Taxi Management and Supervision Organization, affiliated to Tehran Municipality, has started paying financial aid to cab drivers for repairs and installation of electronic payment system.
According to Mohammad Roshani, the head of TMSO, drivers can seek loans worth 150 million rials ($535) for Samand and Peugeot 405 taxis, and 200 million rials ($714) loans for passenger vans, IMNA reported.
“Taxi drivers must sign up on the organization's website and complete loan application forms with Bank Ayandeh to receive the funding,” he said.
"The scheme has been well received by Tehran cabbies, as 10,000 applications have been received since the registration period began last week."
Roshani noted that the cab drivers' financial situation is a major impediment to taxi restoration and repair.
As a result, the taxis' performance and visual quality suffer, while contributing to the city's air pollution.
"Since the Covid-19 outbreak in February 2020, Tehran residents have been increasingly using e-payment services for taxi fares, with cashless payments increasing 400% compared to pre-Covid times," he added.
This has undoubtedly had a significant impact on limiting the spread of the virus, as cash is potentially one of the most contaminated objects in wide circulation.
However, the official claims that rising demand is at odds with the slow progress of a scheme to equip taxis with cashless payment systems.
"Of the approximately 80,000 taxis in operation in the city, only 25,000 accept e-payment," he added.
Roshani urged the scheme's administrator, TM's Information and Communication Technologies Organization, to expedite the process.
The concept of cashless taxi payment was first proposed in 2011 and has grown significantly in the capital city.
Toman and Phone Pay are local e-payment service providers that help people pay their taxi fare with a cellphone and end the routine hassles between cabbies who ask for change and passengers who never seem to have coins.
Jointly with TM, service providers have tagged cabs with unique QR codes that act as identification signs, the scanning of which directs the user to a payment terminal.
To use the system, a passenger only needs to create an account in one of the three services. The account is a personalized rechargeable wallet with an embedded QR code scanner in the messenger's platform, through which they can pay the cab fare.
In Tehran, shared taxi fares per passenger are between 27,000 rials (10 cents) for a short ride to 240,000 rials (86 cents) for long-distance drives. While both passengers and cabbies prefer round numbers, mandatory prices introduced by the municipality almost always include some change of 2,000 or 5,000 rials that are hard to come by these days.
2,500 Taxis Renovated Since March
Morteza Zameni, the head of Iran Taxi Union, said in September that a total of 2,500 dilapidated urban taxis have been renovated and delivered to applicants since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21).
The official said 3,800 applications have been received in the current Iranian year, 1,300 of which are being processed.
The endeavor is in line with the government's taxi renovation program, which was proposed four years ago in collaboration with ITU, local banks and automakers.
Zameni said 78,655 old taxis have been restored since 2016, of which 11,120 have been scrapped and replaced with new vehicles.
“According to the authorities, vehicles over 10 years old qualify for the renovation scheme. Based on this criteria, currently 192,000 vehicles in the country are eligible for the program and the number will reach 242,000 by the current yearend [March 2022],” he added.
The ITU chief urged the government to allocate loans to taxi owners keen on renovating their vehicles, as taxi drivers cannot afford to buy new vehicles at the current market price.
The sedan called Samand made by Iran Khodro – one of the popular cars in the local taxi fleet – now costs 1.16 billion rials ($4,530), which only cost 370 million rials ($1,320) a couple of years ago.
Another sedan favored by taxi drivers is Peugeot 405. Currently, the CNG-hybrid 405 costs up to 1.24 billion rials ($4,428), while it could be bought for 330 million ($1,178) in 2018.
The cheapest vehicle in Iran today is SAIPA’s Tiba at 1 billion rials ($3,570), up from 220 million rials ($785) some three years ago.
Earlier in May, Tehran Municipality announced its plan to renovate 15,000 decrepit taxis in the current year, in coordination with the Plan and Budget Organization.
According to Manaf Hashemi, Tehran Municipality’s former deputy for traffic and transportation affairs, PBO allocated 200 billion rials ($714,000) to the plan.
Based on the plan, drivers of old taxis are given low-interest loans totaling 900 million rials ($3,200), he added.
