Daejeon City Begins Full Operation of 'Pregnant Women Voucher Taxi' from This Month

Graph of voucher taxi usage and waiting time status from January to July. Provided by Daejeon City.

[Asia Economy (Reporter Jeong Il-woong)] Daejeon City has completed the pilot operation of the Pregnant Women Voucher Taxi (hereinafter Voucher Taxi) and will begin full-scale operation starting this month.

According to the city on the 8th, from May to July, pregnant women were included as eligible users of the Voucher Taxi, and the number of vehicles was increased from 60 to 150, adding 90 cars during the pilot operation period.

As a result, from the start of the pilot operation on May 15 until July, a total of 52 pregnant women registered as members, and the number of users increased from 1 case in May, 23 cases in June, to 70 cases in July.

Additionally, after increasing the number of Voucher Taxis, the average waiting time for the existing dedicated rental taxis decreased from 21 minutes to 13 minutes, a reduction of about 8 minutes. This effect appeared after resolving dispatch-related issues caused by expanding the Voucher Taxi user base to include pregnant women during the pilot period through system improvements.

Based on this, the city plans to actively promote the use of Voucher Taxis by pregnant women to enhance their transportation convenience. Pregnant women can use the Voucher Taxi during pregnancy or within six months postpartum, and the fare is about 30% of the regular taxi fare.

For example, in a regular taxi, the base fare is 3,300 KRW (for 2 km) with an additional 100 KRW charged per 133 meters, but when a pregnant woman uses the Voucher Taxi, the base fare is 1,000 KRW (for 3 km) with an additional 100 KRW per 440 meters. However, the fare discount benefit is limited to 4 times per month or up to 20,000 KRW in discounts.

The Voucher Taxi can be used after registering as a member at the Daejeon Transportation Vulnerable Mobility Support Center and through a mobile app.

Han Sun-hee, Director of the Transportation and Construction Bureau of the city, said, “Having completed the analysis of usage status after including pregnant women as eligible users of the Voucher Taxi and starting full-scale operation, we will actively promote so that many pregnant women can benefit. The city will continue to monitor the usage status of Voucher Taxis to ensure that there are no inconveniences in the mobility of local transportation-vulnerable groups.”

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