Smarter taxis are the solution

We have all experienced a nail-biting ride with an overworked taxi driver. The safety implications of exhausted drivers is an unnecessary danger to passengers and society as a whole. However, new ideas for solving this problem are in short supply. The crux is finding a solution that reduces the working hours of drivers while maintaining prudent profit margins for taxi operators, thereby ensuring safer roads for all of us.

Taxi drivers surveyed by The National work a minimum of 12 hours a day, and some as many as 18. The primary reason for these insane hours is high per-driver takings goals set by employers, who need an appropriate level of return on their investment. While drivers sign up for an eight-hour work day, high targets can necessitate long days. So how to fix this problem?

The knee-jerk response is to say that drivers ought to be paid more. But “obvious solutions” are often wrong. In this case, it fails to appreciate the pressure that taxi operators face as a business. As moneymaking enterprises, they must show yearly earnings growth even as they continue to invest in replacement cars as well as buying more of them, partly due to periodic changes in rules by taxi overseers that necessitate more drivers. (And there we go again.)

The answer may be to think counterintuitively. Perhaps the best way to raise earnings for operators and drivers, while making the job of finding a cab easier if you want the convenience, is to radically reduce the number of taxis. Our taxis are fitted with all manner of technology. So let’s begin to use them more effectively. One of these is the taxi booking system. Making this more efficient, while reducing the number of empty taxis cruising the streets, offers consumers a choice: wait a tad longer to hail an empty cab or pay more for the convenience of a speedy pickup.

There would, of course, need to be a careful tweaking of charges – enough of a rise in rates and the addition of surcharges to ensure a reasonable business model for taxi owners and a healthy income for drivers, but not too much to actually hurt consumer wallets or unduly recalibrate patience. In the end, it’s about compromise. But it is also one that will provide an added payback in cleaner air from fewer taxis cruising the streets.