Taxi

A taxicab (sometimes called taxi, cab, or hack) is a vehicle for hire which conveys passengers between locations of their choice. (In most other modes of public transport, the pick-up and drop-off locations are determined by the service provider, not by the passenger, and are usually less expensive than hiring a taxicab.) Although types of vehicles and methods of regulation, hiring, dispatching, and negotiating payment differ significantly from country to country, some common characteristics exist.

History and etymology

Horse-drawn for-hire hackney carriage services began operating in both Paris and London in the early 17th century. Royal proclamations in both cities regulated the number of carriages--the first example of taxicab regulation. In the 19th century, Hansom cabs largely replaced the older designs because of their improved speed and safety.

Although battery-powered vehicles enjoyed a brief success in Paris, London, and New York in the 1890s, the 1891 invention by German Wilhelm Bruhn of the taximeter (the familiar mechanical and now often electronic device that calculates the fare in most taxis) ushered in the modern taxi. (The "taxi" in "taximeter" is related to the word "tax," or "rate.") The first modern, gas-powered, meter-equipped taxi was the Daimler Victoria, built by Gottlieb Daimler in 1897; the first motorized taxi company began operating in Stuttgart the same year.

Gas-powered, meter-equipped taxis began operating in Paris in 1899, in London in 1903, and in New York in 1907. The New York taxis were imported from France by businessperson Harry N. Allen, who adapted the French word taxi-mètre and coined the word "taxicab" to describe the vehicles he was importing. In time, the shortened term "taxi" came into common usage. (Allen was also the first person to paint his taxis yellow, after learning that yellow is the colour most easily seen from a distance.)

Taxis proliferated around the world in the early 20th century. The first major innovation after the invention of the taximeter occurred in the late 1940s, when two-way radios first appeared in taxicabs. Radios enabled taxis and dispatch offices to communicate and serve customers more efficiently than previous methods, such as using callboxes. The next major innovation occurred in the 1980s, when computer assisted dispatching was first introduced.

There has generally been a legal struggle concerning the certification of motor vehicles to be taxis, which take much more wear than a private car does. In Britain, they were additionally required to meet stringent specifications, for example, as concerns turn radius, which resulted for a time in having only one make legally usable. In the US, in the 1930s the cabs were often DeSotos or Packards. General Motors offered a specialized vehicle for a time, named the General. The firm Checker came into existence then, and went out of business in the 1970s. Its cars were specially built to carry "double dates." But now New York City requires that all taxicabs be ordinary cars. They are usually large Fords. In the 1960s in Europe, Mercedes Benz and Peugeot offered diesel taxicabs. This form of engine is now quite common there.

(Sources: BBC America: Ask a Cabby; The New York City Taxicab Fact Book (2003), p. 22; Today in Science History).

Vehicles

Taxi service is typically provided by automobiles, but various human powered vehicles (such as the rickshaw) and animal powered vehicles (such as the Hansom cab) or even boats (such as water taxis or gondolas) are also used or have been used historically. In Western Europe it is not uncommon for expensive cars such as Mercedes-Benz to be the taxi of choice. Often this decision is based upon the perceived reliability of, and warranty offered with these vehicles. These taxi-service vehicles are often equipped with four-cylinder turbo-diesel engines and low levels of equipment, and are not considered luxury cars. (This often surprises Americans, who are used to seeing only the upmarket trims and associate Mercedes-Benz cars with luxury.)

Taxis in less developed places can be a completely different experience, such as the ancient French cars typically found in Cairo. Taxis differ in other ways as well: London's black cabs have a large compartment beside the driver for storing bags, while many fleets of regular taxis also include wheelchair accessible taxis among their numbers. Although taxis have traditionally been sedans, minivan and even SUV taxis are becoming increasingly common. In many cities, limousines operate as well, usually in competition with taxis and at higher fares.

Livery

Originally, hackney carriage companies were distinguished from each other by their drivers' livery (uniforms) and by the colours of their carriages. For example, at the end of the 19th century in Paris, Compagnie Generale carriages were painted blue, while those of Abeille were painted green ("The Paris Cabman"). During the early years of the twentieth century, private cars were usually black because paints of other colours were not durable. Taxis were the exception, as they would be touched up or worn out. Around the world today, taxi companies are still distinguished by the way their cars are painted.

In North America, many older taxi companies are named according to their paint schemes. Thus, "Yellow Cabs" are painted yellow, Checker Cabs have a distinctive black-and-white or black-and-yellow checkerboard stripe around their bodies, "Blue and White Cabs" might have blue bodies and white roofs, and "Black Top" and "Red Top Cabs" have black and red roofs respectively. In the 1920s, a famous company named "Brown and White" lost a lawsuit to prevent other taxi drivers from painting their cars these colours.

