Taxi License Research Articles

Electric taxi licensing under a tradable credit scheme: model and application

ABSTRACT Taxi market modeling has long attracted researchers’ and practitioners’ attention, with a variety of models presented to investigate the effects of different market regulation regimes. Motivated by the increasing interest in and theoretical advantages of tradable credit systems for mobility management, this study investigates the use of a tradable credit scheme for taxi licensing. A mixed integer non-linear programming problem is formulated to determine the credit price, daily charge and number of vehicles in order to maximize social welfare. In the social benefit-maximizing solution, the supply of conventional taxis is exhausted, while about 50% of the available electric taxi drivers enter the market. Sensitivity analysis shows that increasing the validity period of the credits, reducing the daily system fee for electric taxis or subsidizing the purchase of electric taxis could lead to greater social benefits by increasing the profit margin of electric taxi drivers and incentivizing their wider adoption.

A Preliminary Feasibility Study of Electric Taxi Promotion in Hong Kong—Behavior Modelling of Driving Patterns and Preferences

In 2013, the first electric taxis were launched in Hong Kong. In 2021, the HKSAR government announced that no new registration of fuel-propelled private cars, including hybrid vehicles, will be granted by the year 2035. Local public policies have shown a breakthrough milestone in the passenger transport sector and fostered the development of a smart city in Hong Kong as an international metropolis. This paper aims to study the feasibility of gradually introducing electric vehicles (EVs) in the Hong Kong taxi industry in the next decade. In particular, taxi license owners’ intentions of purchasing electric vehicles for operational use and the driving behavior of taxi drivers in Hong Kong are investigated. Multiagent modelling with an integrated behavioral model is then adopted to analyze the survey data collected from 250 taxi drivers in Hong Kong, followed by interviews with industrial experts. The implications for future public policies are then discussed. To achieve emission reduction, the paper suggests a gradual, step-by-step promotion and transfer from conventional taxis to electric taxis in Hong Kong, with consideration of various factors and the interests of different stakeholders in the community.

Mandating the use of the electric taxis: The case of Florence

Abstract This paper discusses a policy enacted in 2016 by the city of Florence mandating the use of electric vehicles for the taxi service. We interviewed the taxi license owners (carriers), their co-operatives and the city administrators to evaluate the policy implementation, its acceptability and the cost-competitiveness of electric taxis (e-taxis) with respect to their hybrid and diesel alternatives. Using the data collected during the interviews, we estimated the total cost of ownership (TCO) of e-taxis and their conventional counterparts for the models comprising the Florence taxi fleet. We find that e-taxis already represent a valid alternative to the conventional ones not only from an environmental point of view but also from a private economic one. In particular, when the Florence-specific discounted purchase prices are considered and the base case scenario applies, e-taxis are the cheapest choice in terms of TCO and no financial incentives are needed. When the manufacturer suggested retail prices are considered, e-taxis are slightly less cost-competitive than hybrid taxis but more cost-competitive than the diesel ones. Sensitivity analyses are performed to evaluate the impact of the annual distance travelled, Ecobonus purchase subsidy, net revenue loss, annual percentage rate charged to finance the taxi acquisition and insurance premium.

The liberalisation of taxi policy: Capture and recapture?

Abstract This paper analyses the decision-making processes behind the reform of a policy that had caused significant controversy for over a decade. At 8 p.m. on 21 November 2000 the Minister of State for the Environment, Bobby Molloy, TD, signed S.I. No. 367/2000 – Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) (Amendment) (No. 3) into law. This statutory instrument provided ‘for the full resumption of taxi licensing’ and ‘the revocation of regulatory provisions involving quantitative restrictions on the licensing of taxis and hackneys’. With the stroke of a pen, Molloy had effectively ended the taxi licensees’ de facto 21-year control of public service vehicle licensing policy. The paper finds Molloy’s decision to have been a significant policy improvement as it brought about a substantially better taxi service. In addition, the paper shows that even with strong evidence of policy failure, its reform can take a considerable time. With regard to the four-factor framework of institutions, ideology, interests and irrationality, I find that the institutions of the state, while initially facilitating the regulatory capture of the policy by the taxi sector, eventually ensured that this was broken down due to the electoral system and the separation of powers. Up until the reform decision, the interests of the taxi licensees and their political supporters eclipsed the common good. Ideology played a significant role as a backdrop to the policy but ideology was not the primary reason the minister deregulated. Finally, I find that the collective irrationality of the taxi sector leads to an overestimation of their power due to an inability to process the relevant information and collectively agree a reasonable compromise. The key recommendations of the paper are that the means of policy setting should be radically and innovatively overhauled, and that it is imperative that regulators harness the vast information that taxi apps gather in order to improve regulatory outcomes.

