Gasoline price reduction: Passenger transport remains "inactive"

(Baonghean) - Since the beginning of 2014, there have been 20 adjustments (increases, decreases) in retail gasoline prices; of which, from July 18 to October 23, there have been 10 consecutive price reductions. However, passenger transport businesses in the province have been very slow in reducing fares, especially for fixed-route passenger transport, causing confusion among the people.

Taxi fare discountto attract customers

Currently, in Vinh City, there are 9 passenger transport businesses by taxi with a total of more than 1,000 vehicles. The rapid development of this type of transport has created great competition, however, the reduction of taxi fares in businesses is still slow, after many times of adjusting the retail price of gasoline, the fare has only been adjusted once.

Mr. Bui Van Hung - Deputy Director in charge of Van Xuan Taxi business said: "For nearly 2 years now, taxi fares have not changed much, but recently the retail price of gasoline has been adjusted down many times, so on October 15, Van Xuan decided to reduce taxi fares. For 4-seat cars, the opening price was previously 9,000 VND/0.7 km, now it has been reduced to 8,000 VND and then to km 25 it is 10,600 VND/km, then the fare continues to be reduced from km 26 - 100 and from 101 km onwards. Currently, the unit has nearly 300 taxis of all kinds and adjusting the fare like this will reduce revenue by 300 - 400 million VND/month, but this is a necessary thing to share with customers, and at the same time to attract customers...". Mr. Ngo Minh Tuan - Van Xuan taxi driver said: "Because the car is assigned to the driver, he has to fill up the gas himself and during this fare reduction, the company has supported part of the gas money so it does not affect the driver's income."

Mai Linh taxi company reduces fares and publicly posts them on cars.

Vinh Taxi is one of the new taxi passenger transport businesses in Vinh City. It has just entered this field but has quickly attracted customers by adjusting prices in line with the company's criteria of "the cheapest taxi". Currently, Vinh Taxi's opening price is only 7,000 VND/first 0.8km, however, with a total of 70 cars, this unit occupies a small market share in the taxi business market in Vinh City. Some new taxi businesses such as Song Lam, Me Cong... have also boldly invested in new cars with reasonable fares to attract customers.

Obviously, taxis reducing transportation prices not only share the benefits of businesses with customers, in line with the situation of reducing retail gasoline prices, but also play an important role in attracting customers during the current low season of the taxi market. Thus, taxi businesses have "shot 1 arrow and hit 3 targets".

Fixed routeTicket prices are still... fixed?!

While taxis have reduced their prices, fixed-route buses remain "inactive". Mr. Nguyen Van Oanh in Ha Huy Tap Ward - Vinh City complained: "My family has 3 children who all live in Hanoi, so we often travel back and forth on this route and depending on the bus company, the ticket price usually fluctuates from 180,000 to 200,000 VND/person. Recently, although the price of gasoline has decreased many times, the ticket price has not decreased".

Many people are wondering why fixed-route passenger transport businesses have not yet adjusted ticket prices? Mr. Hoang Minh Quan - Head of Price and Public Asset Management Department, Department of Finance affirmed: "According to regulations, when receiving price declaration forms, the Department of Finance will check and review the prices of the declared units and if they are not consistent with reality, they will be required to explain and make appropriate adjustments. After many times of adjusting the retail price of gasoline, but up to now, no unit in the fixed-route passenger transport business has submitted a form to declare a reduction in ticket prices". Thus, it can be seen that fixed-route passenger transport businesses are still... silent, not caring about the interests of customers?!

Nghe An Bus Station Joint Stock Company currently has 80 passenger transport units registered to operate at the station, of which Vinh Bus Station has 48 units (inside and outside the province) including 358 vehicles running 39 trips within the province, outside the province and internationally (an average of nearly 300 trips in and out of Vinh Bus Station each day). This is the place where the largest number of passenger transport vehicles in Nghe An are concentrated, but up to now Vinh Bus Station has not had any units submit a declaration of ticket price reduction. The ticket price list at Vinh Bus Station remains unchanged. Currently, there are 7 units renting counters at Vinh Bus Station to sell tickets directly to customers, namely Tu Tac, Thac Thanh, Duong Hong, Minh Huy, Van Minh, Binh Minh Transport Cooperative, Nghe An Transport Business Service Cooperative, which are publicly listed. When referring to the issue of why fixed-route passenger fares have not decreased, Mr. Phan Huu Man - Chairman of Binh Minh Transport Cooperative said: "For more than a year now, fixed-route passenger fares have not been adjusted to increase, even though gasoline prices have increased very high. A worrying issue now is that supply is higher than demand, more and more units are investing in buying passenger transport vehicles, while people's travel needs have not increased much, so there are routes where there are many extra seats on the vehicles and so if the fares are reduced, there will be losses"...

Nghe An Transport Business Service Cooperative has 113 vehicles running 12 inter-provincial routes and 13 inter-provincial routes, but is also facing difficulties in business because the number of passengers has not increased. The cooperative's ticket prices have not been adjusted since 2012 and are still sold according to the list at the counter. The highest intra-provincial route is Vinh - Ky Son at 120,000 VND/ticket and the lowest is Vinh - Dung at 35,000 VND/ticket. The inter-provincial routes are Vinh - Ho Chi Minh City at 550,000 VND/seat ticket, 750,000 VND/sleeper ticket, Vinh - Hanoi at 150,000 VND/seat ticket, 200,000 VND/sleeper ticket...

Most passenger transport businesses explained: Although the retail price of gasoline has decreased, the ticket price has not been adjusted because the number of passengers is not high, and on the other hand, they have to bear many types of costs... This "silence of the whole village" is destroying the healthy competitiveness of the passenger transport business market and causing public opinion when people have a need to travel. Currently, in the province, there are dozens of passenger transport businesses, including fixed-route cars with 610 vehicles and 2 bus businesses (including 68 vehicles), there are 10 other transport businesses under contract (46 vehicles)... If there is no appropriate adjustment of ticket prices according to the adjustment of gasoline prices during the reduction periods, then the question is that customers have suffered, but how much money do passenger transport businesses "pocket" in 1 day if you add up the amount of fares that should have been reduced?

Faced with the fact that fixed-route passenger transport businesses are “ignoring” fluctuations in gasoline prices, authorities need to further strengthen management and take measures to control the above situation to ensure the legitimate rights of passengers.

Hoang Vinh