Taxi Companies Research Articles

A data driven approach to assessing the reliability of using taxicab as probes for Real-Time route selections

Taxi service is one of the most important modes for urban transportation. In recent years, many taxi companies have been routinely collecting data to track the movement of each taxi for improving security, coordination, and service performance. This paper is intended to use the GPS vehicle positioning data to assess the route choice behavior of taxi drivers and explore if the routes selected by taxi drivers can be incorporated into a traveler information system. It is often perceived that taxi drivers have the ability to select quality routes assuming that: (1) they tend to be more knowledgeable about alternative routes and time-dependent traffic conditions than general public, including some publicly available route guidance systems due to the nature of their profession; and (2) they are typically more motivated to incorporate their knowledge about traffic conditions into their route choice decisions. An experimental study is conducted to examine the validity of these two assumptions. We have developed a framework that can effectively process the data into information about routes selected by taxi drivers and their associated travel times. The performance of the routes selected by taxi drivers is compared with the performance of those recommended by e-maps. Our results indicate that the routes selected by taxi drivers are generally more efficient than the routes recommended by some major e-maps, suggesting that taxi drivers are more active in selecting routes to avoid congestion.

China's new regulatory regime tailored for the sharing economy: The case of Uber under Chinese local government regulation in comparison to the EU, US, and the UK

Although Uber's arrival in China has resulted in disruptive competition for incumbent taxi companies, it offers an attractive alternative in China's supply-demand-imbalanced urban passenger transport system. China's regulatory regime for Uber has evolved in three stages: from the regulatory vacuum prior to 2015 to its official legalization in 2015–2016, and the enactment of numerous local regulations in 2016, with specific and more demanding requirements for Uber. This policy is a part of the Chinese approach to the gradual liberalization of the urban passenger transport market. Policymakers should consider ‘fair competition’ as the guiding principle to balance the interests of sharing firms and incumbent service providers, as well as between different sharing firms. The core value of this principle lies in the benefits it provides for consumers and the way it engenders a pro-competitive market environment. The labor protection arrangements for sharing firms’ laborers should be more flexible and diversified. In order to recognize whether an Uber-Driver is an employee or independent contractor, a new standard taking into account a range of factors should be established through collective negotiations between the participants of the sharing economy, and dialogues between members of the judiciary, academics, and the policymakers. Further, consumer protection law and personal data protection provisions should apply when sharing firms misuse their distinctive algorithmic management model to compete unfairly to the detriment of consumers and other users. Ex ante regulatory measures designed to protect the personal data of users should be introduced for deployment in the context of the sharing economy. When enforcing these rules, a balance should be struck ensuring free data flow that is essential to sharing firms’ innovation and competition, and the need to ensure the level of data security required to underpin a well-functioning sharing society.

Equilibrium in a dynamic model of congestion with large and small users

Individual users of transportation facilities often control a significant share of total traffic. Examples include airlines, rail and maritime freight shippers, urban goods delivery companies, taxi companies, and ride-sharing companies. These users have an incentive to internalize the congestion delays their own vehicles impose on each other by adjusting the timing of their trips. We investigate simultaneous trip-timing decisions by large users and small users in a dynamic model of congestion. Unlike previous work, we allow for heterogeneity of trip-timing preferences and for the presence of small users such as individual commuters and fringe airlines. We derive the optimal fleet departure schedule for a large user as a best-response to the aggregate departure rate of other users. We show that when the vehicles in a large user’s fleet have sufficiently diverse preferred arrival times, there may exist a pure-strategy Nash-equilibrium (PSNE) in which the large user schedules vehicles when there is a queue. This highlights that the problem of non-existence of a PSNE identified in Silva et al. (2016) for the case of symmetric large users hinges on the assumption that all vehicles in each fleet have the same preferred arrival time. We also develop some examples to identify under what conditions a PSNE exists, and when the large user departs. The examples illustrate how self-internalization of congestion by a large user can affect the nature of equilibrium and the travel costs that it and other users incur.

Travel Time Estimation in the Age of Big Data

The need to understand complex city traffic patterns has led to an increase in the amount and the diversity of traffic data being collected. For instance, taxi companies in an increasing number of ...