Taxi Driver’s Operation Behavior and Passengers’ Demand Analysis Based on GPS Data

The existing research outputs paid less attention to the relationship between land use and passenger demand, while the taxi drivers’ searching behavior for different lengths of observation period has not been explored. This paper is based on taxi GPS trajectories data from Shenzhen to explore taxi driver’s operation behavior and passengers’ demand. The taxi GPS trajectories data covers 204 hours in Shenzhen, China, which includes the taxi license number, time, longitude, latitude, speed, and whether passengers are in the taxi vehicle, to track the passenger’s pick-up and drop-off information. This paper focuses on these important topics: exploring the taxi driver operation behavior by the measurements of activity space and the connection between different activity spaces for different time duration; mainly focusing on eight traffic analysis zones (TAZs) of Shenzhen and exploring the customer’s real-time origin and destination demands on a spatial-temporal distribution on weekdays and weekends; taxi station optimization based on the passenger demand and expected customer waiting time distribution. This research can be helpful for taxi drivers to search for a new passenger and passengers to more easily find a taxi’s location.

Sticks or Carrots? Comparing Effectiveness of Government Informal Economy Policies in Russia

Which incentives have the strongest impact on the size of the informal economy? Is it about government’s pressure against entrepreneurs operating in this sector, or is it about the benefits of legality? The goal of this paper is to explicitly contrast the role of sticks (court repressiveness) and carrots (financial aid to small- and medium-sized firms) as factors determining the size of the informal economy, using the case of the Russian taxi market. It uses a unique dataset of taxi licensing data from regional transport departments and indicators for taxi market demand and supply to estimate the extent of informal business. When controlling for market demand and supply, it finds a strong and robust positive effect of sanctions on the size of the official market, with higher repressiveness leading to a smaller informal economy. In contrast, the effect of carrots was insignificant. The results suggest that the effectiveness of carrot policies is compromised when entrepreneurs operate informally to avoid dealing with corrupt bureaucrats and have low trust in the government.

Competition and vested interests in taxis in Ireland: A tale of two statutory instruments

This paper addresses, for the taxi market in Ireland, whether judicial, legislative and regulatory processes promote taxi users’ welfare or taxi license holders’ welfare. It is argued that the 2000 decision to remove quantitative restrictions on taxi numbers favoured taxi users; the 2010 decision to re impose such restrictions, with the exception of wheelchair accessible taxis, had the effect of favouring taxi license holders, while doing little to meet its declared object to increase the number of wheelchair accessible taxis and the ready availability of such vehicles for wheelchair customers. Whether the late 2010s/early 2020s will be a rerun of the late 1990s, with increasing waiting times for taxi users, is a moot point. An applicant refused a taxi license might, as in 2000, successfully bring a High Court case contesting the legal basis for the present quantitative restrictions. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission might spark debate on taxi regulatory policy, while the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport might issue a policy direction to the National Transport Authority, the taxi regulator, requiring it to clarify the objectives and benchmarks for success of its existing prohibition on taxi licenses and to consider how best to create incentives for those with wheelchair accessible taxis to use them to service wheelchair users.

基于公共政策程序的城市出租汽车规划方法研究

出租汽车规划是解决中国城市出租汽车行业健康有序发展的有效途径。出租汽车巡游经营特性和政府管制决定了出租汽车规划的公共政策属性。现行出租汽车运营信息、经营权管理政策和社会需求等是出租汽车规划的基础信息，并且可以满足规划的需要。本文提出了遵循公共政策分析程序的出租汽车规划程序和内容，包括政策目标分析、政策规划、设定规划指标、建立需求平衡模型和方案设计，以及进行规划方案评价和可行性分析的要求。 The taxi industry planning is effective way to develop urban taxi industry healthily in China. The taxi characteristics of strolling operation and the government regulation have decided the taxi planning belonging to the pubic policy field. The present taxi operation information, taxi license and its property right of management regulatory policy, the social demand and so on are the foundation information for the taxi planning, and may fit the planning need. The paper presented an urban taxi industry planning procedure and the content depending on public policy analysis program, including the policy goal analysis, the planning of program, setting the planning index, developing the demand balance models, planning and design, as well as the planning evaluation and the feasibility analysis.

On the asymptotic distribution of the transaction price in a clock model of a multi‐unit, oral, ascending‐price auction within the common‐value paradigm

Using a clock model of a multi‐unit, oral, ascending‐price auction, within the common‐value paradigm, we analyze the behavior of the transaction price as the numbers of bidders and units gets large in a particular way. We find that even though the transaction price is determined by a fraction of losing drop‐out bids, that price converges in probability to the true, but ex ante unknown, value. Subsequently, we demonstrate that the asymptotic distribution of the transaction price is Gaussian. Finally, we apply our methods to data from an auction of taxi license plates held in Shenzhen, China.

