Taxi apps,regulation, and the market for taxi journeys

This paper attempts to provide a starting point for discussion on how smartphone-based taxi applications (‘apps’) have changed the market for taxi journeys and the resulting implications for taxi market regulation. The paper focuses on the taxi apps and their impact on taxi markets. It provides a brief history of taxi regulation before outlining the underlying economic rationales of its current form in many parts of the world, characterised as the “QQE” framework (quantity, quality and economic controls on operators). It argues that current regulation assumes that taxi markets are subject to three sets of problems that require correction by regulatory intervention, namely: those associated with credence goods, problems related to open access and those resulting from transactions occurring in a thin market. It is then proposed that taxi apps solve both the credence good and thin market problems whilst largely mitigating the problems associated with open access. The paper then presents some potential problems for taxi apps, namely the potential for instability on supply and demand sides, collusion and monopoly. It also discusses concerns about driver background checks and safety. The paper concludes by arguing that instead of restricting the growth of the taxi market, regulators should focus on reducing the likelihood of monopoly and collusion in a taxi market led by apps.     

打车软件对出租汽车运营的影响——以深圳市为例

为验证"互联网+出租汽车"模式的有效性和网约车时代出租汽车运营规制的重要性,定量研究基于移动互联网技术的打车软件对出租汽车运营的影响。以深圳市为研究区域,选取打车软件广泛使用前后两个节点日的出租汽车GPS数据,对比两日出租汽车微观运营指标。各指标分析结果表明,打车软件改善了低人口密度和偏远地区的打车难状况,减少了出租汽车的无效运营,并且总体提升了驾驶员的接单效率。因此,鼓励出租汽车行业和互联网融合发展是科学合理的。同时,采用适当的策略规范网约车时代出租汽车的经营服务行为,减少打车软件的负面效应,是促进出租汽车行业健康发展的必要途径。     

存在打车软件服务的出租车运营市场仿真模型

针对目前出租车服务市场盛行使用打车软件现状,分析了存在打车服务情况 下出租车司机载客与乘客的打车行为,构建了基于离散事件的出租车运营市场仿真模型. 模型考虑了乘客需求在路网的分布,以及空驶出租车巡游搜索乘客和接单行为,模拟了 乘客在交通路网中使用打车软件召唤空驶出租车行为及出租车搜索乘客的动态过程,采 取事件扫描法推进仿真时间步长,得到乘客的平均等待时间和出租车平均收益等指标.算 例网络的仿真结果表明,在相同的出租车市场规模下,随着使用打车软件乘客比例的增 加,并不能有效减少乘客的平均等待时间;而在相同打车软件使用率下,随着出租车数量 增加,乘客是否使用打车软件,其平均等待时间都会减少,并通过多次仿真结果得到综合 考虑出租车收益与乘客等待时间的最优出租车市场规模.