Seoul Taxi 'Outside Garage' Shift Change Allowed... Relaxation of Qualification for Transition to Large and Premium Taxis

Seoul City Improves Service by Easing Taxi Regulations... Full Support for Platform Taxi Activation

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government has decided to gradually allow taxi drivers to change shifts outside of the garage, which had been fundamentally prohibited until now. It will also relax the qualification requirements necessary for license conversion to actively provide premium and large taxi services, which have recently seen increased demand from citizens.

On the 24th, Seoul announced that it will activate taxi services by easing unreasonable taxi regulations ahead of the introduction of 'platform taxis' scheduled for April next year. The plan is to fully support the activation of platform taxis to lower entry barriers while enhancing the competitiveness of taxi services to help improve management in the taxi industry.

To this end, the city will first significantly relax the criteria within this year to allow taxi drivers to change shifts outside the garage without having to go to the garage. Currently, to prevent illegal use of names and to manage taxi drivers and vehicles, shift changes are only allowed within the garage. Since taxi garages are mainly located on the outskirts of the city, drivers must come to the garage with an empty taxi to change shifts, which inevitably causes ride refusals and makes commuting inconvenient, resulting in difficulties securing transportation workers.

To prevent name misuse, the city plans to pilot the allowance of shift changes outside the garage starting with franchise taxi companies equipped with ICT-based transportation worker verification and management systems, and then extend this allowance to all corporate taxis. Considering that electric taxis have charging stations concentrated in urban areas, corporate taxi companies are currently allowed to change shifts outside the garage unconditionally for up to 50% of their fleet.

The city will also relax qualification requirements when converting licenses from medium-sized taxis to large or premium taxis to promote the introduction of diverse taxi services. Currently, corporate taxis are regulated doubly by the 'Ordinance Enforcement Rules,' such as requiring at least three years as a Seoul taxi operator, and the 'Operational Guidelines,' which include various disqualification criteria. Going forward, only the Ordinance Enforcement Rules will apply to allow license conversion.

Additionally, the city has proposed a legal amendment to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to allow corporate taxi companies to join multiple franchise businesses, such as KakaoT Blue and Macaron Taxi, when joining brand taxis (franchise businesses). Corporate taxi operators in Seoul own an average of 88 taxis, but current law restricts taxi operators to join only one franchise business, limiting their choices.

If it becomes possible to join franchise businesses per vehicle, operators will be able to introduce and implement various taxi services, broadening citizens' options. The city also expects this to create more opportunities for small startups struggling to enter the taxi franchise business sector.

The taxi industry will also newly introduce 'standardized enlarged taxi display lights' to gain additional advertising revenue and increase the visibility of empty taxis. Advertising on the side LCD screens is expected to generate about 100,000 KRW per vehicle per month in advertising revenue, which will be shared between taxi operators and taxi unions to be used for management improvement and better treatment of transportation workers.

Seo Jeong-hyeop, Acting Mayor of Seoul, said, "We will ease unnecessary regulations to enable the introduction of various taxi services that citizens can ride safely and comfortably, but we will firmly take action against basic violations of the Passenger Transport Service Act, such as ride refusals and unfair fares."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.