Clustering Taxi Quantity Regulatory Levels of Chinese Capital Cities

Different purposes of taxi quantity control lead to different performances of quantity regulation in Chinese urban areas. To obtain a clear division of taxi quantity regulation levels of Chinese capital cities, a fuzzy c-means clustering is presented. The paper identifies six important demanding factors such as population, urban built-up area, transit volume, GDP, road area and amount of intercity passenger to get the corresponding indexes of urban taxi quantity regulatory levels. An efficient classification scheme is selected with clustering effectiveness analysis and F-statistics test after running a dedicated the MATLAB 7.0 program. The result indicates that thirty-one capital cities of mainland China are definitely classified into five categories. The categorization of quantity regulatory levels in this paper provide references for formulating the taxi license supply models.

Taxi License Premiums in Hong Kong: Can Their Fluctuations be Explained by Taxi as a Mode of Public Transport?

ABSTRACT Under the current taxi licensing system in Hong Kong, holders of taxi licenses are given perpetual operating right in the taxi business. Since 1995, the government has not issued any new taxi licenses. Against this background, the freely traded taxi licenses are often held as an investment asset. When there are active speculative activities, the taxi license premium may be affected more by the general economic conditions than the demand for taxi services and/or changes in the levels of taxi services. In this paper, we use the backward and forward multiple regression methods to develop the level-of-taxi-services (LOTS) and economy-wide (EW) models for understanding fluctuations in the premiums of urban and New Territories (NT) taxis from 1986 to 2002. The results suggest that variations of both urban and NT taxi license premiums can be better accounted for by factors of the EW than the LOTS models. When the policymakers review policy with regard to the taxi license, it is important for them to take a closer look not only at taxi-related factors but also at the economy-wide factors.

A MACROSCOPIC TAXI MODEL FOR PASSENGER DEMAND, TAXI UTILIZATION AND LEVEL OF SERVICES

In most urban areas taxi services are subject to various types of regulation such as entry restriction and price control. However, effective intervention depends on generating and using suitable information on the demand-supply equilibrium of the taxi market. This paper develops a simultaneous equation system of passenger demand, taxi utilization and level of services based on a taxi service situation found in the urban area of Hong Kong over the last ten years. A set of variables is introduced including number of licensed taxis, taxi fare, disposable income, occupied taxi journey time as exogenous variables and daily taxi passenger demand, passenger waiting time, taxi availability, taxi utilization and average taxi waiting time as endogenous variables. These variables are coupled together through a system of nonlinear simultaneous equations whose parameters are estimated from survey data. The simultaneous equation system can be used to obtain useful regulatory information to assist with the decisions concerning the restriction over the number of taxi licenses and the fixing of the taxi fare structure as well as a range of service quality control.

Medical assessment for licensing of taxi drivers by Scottish local authorities.

In the UK, licensing of taxi drivers is dealt with by local government authorities. In Scotland, before the recent reorganization of local government, taxi licensing was under the jurisdiction of District Councils, so a telephone survey was conducted of all 52 mainland Scottish District Councils to ascertain the procedures which were being employed in assessing medical fitness to drive a taxi, for which there is no national standard. Medical enquiries relevant to fitness to drive were being made by 41 (79%) of local authorities, but in 38 (73%) this was limited to a single question about health. No enquiry regarding health status was being made by 11 (21%) District Councils (all serving < 100,000 population size). Only three Scottish District Councils conducted a routine medical examination of all applicants. Thirteen of the 15 large (> 100,000 population size), and 20 of the 21 medium-sized (50,000-100,000) Scottish District Councils carried out medical examinations either when a relevant medical disorder was declared by the applicant, or when the applicant was above a defined age (which varied between local authorities). The small local authorities (population < 50,000) examined only those applicants who declared medical disorders. This survey has shown considerable variation and limitations in the approach of the previously existing Scottish District Councils to the assessment of medical fitness to drive of applicants for taxi licences. It is suggested that national standards and guidelines are required for medical fitness to drive in relation to taxi licensing.

English experience of deregulation of the taxi industry

The U.K. government has proposed that there be no limits on the number of entrants to the taxi trade. There is some evidence as to the likely effects of such a move since, from January 1986, the absolute discretion previously granted to local authorities to limit the number of hackney carriages in their area has been abolished. The results of three nationwide studies of taxi licensing policy since that date suggest that this entry deregulation has had only limited success in achieving its objectives. Vehicle numbers have not increased at a noticeably greater rate in districts which have deregulated. There is no evidence to suggest that increased competition in deregulated districts has led to lower fares. In restricted markets, a substantial and increasing licence premium is enjoyed by licence holders. In deregulated districts, we see generally lower standards of quality enforcement and severe shortages of rank capacity. The focus of the current legislation on the single criterion of passenger waiting tim...

Rent seeking with uncertain opposition

It is observed that sometimes dispersed interests are passive to rent seeking by concentrated interests and that sometimes they provide rigorous opposition. This paper assumes that opposing political activism is triggered when rents accruing to concentrated interests exceed a threshold level, unknown to the latter. In these conditions, rents will increase asymptotically to a level less than the trigger level. The threat of opposition means that social costs of rent seeking may be less than found by static analysis under certainty. The model may be applicable to certain types of regulation, such as taxi licensing or pollution control.