By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter

Residents may feel there are not enough taxis on the country’s roads, but cab drivers think otherwise.
A section of cabbies has argued that there are more taxis than required, at least this time of the year. Interestingly, visits to some key locations in Doha and its neighbourhing areas suggest that the drivers’ contention is not entirely without merit.
To corroborate their claim, some drivers whom Gulf Times met near Doha Bus Station (DBS) suggested that one should count the number of trips made by each taxi parked on the adjoining ground. In about an hour, only two or three of the nearly 30 taxis parked there were seen taking customers from the area, considered one of the most sought-after locations by many cabbies.
A driver with one of the Karwa franchisees operating from the DBS area said most of the taxis parked there did not get adequate customers from 3pm to 7pm and late in the evening these days.
At least half-a-dozen taxi drivers in the same location claimed that the city had more taxis than what was required during this season. Some of them also said illegal taxis were affecting their business even in places from where they operated in large numbers.
Speaking to this newspaper, at least two drivers of one of the Karwa franchisees said it was becoming very difficult for most of them to reach even their daily target of QR235 these days.
One driver said he had to give the company more than QR70 from his pocket the previous day as he was on a 24-hour “on and off” contract, which stipulated that QR9,000 be paid to the firm per month. While conceding that he made an additional QR180 on the day some drivers of a franchisee went on a “flash strike” last week, the cabbie said such occasions were rare.
The country has approximately 3,000 taxis, of which 15-20% is off the roads at present, enquiries have revealed. The lack of business, according to a Karwa official, is because a large number of Qatar’s residents are away on vacation and things will improve by the third week of next month.
Meanwhile, illegal operators are eating into the business of regular cabbies even at Doha International Airport, it is learnt. Despite a police crackdown on them sometime ago, illegal taxis are reportedly back to being a common sight outside the terminal. “Such people are making our lives difficult and we cannot make enough money due to their operations,” a Karwa driver said.
When reached for comments, a senior official of a Karwa franchisee recently said most drivers who complained of their inability to reach the daily target were not heeding the company’s advice to join as salaried staff.
“Had those drivers been on our payroll, we would have instructed them to operate their vehicles in areas with a high demand for taxis,” he said, adding that it was the drivers’ decision to operate from places of their choice. “So, they cannot complain about dearth of customers.”
He, however, agreed to a certain extent that unless they operated their vehicles as “sharing” taxis on some routes, several drivers would not be in a position to reach the daily target fixed by their company.
It was found at some locations that drivers were only keen on long-distance journeys on a “sharing” basis, carrying three or four different customers at one time. In the process, they would waste a lot of time waiting for passengers.
The problem, according to some, is not the availability of taxis but their distribution. While commuters find more-than-adequate taxis in some localities at times, there are other places where people have to wait for long to get a cab, particularly in the morning.