时下在北京，“打车难”已经成为公众关注的焦点：早晚高峰，一车难求，节假日出租车告急，雨雪天，更是千呼万唤不出来。但是对于“打车难”，乘客、出租车司机、出租车公司各有说法。

Reporter:
Getting a taxi—especially at peak times or in busy places—has become extremely difficult in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, as taxi drivers often refuse passengers based on their destinations under the pretense of shift relief.

"I've been waiting for almost an hour. Several taxis are empty, but they have refused to take me. They even didn't stop."

"I've been waiting for more than 20 minutes. Actually, I live in the nearby community, I walk here for another 10 minutes because there will be more taxis around subway stations."

Xidan, Zhongguancun, Wangfujing, Guomao and many other places in Beijing are spots where getting a taxi is very difficult during peak times. An empty taxi arrives, several people swarm around it, and one lucky dog manages to get in, leaving others in the cold wind. Passengers say that such tussling for taxis is sometimes inevitable.

"So many times I have had to tussle with other people. I'm out of luck today because the taxi didn't stop right beside me. Otherwise, I could have gotten in immediately. If you don't move quickly, you won't get a taxi."

Passengers say that fewer taxis are operating at peak times. What's worse, many cabbies are refusing to take them if they want to go somewhere where the driver will likely encounter a traffic jam.

"Three taxis parked right there just now, and none of them want to go to my destination. I don't know the reason."

One Beijing cabby who has driven a taxi for more than 20 years says that driver refusals are very common.

"At present, passenger refusals by cabbies are widespread. Basically, every taxi driver refuses three passengers at least every day."

Ninety-two percent of about 80,000 netizens polled in an online survey said they had been refused by taxi drivers at least once. In fact, some cabbies say it is normal to occasionally refuse passengers.

"Why shouldn't we refuse passengers? We have to do so if their destinations are not on our way."

Many cabbies choose shift relief during peak travel times. This is why there are usually fewer taxis available during morning and evening rush hours than at other times. Although relevant government departments issued a regulation in April, which prohibits taxi drivers from going off duty during peak travel hours, many taxi companies are not enforcing it.

Tian Dongsheng, Vice General Manager of Beijing Yin Jian Taxi Company, has this to say.

"We put much more effort into publicizing this regulation. But frankly speaking, we can't fire the drivers because they change shifts during peak times."

While passengers complain, cabbies say they have their own difficulties. Bad traffic conditions along with rising car rental fees and gas prices make it harder for them to earn a decent living. Many drivers must work more than 12 hours a day. Some of them are on the road for as many as 16 hours a day.

One Beijing taxi driver talks about his daily work.

"We drive 10 hours a day to earn money to cover the expenses of fixing the car, the rental fee and fuel charges. The money we earn in the remaining two hours is for us. Normally, we can earn 40 yuan in one hour. Therefore, we can only make ends meet when there are no traffic jams during those 10 hours."

While the price of gasoline has been rising rapidly, taxi fares in most major cities have experienced slight changes over recent years. As taxi drivers' earnings have dropped, they are trying to make up for the loss by being more selective about who they pick up and where they take them.

For CRI, I'm He Fei.

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