Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) announced on Tuesday that it imposed fines on 15,551 taxi drivers and 10,696 taxis over complaints by customers in the first 10 months of 2022. Drivers and vehicles were issued fines of $2,283 (TL 42,560) in total in the same period.
The city’s population grew to over 15 million people in the last decade, fueling taxi demand. Taxis are among the most comfortable way to get around the complex traffic of the city but they are also at the center of complaints. Customers often complain about overcharging and rude drivers and drivers who "choose" customers, opting for moneyed tourists in the city’s tourist attractions while ignoring local customers.
The municipality said it received 63,844 complaints for taxis in the first 10 months of the year and acted upon 28,467 among them in proven cases of rules violation. Complaints include taxi drivers "picking" one customer over another or those refusing to give a ride to short-distance fares.
The municipality is authorized to issue fines and other sanctions to drivers and taxis. In first violation of rules, a taxi driver can be subject to suspension of his/her taxi license for 20 days and, the license can be suspended indefinitely.
On the contrary, drivers assert the municipality acts one-sided while issuing fines, including by accepting videos purportedly showing drivers breaking the rules, which are spread on social media. Eyüp Aksu, who heads a taxi drivers’ association, told Demirören News Agency (DHA) on Wednesday that it was "illegal" to secretly film people. Aksu said it was "unfair" and called the municipality to have the accused drivers' statement before issuing fines.
Aksu made the claim that some passengers "deliberately provoked drivers so that they can record the moment they become aggressive and complain about them to the municipality." "You can film a driver only upon his consent," he asserted. "The municipality should be careful so as not to harm the livelihood of drivers," he said in their defense.
He also claimed a "defamation campaign" was underway against taxi drivers through social media. "Certainly, we have drivers who make mistakes but people should not rush to judgment. The drivers proven to be engaged in a violation of rules should not be forgiven, they should be banned from driving a taxi if necessary," he added. Taxi drivers had staged a demonstration outside the municipality earlier this week to protest what they saw as a "defamation campaign" against them.
Some customers and the municipality believe that limited competition allows drivers to treat passengers unfairly, especially to prefer long-distance fares first. The municipality’s Transportation Coordination Center (UKOME) last week approved a decision to convert 1,803 minibuses and 322 "taxi dolmuş" (a shared taxi confined to operating in some quarters of the city) into regular taxis.