On the wireless virtualization with QoE constraints

AbstractWireless virtualization is emerging as a new paradigm to improve wireless spectrum utilization by subleasing radio frequency (RF) channels through slicing. This paper investigates wireless virtualization where wireless resources for virtual wireless networks adapted based on availability of leasable RF slices as well as the demands from the users of virtual wireless networks. The user utilities are subject to quality‐of‐experience requirements such as coverage, rate, mobility, and delay requirements. With the help of software defined network controller, wireless infrastructure providers (WIPs) slice their RF bands to sublease those slices to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). In wireless virtualization, MVNOs work as independent service provides, and thus, the end users negotiate directly to MVNOs regardless of WIPs used behind the scene (this concept is analogous to the Uber being a taxi company without owning any vehicles). The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated with the help of numerical results obtained from simulations by using different metrics such as percentage of RF band of WIP, outage probability, and data rate.

Participation of Taxi Companies in Developing Local Public Transport Networks and Appropriate Framework for Public–Private Collaboration

Participation of Taxi Companies in Developing Local Public Transport Networks and Appropriate Framework for Public–Private Collaboration

The sharing economy: Uber and its effect on taxi companies

The popular ride sharing service Uber has undoubtedly affected the taxi industry by offering lower prices, faster and more quality service, as well as a higher degree of transparency in terms of choosing drivers and determining fares. A question arises inevitably: does Uber present loyal or unloyal price competition to taxi companies by offering significantly lower prices, cutting fixed costs and bypassing middlemen? Is there a tax loophole at play? The hypothesis this paper aims to examine is whether Uber is a new way of providing transportation services, thus bringing more transparency and fair competition to the industry, or it is a disruptor on a previously fair market. If the second case is correct, not all hope should be lost - perhaps with the right amount of regulation, Uber could become a new standard in service transportation.This paper is divided into three parts. The first part briefly explores the concept of the sharing economy; a relatively new term and even newer foundation for business models of contemporary startups. Special significance is given to the reduced costs in companies which operate based on the sharing economy versus the so-called traditional companies. The second part of the paper examines Uber’s business model through costs, thepricing system, driver earnings and working conditions. Finally, the thirdpart of the paper estimates the present and future impact of Uber on traditionaltaxi companies, taking into account its legal status, competition andthe changing labor market.

Rhetorical Arbitrage: The Rhetoric of the Sharing Economy

AbstractThis article extends the growing conversation on the rhetoric of economics through a critical analysis of the rhetoric of the “sharing economy” firm Uber. After reconfiguring the economic concept of arbitrage from a rhetorical perspective, I demonstrate the means by which “ride sharing” services exploit their customers and workers. Ultimately, I contend that Uber’s rhetoric works by deploying the language of the private sphere in order that the company can operate like a taxi company even as it evades the obligations that ordinarily attach to providing taxi service to the public.

The effect of organizational justice as perceived by occupational drivers on traffic accidents: Mediating effects of job satisfaction

Introduction: Considerable research supports a positive association between the safety climate (which is a direct organizational factor) and safety performance (such as safe driving). However, indirect organizational variables that influence safe driving have gone largely unexplored. This study contributes to safety research by examining the relationship between organizational justice, which is a distal organizational factor, and traffic accidents and the mediating role of job satisfaction. Method: 233 occupational drivers employed by taxi and bus companies in South Korea participated in the study. Regression analysis was conducted using police records on participants' on-the-job traffic accidents. Results: The analysis shows that the mediation model is statistically significant. That is, drivers with a lower level of perceived organizational justice showed a higher frequency of traffic accidents, and the mediating effect of job satisfaction was also significant. Based on the results, implications and limitations are discussed. Practical applications: The findings demonstrate that in order to decrease traffic accidents, transportation companies would benefit by examining distal factors such as organizational justice. This approach suggests that the conventional framework for safety management should be broadened to include aspects of the entire organization.

