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Monday, April 21, 2008

Pirate taxis getting easier to spot

By Jeremy Schwartz | Monday, April 21, 2008, 10:14 AM

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One of the traditional stresses of living in Mexico City has long been the threat of pirate taxis - unregulated, unregistered cabs that are notorious for being the scene of moving robberies. Nearly everyone here knows someone who has been robbed inside a pirate taxi, often by assailants in cahoots with the driver.

A few months ago, Mexico City authorities unveiled new license plates for legitimate taxis, which should go a long way in putting passengers’ minds at ease. The new plates are highly distinctive, contain a microchip for tracking, and perhaps most importantly, are expensive. The city charged about $600 for the new plates (a good chunk of change in a country where the minimum wage is $6 a day). Re-sale of the plates on the Internet has reached as high as $8,000 since the city stopped selling them.

As a frequent taxi rider myself, the new plates have eased my anxiety a bit. I figure (hopefully not too naively) that criminals won’t pay that much to get access to the plates in hopes of luring unsuspecting passengers. Hordes of pirate taxis still roam the city, but they have become much easier to spot since the new plates came on-line (Previous generations of taxi plates were often stolen and “cloned” making them harder to trust). City police are supposed to impound any pirate taxis they see, but that rarely (if ever) happens.

For those of you planning a trip to the Mexican capital, these are the plates you are looking for (note the colors and the “A” at the beginning - click the pic to make it bigger):

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And these are the pirate taxis to avoid (note the license plate - it’s the same plate used by personal autos):

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