Taxis have to ply on the road to pick up passengers. This is wasteful. Petrol is costly.
We should encourage people to call for a taxi. The taxi can wait in a side road and wait for a call. To make this feasible, we have to reduce the charge to call a taxi. Most commuters find a booking charge of $2.50 to $4 to be too expensive.
We need a way to reduce the booking charge. Taxi companies now operate a call center to handle the taxi booking. This is expensive.
We have to introduce a new way of handling taxi booking entirely by SMS, without the need for any human intervention. This can reduce the cost of handling the taxi booking. If the charge can be reduced to $1 per call, many people may be willing to book for a taxi.
This will reduce the consumption of petrol - as the taxi does not need to ply the road to look for a passenger.
Planning and the free market
5 days ago
When diesel becomes really expensive, we'll automatically see taxi drivers wait for calls.
ReplyDeleteWith diesel at $1.50/l and a taxi's FC at 12km/l (say), each km without a passenger costs the taxi driver 12.5 cents.