Mining Connected Vehicle Data for Beneficial Patterns in Dubai Taxi Operations

On-demand shared mobility services such as Uber and microtransit are steadily penetrating the worldwide market for traditional dispatched taxi services. Hence, taxi companies are seeking ways to compete. This study mined large-scale mobility data from connected taxis to discover beneficial patterns that may inform strategies to improve dispatch taxi business. It is not practical to manually clean and filter large-scale mobility data that contains GPS information. Therefore, this research contributes and demonstrates an automated method of data cleaning and filtering that is suitable for such types of datasets. The cleaning method defines three filter variables and applies a layered statistical filtering technique to eliminate outlier records that do not contribute to distributions that match expected theoretical distributions of the variables. Chi-squared statistical tests evaluate the quality of the cleaned data by comparing the distribution of the three variables with their expected distributions. The overall cleaning method removed approximately 5% of the data, which consisted of errors that were obvious and others that were poor quality outliers. Subsequently, mining the cleaned data revealed that trip production in Dubai peaks for the case when only the same two drivers operate the same taxi. This finding would not have been possible without access to proprietary data that contains unique identifiers for both drivers and taxis. Datasets that identify individual drivers are not publicly available.

Research on Local Government Governance and Enterprise Social Responsibility Behaviors under the Perspective of Cournot Duopoly Competition: Analyzing Taxi Companies and Online Car-Hailing Service Companies

Clarifying the rational choice strategy of local governments and enterprises is crucial for promoting control on the failure of taxis and online car-hailing service companies to fulfill their social responsibilities. The local government can reduce the negative externalities and irresponsibility of such companies by improving the regulatory system; thus, it is important to build a governance model that bridges tradition and modernity. This paper, on the basis of summarizing the achievements of the predecessors, builds a mixed dynamic game model among the local government, online car-hailing service companies, and taxi companies; analyzes the relationship between local government preference, execution, and governance of irresponsible enterprise behaviors; and analyzes the equilibrium solution between local government and duopoly enterprises behavior game deeply. The results show that the key to governance irresponsible companies is to make the punishment cost higher than the cost savings for irresponsible behaviors; no matter what the preference of the local government no-governance of online car-hailing service companies’ irresponsible behaviors may persist; and local government ambivalence when regulating irresponsible companies is derived from the complex relationship between social benefits and company interests. Finally, through the analysis of the equilibrium results for the above model, this paper provides suggestions on regulatory policies so as to provide theoretical support and a decision-making basis for establishing scientific, universal, and feasible governance policies and offering responsible methods of urban transportation.

Conditions for electric vehicle taxi: A case study in the Greater Stockholm region

This study investigates the usability of electric vehicles (EVs) in a taxi company in Greater Stockholm, Sweden. By investigating cost and revenue data of both electric and conventional taxi vehicles, as well as by interviewing taxi drivers and carriers, an assessment has been made of the financial and operational implications of using EVs in a company’s taxi fleet. Both the drivers’ and the carriers’ perspectives have been examined. The main findings are that the investigated e-taxis have a similar or lower Total Cost of Ownership and slightly higher profitability than the investigated conventional taxis. For taxi drivers, using e-taxis implies more advanced planning and revenue service time being sacrificed for charging. However, certain customers’ preferences for EVs, as well as benefits such as corporate clients favoring e-taxis and a zero emission priority queuing system at Stockholm’s main international airport (partly) compensate for time devoted to charging. In order to facilitate increased use of e-taxis, more fast charging facilities should become available at strategic locations. Besides that, there are signs that carriers’ lack of information about the opportunities and consequences of shifting towards e-taxis hamper a wider deployment of e-taxis.

Optimal scheduling of a taxi fleet with mixed electric and gasoline vehicles to service advance reservations

