Bald & Not Beautiful – Taxing times for Taxi drivers

In order to give a ‘face’lift to the city’s cabs, government officials in the Chinese city of Nanjing are clamping down on cabbies who are bald, have long hair / goatees etc. Not many cab drivers will be able to comply to these conditions. If the clamp down on the refusal to pick up passengers is implemented in Chennai, 80 – 90% of the auto drivers would be suspended for 15 days. This would help a lot as there will be less traffic in the roads. If IA/AI adopt similar fashion conscious policies some of the senior cabin crew will be out of jobs.

In a bid to spruce up the city's image, authorities in China's Nanjing are banning taxi drivers who are bald, wear their hair too long, have moustaches or wear too much make-up, media said on Tuesday. The new rules are part of a 10-point plan to smarten up Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu province, ahead of October's 10th National Games.

"Male taxi drivers cannot have long hair or strange hairstyles, cannot be bald and cannot grow moustaches or goatees," the report said.

"Women drivers must not use too much make-up and should wear appropriate clothes."

The report did not mention penalties for drivers that break the rules, but did say that cabbies who refused to pick up passengers could be kept off the streets for up to 15 days. The rules are part of a 10-point guideline which also encourage cab drivers to not take intentionally longer routes, stop in illegal areas and smoke in the taxis.