won bids from the city government to run the service, have already lowered fares by 10 per cent on the cars.

But soaring crude oil prices, and higher maintenance costs and rental fees are preventing luxury car drivers from making decent profits.

"We have to find a way to make up for our losses," said a manager from one of the companies who was quoted anonymously by Xinhuanet.

"If the cars can be rented out during the holiday, we will lose less. Right now, we have to pay tens of thousands of yuan in interest rates for the cars."

So far, another 60 Mercedes-Benz taxis are staying in the garages of the taxi companies, with no one showing any interest.

The city government bought the cars and introduced them to the taxi market to try to upgrade Hangzhou's image. But even after a 10 per cent discount, the rental fee of 12 yuan (US$1.47) for the first 4 kilometres is 20 per cent higher than that of other taxis.
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