Some localities require their cabs to be particular colors. Mexico City's ubiquitous VW Type 1 (Beetle) cabs are green and white by law.

Taxis of Hong Kong have three colours based on service area. Red for urban Hong Kong, green for New Territories and blue for Lantau Island. The colours are to prevent service imbalance between less densely populated areas and urban centres of the territory.

In a slightly different sense of livery, the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers became a City of London Livery Company in 2004.

Regulation

It is often the case that people in general use the term "taxi" to refer to both the black cab and the minicab. This is incorrect, and when a minicab company uses the word taxi on their livery it can lead to prosecution by the local government body. A cab that cannot be flagged down on the street is known as a private hire vehicle (in North America, a gypsy cab). Both taxis and drivers are regulated to greatly varying degrees in different places, from free-for-all to highly restrictive licensing schemes. In many countries, the number of taxis and the areas where they may operate are strictly controlled by a regulatory body. (Paradoxically, taxis are often most heavily regulated in wealthy, laissez-faire economies--as exemplified by the strict systems in London and New York, which are discussed below.) In such systems, a person must purchase a license or medallion if he or she wishes to own a taxi. In many jurisdictions, both owners and non-owning drivers of taxis are also tested and licensed by the police or the regulatory body. Police checks and more extensive background checks, training courses and chaperones are often used when drivers are asked to deal with special needs customers on a regular basis.

File:TiipMe.jpg

A London black cab with the vanity plate "TIIPME".

Hiring

Taxis are often "hailed" or "flagged" on the street, either by a passenger as a taxi is driving by, or at a taxi stand (sometimes also called a "cab stand" or "hack stand," also "taxi rank" or "cab rank"). Taxi stands are usually located at airports, railway stations, and hotels, as well as at other places where large numbers of passengers are likely to be found. In some places—Japan, for example—taxi stands are arranged according to the size of the taxis, so that large- and small-capacity cabs line up separately. Passengers also commonly call a central dispatch office for taxis. Private Hire vehicles can only be hired from the dispatch office, they have to be given each fare they carry over the radio or from their office. To pick up off the street can lead to suspension and revocation of the driver's taxi license and prosecution. This doesn't always stop it from happening, but people standing at the road side rarely understand why a taxi won't stop for them.

Dispatching

The activity of taxi fleets is usually monitored and controlled by a central office, which provides dispatching, accounting, and human resources services to one or more taxi companies. Taxi owners and drivers usually communicate with the dispatch office through either a 2-way radio or a computer terminal (called a mobile data terminal). Before the innovation of radio dispatch in the 1950s, taxi drivers would use a callbox—a special telephone at a taxi stand—to contact the dispatch office.

When a customer calls for a taxi, a trip is dispatched by either radio or computer to the most suitable cab. The most suitable cab may either be the one closest to the pick-up address (often determined by GPS coordinates nowadays) or the one that was the first to book in to the "zone" surrounding the pickup address. Cabs are sometimes dispatched from their taxi stands; a call to "Top of the 2" means that the first cab in line at stand #2 is supposed to pick someone up.

In offices using radio dispatch, taxi locations are often tracked using magnetic "pegs" on a "board"—a metal sheet with an engraved map of taxi zones. In computerized dispatch, the status of taxis is tracked by the computer system.

Taxi frequencies are generally licensed in duplex pairs. One frequency is used for the dispatcher to talk to the cabs, and a second frequency is used to the cabs to talk back. This means that the drivers generally cannot talk to each other. Some cabs have a CB radio in addition to the company radio so they can speak to each other.

In the United States, there is a Taxicab Radio Service with pairs assigned for this purpose. A taxi company can also be licensed in the Business Radio Service. Business frequencies in the UHF range are also licensed in pairs to allow for repeaters, though taxi companies usually use the pair for duplex communications.

Some companies don't operate their own radio system and instead subscribe to an SMR system. The conventional radios are most suited to companies that operate within the local area and have a high volume of radio traffic. The SMR is more commonly used by black car services that cover a wider area, and smaller companies who use less airtime and don't want to run their own radio systems. Some small car services don't use a dispatcher at all. Instead the customers' calls are forwarded to the cell phones of whichever drivers are on duty at the time.

Fares

For the distance travelled, fares for taxis are usually higher than for other forms of public transport (bus, tram, metro, train). The fare often does not depend on the number of people travelling together in a taxi. Sometimes there is a system where strangers share a taxi and fares are per person. Fares are usually calculated according to a combination of distance and waiting time, and are measured by a taximeter ("meter" for short and the origin of the word "taxi"). Instead of a metered fare, passengers sometimes pay a flat fare. In some countries, when demand is high—for instance, late at night—a taxi will pick up whoever offers the highest fare.

