More than 10,000 red taxis won't form alliance,said the authority against the rumor saying that after Shanghai having Blue Alliance,red taxis will also join hands,the Shanghai Morning Post reported today.

It is impossible for red taxis to form alliance,because red taxis mainly belong to dispersed small companies,and taxi authorities were never considered to build such alliance,the authority said.

Since the build-up of the Blue Alliance in September last year,the taxi administration began to lay emphasis on the management of red taxis.They will adopt certain measures to choose the outstanding red taxi companies with better performance,and change its body color,probably into jasmine yellow,so the cars with changed color will become the model of red taxis.The qualification standard will be issued in the third quarter of this year.

The taxi industry in Shanghai has already formed into three patterns,with the first rank including five backbone companies including Johnson,VolksWagon,Jingjiang,Bashi and Agriculture,Industry and Commerce,covering a total of 23,000 operation taxis,or more than half of the total taxi number in Shanghai;the second rank belongs to Blue Alliance with 18companies,and its operation taxis were up to some 7,000,with each company covering 200-1,000taxis;more than 200 small companies with red taxis were included in the third rank,with a total of some 10,000 taxis.

Since 1995,the number of taxi companies has already been reduced from 550 to 300-plus.

(Eastday.com.cn 06/26/2001)