Introducing a premium taxi service operated by electric vehicles: A customer’s perspective

Abstract

Taxis provide a convenient, door-to-door service around the clock. However, their energy efficiency level is as low as private cars. In Hong Kong, taxis cruise on the streets in search of customers. Their cruising behaviors increase daily driving distances, consume more energy and generate higher emissions. In addition, they also suffer from poor service reputation. Recently, battery electric vehicles have gained growing popularity in many cities’ transitioning to a more sustainable transportation system. Furthermore, the provision of a premium service has also been an option adopted by many to cater for different market niche.To address the environmental and quality issues of Hong Kong taxis, this study proposed to introduce premium taxis that are operated by electric vehicles on a dispatch-based mode. A stated-preference survey has been conducted to 1,422 taxi customers to understand their taxi-riding behaviors, and to evaluate the factors that may influence their choices between conventional taxis and electric-vehicle-operated premium taxis. To capture the underlining differences between market segments, two vehicles types with different levels of premium quality have been proposed alongside two levels of taxi trip lengths.A binary logit model was calibrated to evaluate the impact of trip characteristics to customers’ decision-making. The results reveal that customers were more willing to use premium taxis on longer trips than on shorter trips; a more luxury vehicle type was also preferred by customers. The results also show that wait time, access time and fare are influential to customers’ choices between conventional and premium taxis.