This study addresses the problem of scheduling a fleet of taxis that are appointed to solely service customers with advance reservations. In contrast to previous studies that have dealt with the planning and operations of a taxi fleet with only electric vehicles (EVs), we consider that most taxi companies may have to operate with fleets comprised of both gasoline vehicles (GVs) and plug-in EVs during the transition from GV to (complete) EV taxi fleets. This paper presents an innovative multi-layer taxi-flow time-space network which effectively describes the movements of the taxis in the dimensions of space and time. An optimization model is then developed based on the time-space network to determine an optimal schedule for the taxi fleet. The objective is to minimize the total operating cost of the fleet, with a set of operating constraints for the EVs and GVs included in the model. Given that the model is formulated as an integer multi-commodity network flow problem, which is characterized as NP-hard, we propose two simple but effective decomposition-based heuristics to efficiently solve the problem with practical sizes. Test instances generated based on the data provided by a Taiwan taxi company are solved to evaluate the solution algorithms. The results show that the gaps between the objective values of the heuristic solutions and those of the optimal solutions are less than 3%, and the heuristics require much less time to obtain the good quality solutions. As a result, it is shown that the model, coupled with the algorithms, can be an effective planning tool to assist the company in routing and scheduling its fleet to service reservation customers.

택시업체 근무환경이 교통사고에 미치는 영향분석

택시업체 근무환경이 교통사고에 미치는 영향분석

Disruptive Entrepreneurship and Dual Purpose Strategies: The Case of Uber

Uber provides a two-sided platform that matches travelers with drivers who choose when, where, and how long to drive using their own vehicles. Uber disrupts local markets with an incumbent taxi industry, and the industry fights back in both its market and institutional environments. This paper focuses on Uber’s strategy for addressing the challenges from the taxi industry with an emphasis on dual-purpose strategies that provide in a complementary manner benefits both in the marketplace and in the institutional environment. The focus is on three issues important to Uber’s success. The first is whether Uber is a platform company or a transportation service that falls under the jurisdiction of local regulators. The second is whether Uber drivers are classified under the law as independent contractors or as employees. The third is passenger safety and the qualifications required for ride-hailing drivers. The corresponding dual-purpose strategies considered are market engagement, work enhancement, and accommodation. Implementing these dual-purpose strategies involves lobbying, stakeholder mobilization, and institutional venue shifting. A model of a local transportation market is presented as a framework for analyzing market competition and for identifying the incentives of market and institutional participants, including Uber, its drivers and passengers, taxi companies and their drivers, and safety advocates, to challenge or support Uber and ride-hailing. The model distinguishes between full-time and part-time drivers, frequent and infrequent travelers, and whether taxi drivers or taxi companies own the taxi medallions.

A Cost-Oriented Optimal Model of Electric Vehicle Taxi Systems

This paper presents a cost optimal model of electric vehicle taxi systems based on the cost of electric vehicle taxi companies, charging or battery swap stations, passengers’ time, and emission costs. Considering the requirement of meeting passengers’ travel demands, an electric taxi demand model using transportation elasticity is formulated to optimize the number of electric taxis. The electric taxi demand model constitutes the measure of electric taxis, the cruise range, the amount of charging or battery swap stations, and other related factors. Simultaneously, to meet the charging requirements of electric taxis, a layout optimal model of EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment) is designed using a Voronoi polygon method aimed at the cost of charging or battery swap stations and the range cost for changing. Finally, these aforementioned models are mixed to calculate the scale of electric taxis, the allocation of vehicle models, the optimizing level, and the site distribution of charging or battery swap stations. The key findings include the following: (1) the cost of the BEV(battery electric vehicle) taxi system is lower in the charging model than in the battery swap model, (2) the cost of the PHEV taxi system is lower than the BEV taxi system in the charging model, (3) in the Tongzhou District of Beijing, five charging or battery swap stations required being found to meet the charging demands of 5557 BEVs in the charging model or 5316 BEVs in the battery swap model, (4) according to the passengers’ travel demands and traffic conditions in Tongzhou, the BEV’s cruise range ought to be 250 km and BEV’s battery capacity should be 42.5 kW, the price of PHEV should be under 24,000 RMB and the electric-powered cruise range needs to be under 100 km, the daily operating time of EVs is around 16 h and the daily operating range is controlled under 380 km, and (5) a carbon tax is suggested to be imposed on ICEVs but the price should be under 20 RMB per ton.

