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History and etymology Horse-drawn for-hire hackney carriage services began operating in both Paris and London in the early 17th century. Royal proclamations in both cities regulated the number of carriages - the first example of taxicab regulation. In the 19th century, Hansom cabs largely replaced the older designs because of their improved speed and safety. Although battery-powered vehicles enjoyed a brief success in Paris, London, and New York in the 1890s, the 1891 invention by German Wilhelm Bruhn of the taximeter (the familiar mechanical and now often electronic device that calculates the fare in most taxicabs) ushered in the modern taxi. (The taxi in taximeter is originating from the Greek word TAXIDEYO meaning to travel. The first modern meter-equipped taxicab was the Daimler Victoria, built by Gottlieb Daimler in 1897; the first motorized taxi company began operating in Stuttgart the same year. Petrol powered taxicabs began operating in Paris in 1899, in London in 1903, and in New York in 1907. The New York taxicabs were imported from France by businessperson Harry N. Allen, who adapted the French word taxi-mètre and coined the word "taxicab" to describe the vehicles he was importing. In time, the shortened term "taxi" came into common usage. (Allen was also the first person to paint his taxicabs yellow, after learning that yellow is the colour most easily seen from a distance.) Taxicabs proliferated around the world in the early 20th century. The first major innovation after the invention of the taximeter occurred in the late 1940s, when two-way radios first appeared in taxicabs. Radios enabled taxicabs and dispatch offices to communicate and serve customers more efficiently than previous methods, such as using callboxes. The next major innovation occurred in the 1980s, when computer assisted dispatching was first introduced. There has generally been a legal struggle concerning the certification of motor vehicles to be taxicabs, which take much more wear than a private car does. In London, they were additionally required to meet stringent specifications, for example, as concerns turn radius, which resulted for a time in having only one make legally usable. In the US, in the 1930s the cabs were often DeSotos or Packards. General Motors offered a specialized vehicle for a time, named the General. The firm Checker came into existence then, and stopped manufacturing cabs in the early 1980s. Its cars were specially built to carry "double dates." But now New York City requires that all taxicabs be ordinary cars. They are usually large Fords. In the 1960s in Europe, Mercedes Benz and Peugeot offered diesel taxicabs. This form of engine is now quite common there. Vehicles
Wheelchair-accessible taxicabs
Livery Originally, hackney carriage companies were distinguished from each other by their drivers' livery (uniforms) and by the colours of their carriages. For example, at the end of the 19th century in Paris, Compagnie Generale carriages were painted blue, while those of Abeille were painted green ("The Paris Cabman"). During the early years of the twentieth century, private cars were usually black because paints of other colours were not durable. Taxis were the exception, as they would be touched up or worn out. Around the world today, taxi companies are still distinguished by the way their cars are painted. North America In the United States, many older taxi companies are named according to their paint schemes. Thus, "Yellow Cabs" are painted yellow, Checker taxis have a distinctive black-and-white or black-and-yellow checkerboard stripe around their bodies, "Blue and White Cabs" might have blue bodies and white roofs, and "Black Top" and "Red Top Cabs" have black and red roofs respectively. In the 1920s, a famous company named "Brown and White" lost a lawsuit to prevent other taxi drivers from painting their cars these colors. In Orange County, Florida, many of the taxicabs are painted orange. Mexico City's ubiquitous VW Type 1 (Beetle) cabs were green and white (being firstly yellow) by law until early 2003. However, the tiny cars had been displaced by bigger four-door sedans, the Nissan Tsuru, a Sentra MkIII based saloon and recognized for their red/white (or silver) body colour. No VW are coloured this way anymore. Matchbox released a scale model of the VW taxi in 2004, numbered 31. Asia Taxicabs of Hong Kong have three colours based on service area. Red for urban Hong Kong, green for New Territories and blue for Lantau Island. The colours are to prevent service imbalance between less densely populated areas and urban centres of the territory. Europe In another sense of livery, the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers became a City of London Livery Company in 2004. In Germany, taxis are beige, a look that was officially stipulated by law as light ivory-colored in 1971. In 2005 this legal restriction was lifted, but most taxi drivers associations and companies still prefer the unified look and visibility of beige. Regulation It is often the case that people in general use the term "taxi" to refer to both the black cab and the minicab. This is incorrect, and when a minicab company uses the word taxi on their livery it can lead to prosecution by the local government body. A cab that cannot be flagged down on the street is known as a private hire vehicle (in North America, a livery car or for-hire vehicle). Both taxis and drivers are regulated to greatly varying degrees in different places, from free-for-all to highly restrictive licensing schemes. In many countries, the number of taxis and the areas where they may operate are strictly controlled by a regulatory body. Taxis are often most heavily regulated in wealthy, economies--as exemplified by the strict