Ordinary Gweilo

One of the more intriguing sights in Hong Kong is a taxi equipped with an array of mobile phones.  The driver then has a Bluetooth headset in each ear, or a collection of earpieces ready to plug in as required, so that he can answer any of his phones.

These are the people you call if you want a taxi and prefer to have a discount rather than paying a surcharge.  With the cost of both phones and mobile subscriptions so low, it is possible to set up this type of system quite cheaply, and there is no overhead of an office or staff to answer the phones.  If someone requests a taxi, the driver will use another mobile phone to find a driver who is available.

You might think that this type of free enterprise would be applauded, but technically it is illegal, and the people who do it are described as “gangs” by the SCMP.  Thousands of Hong Kong people are only too happy to use the service, and you might think that in the world’s freest economy this type of free enterprise would be applauded, but if you live here for long you soon discover that isn’t quite how things work…