Incheon Private and Corporate Taxis Fully Exempt from Day-Number Restrictions Starting the 5th... Effect of Adding 2,900 Vehicles

The taxi stand at Seoul Station on the 4th, when the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced measures to alleviate the late-night taxi shortage. On this day, the Ministry announced a plan to raise the call fee for hailing taxis between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. in the metropolitan area by up to 5,000 won. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City will fully lift the corporate and individual taxi rotation system starting from the 5th to alleviate taxi boarding inconveniences.

The taxi rotation system is a mandatory taxi rest day policy maintained for over 50 years based on the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's directives. In Incheon, the 12-rotation system applies to corporate taxis, and the 3-rotation system applies to individual taxis.

Earlier, on the 22nd of last month, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the lifting of the rotation system for 33 local governments experiencing severe taxi boarding difficulties, allowing other local governments to decide independently.

Although Incheon did not meet the criteria for lifting the rotation system, the city's own review showed results close to the standards in terms of taxi demand and supply, leading to the decision to lift the rotation system.

Incheon has seen a 23.3% (1,362 drivers) decrease in corporate taxi drivers over the past three years, approaching the 25% reduction criterion.

The taxi transportation demand (actual occupancy rate), based on corporate taxis registered in the Taxi Information Management System (TIMS), reached 61.4%, exceeding the national average of 51.7%.

Currently, Incheon operates a total of 14,355 taxis, comprising 5,385 corporate taxis and 8,970 individual taxis.

With the full lifting of the taxi rotation system, it is expected that the number of taxis in Incheon will effectively increase by 2,907 vehicles (432 corporate and 2,475 individual), from the current total of 14,355. This figure excludes electric taxis and taxis in Ganghwa and Ongjin regions, where the rotation system does not apply.

The city plans to actively cooperate with the taxi industry to ensure that lifting the rotation system translates into real convenience for citizens by encouraging individual taxis to join TIMS and promoting voluntary efforts such as organizing and operating late-night shifts.

Additionally, to prevent corporate taxi drivers from leaving and to support new drivers, the city will push to increase the monthly support for corporate taxi drivers who have worked for more than one year?from 50,000 KRW to 100,000 KRW per month?regardless of their length of service. This support has been in place since 2018.

An Incheon city official stated, "We expect that lifting the taxi rotation system will significantly alleviate taxi boarding difficulties within Incheon. We will collaborate with the taxi industry to improve services and actively address any citizen inconveniences identified through continuous monitoring."

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