'Kakao Taxi' Selects Long-Distance Passengers... Weekday Night Short-Distance Call Success Rate Only 23%

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[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] It has been revealed that the 'Kakao Taxi' call success rate for short-distance passengers traveling from downtown to non-downtown areas during weekday nights is only half that of passengers traveling long distances during the same time period. There are concerns about the possibility of selective passenger picking based on destination display and preferential call allocation to affiliated taxis.

On the 23rd, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it had partially detected signs that taxi drivers using 'Kakao Taxi' selectively pick up passengers based on destination display through a survey conducted last year. The survey targeted ‘Kakao Taxi,’ which occupies nearly 90% of the taxi platform market. Using a ‘mystery shopper’ method, investigators posed as passengers and directly called Kakao Taxi, making 841 calls over two months from October to November last year. The calls were categorized by long-distance (over 10 km) and short-distance (within 3 km), weekday/weekend, downtown/non-downtown, and morning/evening/night time slots to ensure an appropriate sample size.

The survey results partially revealed signs that taxi drivers selectively pick up passengers based on the destination display in ‘Kakao Taxi.’ In particular, the call success rate for ‘short-distance trips from downtown to non-downtown during weekday nights’ was the lowest at 23%. Under the same conditions, the call success rate for long-distance trips was 54%, showing more than double the difference.

Professor Kwon Yong-ju of the Department of Automotive Transportation Design at Kookmin University analyzed, “Considering the higher success rate for long-distance calls and lower for short-distance, as well as the lower success rate and higher dispatch failure rate during night hours compared to other times, it can be seen that drivers selectively pick up passengers based on the destination.” Researcher Ahn Ki-jung of the Seoul Institute’s Transportation Systems Research Division also said, “The higher failure rate for short-distance calls compared to long-distance suggests suspicion of selective passenger picking.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Government also conducted a survey on the ‘call allocation favoritism’ of Kakao Taxi’s affiliated taxis, which has been a complaint within the taxi industry. The survey found that among cases where a general taxi call was successfully dispatched, 39% were dispatched to affiliated taxis (Kakao T Blue). By category, the proportion of affiliated taxis dispatched was higher on ‘weekends’ than weekdays, higher for ‘short-distance’ than long-distance, and higher in the ‘morning’ than evening or night.

In particular, for calls during the ‘weekday night from downtown to non-downtown’ period, which has many passengers, the affiliated taxi rate was the lowest at 16.7%, whereas for calls during the ‘weekend morning from downtown to downtown,’ which has relatively fewer passengers, the affiliated taxi dispatch rate was the highest at 86%. This confirmed that, as raised by the taxi industry, affiliated taxis are being dispatched instead of general taxis during general calls.

Researcher Ahn Ki-jung of the Seoul Institute’s Transportation Systems Research Division analyzed, “The 40% rate of affiliated taxis suggests the possibility of call allocation favoritism,” and suggested that “institutional improvements such as separating affiliated and intermediary services in Kakao Taxi are necessary.”

Separately from the survey, Seoul also investigated the time taken for taxis to arrive after dispatch to passengers. The results showed that 1 in 5 taxis (21%) took more than 10 minutes to arrive after dispatch, indicating a need for improvements in the dispatch system.

Based on the survey results, Seoul plans to develop and implement improvement measures involving the city, Kakao Mobility, and the government. First, for the ‘weekday night’ period, which has the lowest call success rate and difficulty in hailing taxis, the city plans to review and promote various measures such as lifting taxi restrictions and expanding electric taxi supply to increase taxi availability.

Kakao Taxi was requested earlier this year to gradually improve by displaying passenger destinations only at the district (gu) level rather than specific locations, and eventually to stop displaying destinations altogether. To address suspicions of affiliated taxi call favoritism, it was requested that when a passenger makes a general call, general taxis be given sufficient time (5 minutes) to respond first before calls are given to affiliated taxis. In the long term, the separation of affiliated and intermediary businesses was also requested.

Additionally, Seoul will provide the survey data to the Fair Trade Commission, which is currently investigating Kakao Taxi’s call favoritism. The city will also recommend to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport that the authority to approve affiliated and intermediary taxis be delegated to metropolitan and provincial governors, and will request institutional improvements such as separating affiliated and intermediary taxi businesses and not displaying destinations.

Baek Ho, Director of Urban Transportation, said, “Since Kakao Taxi occupies nearly 90% of the taxi platform market and is used by many citizens, it must bear social responsibility,” and added, “We will make multifaceted efforts to improve taxi convenience for citizens and promote a fair taxi industry.”

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