Taxi App Call Failures Quadruple... "Due to Fewer Taxi Drivers and 'Passenger Selective Picking'"

'App Dispatch Failure Experience' 10.1% in 2020 → 43.2% in 2021
Taxi Operation Rate Drops Due to COVID-19... Because of 'Selective Long-Distance Rides' Behavior

The day after the full lifting of social distancing measures for COVID-19 prevention, past midnight on the 19th, a citizen near Gangnam Station in Seoul is waving their hand on the road to catch a taxi. As more people enjoy outdoor activities late into the night after a long time, a "taxi crisis" has occurred. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] The number of people in Seoul who experienced taxi app dispatch failures increased more than fourfold last year, according to a recent survey. The main causes were analyzed as a decrease in taxi drivers due to COVID-19 and the behavior of 'golrateaugi' (selective passenger acceptance) to pick up long-distance passengers.

According to the '2021 Taxi Service Citizen Satisfaction Survey' report by the Seoul Institute on the 8th, an individual interview survey was conducted with 4,000 corporate and private taxi passengers in Seoul from August to October last year. As a result, 43.2% of respondents said they experienced dispatch failures when using taxi apps. This figure is about four times higher than the same survey in 2020 (10.1%).

The average number of dispatch failures also nearly doubled, increasing from 1.4 times in 2020 to 2.5 times in 2021.

Dispatch failures were found to be due to the reduced taxi operation rate caused by COVID-19. As of June last year, the number of corporate taxi drivers was 22,264, down 9.2% from the previous year (24,507). Due to the decrease in passengers, the number of corporate taxis in operation also dropped from 15,397 in 2020 to 13,883 last year.

The report analyzed, "As the number of taxis operating during peak late-night hours decreased, dispatching became difficult. Additionally, the behavior of taxi drivers refusing short-distance calls to pick up long-distance passengers is also considered a major factor in the sharp increase in dispatch failures."

However, despite inconveniences such as dispatch failures, the overall satisfaction score for taxi services rose by 0.3 points from the previous year to 82.4 points. In particular, scores improved in areas such as driver satisfaction and comfort. The report stated that the overall satisfaction has shown a continuous upward trend since 2011, indicating that taxi services are steadily improving.