systems in London and New York, which are discussed below. In such systems, a person must purchase a license or medallion if he or she wishes to own a taxi. In many jurisdictions, both owners and non-owning drivers of taxis are also tested and licensed by the police or the regulatory body. Police checks and more extensive background checks, training courses and chaperones are often used when drivers are asked to deal with special needs customers on a regular basis. Hiring Taxis are often "hailed" or "flagged" on the street, either by a passenger as a taxi is driving by, or at a taxi stand (sometimes also called a "cab stand" or "hack stand," also "taxi rank" or "cab rank"). Hailing is common in large cities with dense urban populations like New York, Tokyo, London or Shanghai. Taxi stands are usually located at airports, railway stations, and hotels, as well as at other places where large numbers of passengers are likely to be found. In some places—Japan, for example—taxi stands are arranged according to the size of the taxis, so that large- and small-capacity cabs line up separately. Passengers also commonly call a central dispatch office for taxis. Private hire vehicles can only be hired from the dispatch office, and must be assigned each fare by the office by radio or phone. Picking up passengers off the street can lead to suspension and revocation of the driver's taxi license and prosecution. Dispatching The activity of taxi fleets is usually monitored and controlled by a central office, which provides dispatching, accounting, and human resources services to one or more taxi companies. Taxi owners and drivers usually communicate with the dispatch office through either a 2-way radio or a computer terminal (called a mobile data terminal). Before the innovation of radio dispatch in the 1950s, taxi drivers would use a callbox—a special telephone at a taxi stand—to contact the dispatch office. When a customer calls for a taxi, a trip is dispatched by either radio or computer to the most suitable cab. The most suitable cab may either be the one closest to the pick-up address (often determined by GPS coordinates nowadays) or the one that was the first to book in to the "zone" surrounding the pickup address. Cabs are sometimes dispatched from their taxi stands; a call to "Top of the 2" means that the first cab in line at stand In offices using radio dispatch, taxi locations are often tracked using magnetic "pegs" on a "board"—a metal sheet with an engraved map of taxi zones. In computerized dispatch, the status of taxis is tracked by the computer system. Taxi frequencies are generally licensed in duplex pairs. One frequency is used for the dispatcher to talk to the cabs, and a second frequency is used to the cabs to talk back. This means that the drivers generally cannot talk to each other. Some cabs have a CB radio in addition to the company radio so they can speak to each other. In the United States, there is a Taxicab Radio Service with pairs assigned for this purpose. A taxi company can also be licensed in the Business Radio Service. Business frequencies in the UHF range are also licensed in pairs to allow for repeaters, though taxi companies usually use the pair for duplex communications. Some companies don't operate their own radio system and instead subscribe to an Specialized Mobile Radio system. The conventional radios are most suited to companies that operate within the local area and have a high volume of radio traffic. The SMR is more commonly used by black car services that cover a wider area, and smaller companies who use less airtime and don't want to run their own radio systems. With the advent of Public Data Networks in the 1990s, operators are beginning to use PDA's and advanced mobile phones for dispatching and tracking functions in lieu of the traditional radio. Some small car services don't use a dispatcher at all. Instead the customers' calls are forwarded to the cell phones of whichever drivers are on duty at the time. Fares For the distance travelled, fares for taxis are usually higher than for other forms of public transport (bus, tram, metro, minicab, train). The fare often does not depend on the number of people travelling together in a taxi. Sometimes there is a system where strangers share a taxi and fares are per person. Fares are usually calculated according to a combination of distance and waiting time, and are measured by a taximeter ("meter" for short and the origin of the word "taxi"). Instead of a metered fare, passengers sometimes pay a flat fare. In some countries, when demand is high—for instance, late at night—a taxi will pick up whoever offers the highest fare. Navigation
Pollution concerns A project, designed at understanding exposure to air pollution in an urban environment and looking at five transport methods for travelling across London, was carried out by a team from Imperial College London and the Health and Safety Laboratory, Buxton. The results, published in the journal Atmospheric Environment in January 2006, showed that the level of pollution that people are exposed to differs according to the mode of transport that they use. The most risky method of transport was the back seat of a taxicab, followed by travelling by bus, cycling, walking, with a private car exposing people to the lowest amount of pollution. International Trade Association Established in 1917, the Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association (TLPA) is a non-profit trade association of and for the private passenger transportation industry. The membership spans the globe to include 1,100 taxicab companies, executive sedan and limousine services, airport shuttle fleets, non-emergency medical transportation companies, and paratransit services. See also
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