*Inside Japanese taxicab in Kyoto with GPS navigation on board*

Most experienced taxi drivers who have been working in the same city or region for a while would be expected to know the most important streets and places where their customers might want to go. However, to aid the process of manual navigation and the taxi driver's memory (and the customer's as well at times) a cab driver is usually equipped with a detailed roadmap of the area in which they work. There is also an increasing use of GPS driven navigational systems in the more wealthy countries around the world.

International Trade Association

Established in 1917, the Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association (TLPA) is a non-profit trade association of and for the private passenger transportation industry. The membership spans the globe to include 1,100 taxicab companies, executive sedan and limousine services, airport shuttle fleets, non-emergency medical transportation companies, and paratransit services.

Taxis around the world

Germany

In Germany, taxis are a light, pale yellow/beige, with a small cylinder-like "TAXI" sign on the roof of the car. Many of the taxis are Mercedes-Benz E-Class, along with many Volkswagens and Opels. Taxis are either sedans, station wagons, or MPVs. Common station wagon taxis include Opel Astra, Volkswagen Passat, and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. Among the MPVs, Mercedes-Benz B-Class, and Mercedes-Benz V-Class are common. Most taxis are automatic transmission, and some have navigation systems on board. Rates are high; the convinience and high quality of public transportation in most German cities eliminates the necessity for German civilians to use taxis.

Paris

The first horse-drawn forerunners of taxis appeared on Parisian streets in 1637. France was one of the first countries to use modern taxis--that is, gasoline-powered vehicles with fare meters. New York's first taxis were imported from France in 1907, and taxis were famously used for troop transportation during the First Battle of the Marne.

London

Horse-drawn hackney carriages began providing taxi service in the early 17th century. In 1636, the number of carriages was set at 50--an early example of taxicab regulation. In the same year, the owner of 4 hackney carriages established the first taxi stand in The Strand. In the early 19th century, cabriolets ("cabs" for short) replaced the heavier and more cumbersome hackney carriages. Battery-operated taxis appeared briefly at the end of the 19th century, but modern taxi service took off with the appearance of petrol-powered, metered taxis in the early 1900s. Today, taxi service in London is provided by the famous black cabs (the distinctive FX4 depicted in the photo above) and by quasi-legal minicabs. Only black cabs can pick up flag trips on the street, and both black cabs and minicabs are also radio- or computer-dispatched. Black cabs--also known as hackney carriages, or hackney cabs--are particularly famous on account of the specially constructed vehicles and the extensive training course ("The Knowledge") required for fully licensed drivers; unlike many other cities, the number of taxi drivers is not limited. London's cab drivers are even well-known for having developed an especially big hippocampus, a region of the brain where, among other things, information about locations is stored (this is likely the case with many other taxi drivers, as well--not just those of London). (Sources: The History of the Black Taxi; and others.)

United States

In the United States, there is a distinction between medallion taxicabs and livery cars. Medallion taxicabs are allowed to pick up street hails, while livery cars are only allowed to take dispatched calls or make prearranged pickups. Taxicabs are more regulated than livery cars, and usually have their rates set by the city. Most U.S. cities only allow a certain number of medallions, which causes them to become a valuable commodity. When a taxi is called to pick up a fare outside of their area, they are operating as a livery car, because the medallion is only good in the town that issued it. An out-of-town taxi may not pick up street hails.

Although the medallion usually allows the driver to cruise for fares anywhere in the municipality, taxis tend to cruise areas where they receive the most hails, such as the business districts. Thus they can very difficult to find in other areas, which must be served by livery cars.

A livery car that provides local service looks very much like a taxicab, except it does not have a meter or "taxi" light on the roof. Another type of livery service is the "black car", or sedan limo, which tends to primarily serve business customers. These are usually big, black, American-made luxury cars that usually look identical to private vehicles - they typically do not bear their company name or logo. Stretch limousines, even though they are technically considered livery cars, are typically reserved for hours at a time long in advance, and have little in common with taxicabs.

A "jitney" van is a hybrid between a bus and a livery car. Instead of operating point to point, it will pick up and drop off several passengers along an ad-hoc route.

Some corporations run a shuttle bus to transport employees to and from different company locations. These are usually regulated as livery cars, and are not allowed to pick up employees except at the shuttle stops. If they picked up an employee after being hailed, they could be fined for operating a gypsy cab.

A "gypsy cab" is a car that illegally picks up street hails without a medallion. This could refer to an ordinary passenger car, but it usually refers to a livery car that picks up off the curb. Pejoratively, this is sometimes used to refer to all livery cars, for example in New York City.

