Mobile internet applications: implications for taxi driver behavior and operations

ABSTRACT

Recent information and communication technology innovations have brought with them a broad set of new urban transportation options (e.g. ridesourcing, scooters, etc.), as well as the opportunity to improve transportation systems. The taxi industry, historically linked to communication technology, is now in the throes of a massive upheaval due to the introduction and use of internet-based mobile technologies in personal devices. Taxi e-hailing cellphone applications (apps) pair users looking to ride with available taxis. Do apps replace the radiophone? Do drivers behave differently? Is it more profitable for them to operate with apps? This paper answers these and more questions related to the effects of these technological innovations on taxi operations and taxi drivers’ behavior, based on a before-after survey in Bogotá, Colombia. We applied descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, and multivariate regression analysis based on surveys involving the city’s taxi drivers, conducted in 2009 and 2016.

KEYWORDS:

• Taxi
• operation
• radio
• dispatch
• e-hailing
• technology
• case study
• ridesourcing
• ridehailing‌

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).