Striking cab drivers protested for a third day Wednesday in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, demanding more benefits even though the government has pledged to hike fares.

Local residents pass by taxis parked along a street on Monday. The drivers of the cabs have gone on strike over rising gasoline prices and road congestion in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/China Daily]

Cab drivers said they had planned to strike for three consecutive days and would continue to gather at five different downtown areas Wednesday to air their grievances.

The strike started rush hours Monday morning. About 1,500 striking cabbies, mostly from central Henan Province, have continued to voice their complaints about skyrocketing food, gasoline and housing prices, and unchanged cab fares.

In response, the city government pledged to hike cab fares by the end of October and provide cab drivers temporary subsidies. According to the new polices, cabbies will receive a one-yuan (0.16 U.S. dollar) subsidy for each trip, starting next Monday.

Cab drivers have welcomed the new polices, although some of them said the cab fares should have been raised long before and the one-yuan subsidy was too small.

"Those measures are only temporary. They (the government and cab companies) should do more and improve their polices to resolve the problem fundamentally," said a representative of the striking cabbies who would only give his surname, Chen.

"The cab companies must buy endowment insurance for every driver, and set up trade unions whose members should be all elected by ourselves," he said.

Other demands mainly include lowering the cab rental fees paid to the companies, adjusting cab fares during wait time and allowing cabbies to rent low-rent public houses, Chen said.

Local authorities have said they would consider the demands of the cab drivers.

Hangzhou, which is famous for its scenic spots like the picturesque West Lake, has nearly 9,000 cabs.

China has seen a number of cab strikes across the country due to gas price hikes and worsening traffic jams over the past two years. The latest one on June 27 was in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, where nearly 200 drivers aired their complaints about the unfair recall of their operator's licenses by a local cab company.