Uber Technologies Inc., the company behind the smartphone application that connects riders and drivers, announced today its participation in a Seoul Metropolitan Government project to address the difficulties riders have in catching taxis late at night.
In a bid to alleviate the problem in crowded nightlife areas, the city has launched a pilot project along the popular Gangnamdaero Road, creating six “Happy Zone” cab stands between Gangnam and Sinnonhyeon Stations as the only places where taxis may pick up customers.
Uber’s regular taxi service, UberTAXI has joined the project and cabs will be available at the Happy Zone stands for passengers to use via the Uber app from Friday November 27.
The pilot project is operating on Friday nights between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. If it proves successful, it will be expanded to other crowded nightlife spots where demand is so high that the streets become a “sellers’ market” with drivers refusing to take people who are travelling short distances and unwilling to pay extra.
“In looking at this issue, taxis have been portrayed as taking advantage of frustrated riders,” said Calvin Kang, General Manager of Uber Korea. “But we need to consider that drivers generally struggle to make a living and look for solutions that take that need into account. The reason the City’s initiative is so impressive is that it represents a solution that can benefit drivers as well as riders.”
To incentivize drivers, Uber is providing its UberTAXI drivers with a KRW 10,000 bonus for each Happy Zone trip for the duration of the pilot project.
“In calling UberTAXI, a rider does not need to enter the destination into the app,” Mr. Kang said. “This means that riders cannot be rejected because of where they want to travel.”
Yang Wan-soo, director of Seoul Metropolitan Government's taxi and logistics division, said: “We have had very positive response from citizens to the Happy Zone project since its launch in October. We appreciate Uber’s voluntary participation and believe this will be a great boost to create some order out of the chaos of late-night taxi rides.”
An official from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said: “Especially towards the end of the year, this issue becomes more intense and citizens find it more difficult to catch cabs. The participation of UberTAXI is very encouraging for citizens.”
