Cuban taxis take cars off road after gov’t lowers fares

Global Business

Cuban authorities have ordered private, fixed route taxi drivers in Havana to lower their fares, a move has led some drivers to take their cars off the road.

CGTN’s Michael Voss reports.

The average basic fare was 10 pesos, slightly less than half a dollar. The government, though, decided that with average state salaries the equivalent of around 25 dollars a month, this was too expensive.

In order to protect those on low incomes, the authorities ordered the fare be cut in half.

In response, some drivers have stopped working while others don’t want to accept the new lower fares.

Passengers are not happy, but drivers argue the new prices don’t cover costs.

There are around 75,000 privately run shared taxis in Havana. It’s a hop-on hop-off service along fixed routes with passengers filling both the front and back seats.