AN online survey conducted by sznews.com showed that nearly 90 percent of respondents say that they have been overcharged by taxi drivers who refused to use taximeters, according to sznews.com.

    A Weibo user complained Thursday that when he took a taxi from Futian Railway Station, the cabbie refused to use the taximeter and tried to multiply the taxi fare by five. He said that the driver had a bad attitude and told him that it’s useless to report a complaint.

    Many netizens left comments under the user’s Weibo post. Some said that these cabbies were overcharging customers because their business had been negatively impacted by app-based cabs and that the demand for taxi service soared during the Spring Festival holiday.

    Other netizens said that these taxi drivers weren’t worried about customer complaints, because they didn’t make much money by driving taxis and they wanted to terminate their contracts with the taxi companies.

    Many netizens also complained that taxi drivers at Shenzhen North Railway Station were doing the same thing to rip off customers and that the situation was even worse.

    An officer with the city’s transport commission said that the case had been handed over to the relevant government departments for further investigation, according to sznews.com.

    The website also conducted an online survey Thursday. About 89.5 percent of the total 326 respondents said that they had been ripped off by taxi drivers who refused to use taximeters.

    Additionally, 82.39 percent of respondents believed that the situation was caused by an insufficient punishment for the violators, while 64.47 percent blamed the drivers’ low professional ethics and 29.87 percent said that the high demand for taxis was the main cause of the situation.

    Another netizen, surnamed Cheng, said that he had tried to take a taxi at Futian Railway Station on Tuesday night and all of the taxi drivers waiting outside the station were soliciting customers for carpooling, but the fares were multiplied several times.

    “I thought I was back in a small town for one second, but I saw the magnificent Civic Center right in front of me and it was so ironic,” he said, adding that there were surveillance cameras all around the railway station so the city’s transport commission’s officers could easily identify the drivers if they wanted to.

    “The government should reinforce the management of taxis and impose severe punishments for irregularities,” Cheng said.

    (Zhang Yang)