Innovation needs deregulation: the case of taxi and private hire companies

Abstract Every year seems to bring about new technologies that radically change the way we do things. New innovative business models come to life, that change the way the world works so much that a shift of mindset is required if we are to keep up. These days, the largest transport company in the world owns no cars, the largest accommodation provider owns no real estate, the largest retailer by value has no inventory of its own, and the most popular media owner creates no content. But what about the role of regulation in this brave new world? We take a look at the rivals, taxi companies and private hire transport companies (in particular Uber), to assess the need for regulation and the impact of regulation on these two contenders. Our research examines the effects of said regulation on service quality and safety, correlated with consumer opinion data. The impact of non-regulatory incentives on the two seemingly-opposed business models is discussed, thus making the logical case for increased deregulation of both taxis and private hire companies. Opening the way to innovative companies and innovative new business models, allowing them to change the world is our gateway to growth, prosperity and sustainability.

Towards building a value co-creation circle in social commerce

The rise of social commerce has brought several new challenges for firms and reshaped the way people purchase products and services. Firms are struggling to co-create value with customers to identify their needs and offer innovative products. To address these challenges, this study proposes a value co-creation circle and explores the key factors for developing a successful value co-creation circle on social commerce platforms. A case study of a taxi company in Taiwan was conducted. Data was collected from face-to-face interviews with the managers and analysed using Google Analytics. The proposed value co-creation circle not only creates benefits from network externality by the growth in membership, but also enhances service quality in the social commerce platform. This study explores a new perspective of the value co-creation circle in the social commerce environment that allows practitioners to develop a value circulation by network externality and co-create value with customers.

Analisa Pengaruh Professionalism dan Rewards Terhadap Job Satisfaction Serta Implikasinya Pada Organizational Commitment; Telaah Pada Sopir Taksi Konvensional Bandara Soekarno-Hatta

Jakarta is the place where the largest number of land transportation in Indonesia, according to Djarot in Kompas.com article, vehicles every day increased about 1500 units. And according to an article from Liputan 6, revenue from conventional taxi drivers dropped dramatically after the entry of online transport by 40-50% during 2016 due to the entry of online transport. Conventional taxi companies must immediately anticipate this phenomenon so that their human resources can survive in the company. The purpose of this research are first, to know is there a positive effect from professionalism factors to organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Second, to know job satisfaction factors have a positive effect to organizational commitment. And the last is to know is there a positive effect from rewards factors to job satisfaction and organizational commitment’s factors. This research uses descriptive method with non-probability method. Through judgmental sampling technique, primary data collection was obtained from questionnaire distribution to conventional taxi driver of Soekarno-Hatta Airport. The data has been collected and then obtained by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The result of this research indicates that there is positive influence from professionalism to organizational commitment but the data do not support the hypothesis, there is positive influence from professionalism to job satisfaction, but there’s negative effect between job satisfaction and organizational commitment, there is positive relation of rewards to job satisfaction, Finally there is a positive effect of rewards on organizational commitment.
 Keywords: organizational commitment, professionalism, rewards, job satisfaction, ecommerce, conventional taxi driver.

Spatiotemporal Patterns of Carbon Emissions and Taxi Travel Using GPS Data in Beijing

Taxis are significant contributors to carbon dioxide emissions due to their frequent usage, yet current research into taxi carbon emissions is insufficient. Emerging data sources and big data–mining techniques enable analysis of carbon emissions, which contributes to their reduction and the promotion of low-carbon societies. This study uses taxi GPS data to reconstruct taxi trajectories in Beijing. We then use the carbon emission calculation model based on a taxi fuel consumption algorithm and the carbon dioxide emission factor to calculate emissions and apply a visualization method called kernel density analysis to obtain the dynamic spatiotemporal distribution of carbon emissions. Total carbon emissions show substantial temporal variations during the day, with maximum values from 10:00–11:00 (57.53 t), which is seven times the minimum value of 7.43 t (from 03:00–04:00). Carbon emissions per kilometer at the network level are steady throughout the day (0.2 kg/km). The Airport Expressway, Ring Roads, and large intersections within the 5th Ring Road maintain higher carbon emissions than other areas. Spatiotemporal carbon emissions and travel patterns differ between weekdays and weekends, especially during morning rush hours. This research provides critical insights for taxi companies, authorities, and future studies.