Kuwait Times

Published Date: October 26, 2007
By Ben Garcia, Staff writer

The gradual disappearance of 'orange taxis' known to many in Kuwait as the 'mother of all taxis' has been all too evident since the late 1980s when call taxis started mushrooming all over Kuwait to address the ever growing commuter problem in the country. The status of the orange taxis (licensed, driven and owned only by Kuwaitis) was even more jeopardized when the government granted licenses for the so-called 'roaming taxis' in 2004. While call and roaming taxis are continuously flourishing, the number of
orange taxis on the other hand have been gradually on the decline.

The signature orange color of the taxis was changed in 1977, which prior to that were painted in a black and dark blue combination. After the 1991 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the orange taxis gradually started to cease in existence on the Kuwaiti roads, paving the way for the new born but modern taxi services. Though affected badly, the orange taxis did not totally vanish from the streets but routes were then restricted from their previous operations to just a few areas namely from Kuwait City to Fahaheel, J
ahra, Salmiya and vice versa with an occasional Hawally or Sulaibikhat plied in rare cases.

These orange taxis are known to charge lower fares as compared to the roaming taxis plying nowadays. The reasons, however, are obvious since their services are comparatively similar to those of public transport services where they operate on share-a-cab basis and load and off-load passengers along the way.

They drop passengers only on the main streets unlike the roaming or call taxis which drop customers at their doorsteps. Roaming taxis charge a passenger between 4 to 5 dinars from Kuwait City to Fahaheel, while orange taxis charge sharing passengers only 500 fils along the same route. But in the 1970s, according to an elderly Kuwaiti driver Shuja Al-Otaibi, orange taxi drivers then charged passengers only 50 fils from Kuwait City to Salmiya via Hawally while Fahaheel and Jahra routes cost 150 fils.

Fifty-eight year-old Al-Otaibi reminisced how organized and systematic the orange taxi services were before. "Before, we couldn't drive without a good moral certification issued by the Ministry of Interior and all taxi drivers were essentially Kuwaitis, but now the non-Kuwaiti drivers outnumber us. It was also compulsory for all drivers to be polite to passengers and we couldn't drive orange taxis if we didn't have heavy duty driving licenses," he said. Time and events changed not just the plight of the or
ange taxi drivers but also the economic situation of most of them. Al-Otaibi admitted that many of his co-drivers switched their jobs from taxi drivers to business oriented occupations.

Most of them are now businessmen, leaving a few like Al-Otaibi and his likes with what he described as their 'most valued job and passion.' "I love to serve people through ferrying passengers, I love to do my job as a driver," he beamed.

Al-Otaibi and many of his driver-friends blamed the government for gradually 'killing' the orange taxi services. "The government has not been very helpful to us. They take us for granted while we suffer for their decisions. I along with the rest of the orange taxi drivers complained of the limited access to Kuwaiti roads. We are only allowed access to some specific routes, unlike call taxis. We are being deprived of our rights to survive in an age-old job which we used to do even before many of these drive
rs were even born," he rued.

Al-Otaibi's group also slammed the government's unkept promises. they said that from the 1970s to late 1980s, orange taxi had their own terminus at the Mubarakiya market. But after that it had been handed over to KPTC. "The government promised us a better and more convenient stand for our taxis but it wasn't given to us. Now, we are like a 'bunch of chicks abandoned by mother hen.' We even have to play hide and seek with the police. Sometimes if we park our taxis at the bus terminus, police penalize us," h
e added.

To solve the problem, all drivers got together and agreed to park their taxis at a private parking space, but had to pay a price - 150 fils per hour. "This is just one of the many problems we face here. The petty change which we earn from our job is usually lost after paying unnecessary fines and other payments.