Investigating taxi driver preferences on taxi-hailing channels: the case of Greece

Taxis are essential part of transportation systems in both urban and rural areas, as they cover targeted needs of travelers in a safe and efficient manner. The way taxis are hailed, or otherwise “hailing channels”, are subject to continuous development and adjustment to modern technologies. For instance, street-hailing, cabstands and phone-hailing (radio taxi) have been the predominant channels in the past years, while hailing applications have rapidly been growing in market share lately. However, each channel comes with several advantages and disadvantages that stimulate policy makers to promote or undermine specific channels, depending on their aims and needs. As such, identifying the factors affecting drivers’ preferences on those channels is necessary for targeted policies to be applied. In this study, those factors are investigated through the development of a multinomial regression model, based on the dataset collected from a questionnaire survey among taxi drivers in Greece. Findings suggest that phone-hailing is the drivers’ most preferred channel, with street-hailing, applications and cabstands being also popular among them. Professional experience, daily revenue, familiarity with smartphone operation and English fluency, are significant socio-demographic determinants of driver preference on specific taxi-hailing channels. Additional professional characteristics (some of them related to tourism) may also influence driver preferences. A rather interesting finding suggests that drivers’ environmental awareness is related to the probability of preferring doing business through taxi-hailing applications. Study results can be valuable for policy makers who are willing to promote more efficient hailing channels, by considering driver profiles.