Often taxi businesses own their own cars, and the drivers are employees of the company. However, cabs can also be owned by separately-incorporated small businesses that subscribe to a dispatch service, in which case the company logo on the door is that of the dispatch association.

A suburban taxi company may operate under several different names serving several adjacent towns. They often provide different phone numbers for each fleet, but they usually all ring into a central dispatch office. They may have subsidiary taxi businesses holding medallions in each town. Taxi companies also may run multiple businesses, such as medallion car services, delivery services, and school buses, for additional revenue, as the infrastructure required for maintaining, operating and dispatching the fleet can be shared.

New York

In New York City, radio dispatching was introduced to that city's famous fleet of yellow taxis in the 1960s. After complaints from customers who would be passed up on the street by taxis on the way to pick up dispatched trips, a new regulation was introduced requiring radio-equipped taxis to not be painted yellow. The city's taxi system is now divided into "medallion taxis"--the familiar, meter-equipped yellow taxis visible in photographs, films, and television programmes, and which are allowed to pick up flagging passengers on the street--and "for-hire vehicles"--including "car services" (conventional taxis) and "black cars" (luxury vehicles)--which provide radio- or computer-dispatched service to calling customers. For-hire vehicles do not have taxi meters, but instead charge fares based on zones, duration, or distance. (Sources: The New York City Taxicab Fact Book (2003), p. 24-26; NYC Taxi & Livery Fact Book Definitions).

Washington, D.C.

The District of Columbia operates on a zone system; the fare is based on the zone the cab starts in when the passenger enters, and the zone the cab is in where the passenger exits, for trips which are entirely within the District. Washington is one of the few large cities in the United States to have taxicabs without meters (another being Fredericksburg, Virginia). Cabs cannot charge for waiting time, and if the trip will not detour more than four blocks in doing so, are permitted to pick up additional passengers while carrying a fare.

For trips which terminate outside of the District, ("Interstate fares") the fare is based on mileage (plus special fees such as the taxi surcharge for trips to Ronald Reagan Airport in Arlington, Virginia, or Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, the two "official" airports of Washington.

The zone system was instituted shortly after World War II when meters were first authorized, when a temporary suspension of the meter system was imposed. (This provides evidence of an error in the motion picture "The Other Side of Midnight" in which the character Kathy is taking a taxicab in Washington, D.C. during the 1930s and states to the driver that if the meter goes over $1.00 she's in trouble, as Washington has never had metered taxicabs.) This temporary suspension of the introduction of meters has been continued for over 50 years. In October 2005, the District began a pilot project that is intended to test of use of meters in DC cabs. The project involves the use of 24 taxicabs that have been outfitted with standard meters. The driver operates the meter during the course of each trip and at trip's end collects the usual zone fare but records both the zone and meter fare for comparative purposes. After 8 months the comparative cost data will be analyzed by universities participating in the project and a "revenue neutral" rate for the transition from the zones to meters will be determined. The goal of the District's project is to determine what meter rate should be used in the initial stage of the transition. The expectation is that an initial transition meter rate will be established that will allow drivers to raise the same amount of revenue under the new system as they did under the old for the same trips. Thus, policymakers can assure both drivers and passengers that, on a global basis, the transition will not have a significant negative impact from the standpoint of fares charged and income generated. The proposed rate must be approved by the District's Taxicab Commission and the City Council before it can take effect.

Hong Kong

Main article: Taxis of Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, there are three types of taxis, painted in different colours, serving different parts of the territory. The most common one, which is painted in red, serves throughout Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Green taxis serve the New Territories and blue taxis serve Lantau Island. Taxis pick up passengers from streets, or by radio-dispatch by phone. Fares are charged according to the distance measured by meters. Surcharges include tolls, luggages and pets.

Seoul

In Seoul, one of the largest cities in the world, taxis are very common everywhere witin the city. There are two major types of taxis in Seoul—an "individual" taxi, which is run by just the driver, instead of a company, and a "model" taxi, which is painted black and is bigger (in size) and much more expensive. For "individual" taxis, there is an extra 20% increase in fare after midnight, but this does not apply to the "model" taxis. Most "individual" taxis are silver or white in color. All Seoul taxicabs are Korean car models, and meter fares start at 1,500 or 1,900 South Korean won (an equivalent of around $1.50 or $1.90). The fares are much cheaper than in major cities in Europe and North America, and no extra fares are charged for luggage. All taxis are labelled in Korean "individual" or "model", and has a half-sphere on top of a half-pyramid attached on the roof and labelled "TAXI".

Glasgow

In Glasgow there are numerous specially decorated taxis that are often covered with advertisements. One of the most abundant advertisements is for the nation's favorite soft drink, Irn-Bru. The taxis are usually in the style of the regular "black cab" type, but are decorated in different colors and patterns.

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