250 Tour Buses Surround Transportation Ministry Building in Protest, Ending Peacefully

250 Tour Buses Surround Transportation Ministry Building in Protest, Ending Peacefully

Source: United Daily News

August 26, 2016

Following the tour bus fire tragedy which resulted in the deaths of all 26 on board, including 24 Mainland tourists from Liaoning on July 19, media outlets reported that tour bus companies in Taiwan were using body-on-chassis buses, i.e. the bodies of the vehicles are manufactured locally with the chassis and the rest of the vehicles imported to cut down on costs. In face of media vilification of “makeshift tour buses” and the decline in the number of Mainland tourists visiting Taiwan, the New Taipei City Tour Bus Drivers Union yesterday mobilized 250 buses and 400 people to surround the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) building in protest, blocking the main thoroughfare leading to the Presidential Palace. Some of the protestors even stormed the MOTC building and almost succeeded in barging into the MOTC Minister’s office. 

The three-hour protest ended when the protestors reached several agreements with the MOTC. Li Shih-chia (李式嘉), the president of the New Taipei City Tour Bus Drivers Union, stated that the MOTC pledged that it would invite people involved in the tour bus industry to discuss amendments to relevant legislation and regulations in the future. In other words, “we will be granted our say in the government’s decision-making process,” said Li. The MOTC also explained that Minister Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) had clarified in the Legislative Yuan that tour buses in Taiwan were “assembled tour buses” rather than “makeshift” ones, and the body was properly tested, so the Minister, in fact, did not sit idly by as the media vilified the tour bus industry. The protesters demanded that the government lift restrictions on the buses’ age limit and the requirement to show drivers’ names on the rear of the buses. In response, the MOTC pledged to convene a meeting to discuss these issues within a week.

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