Empirical evidence for taxi customer-search model

A mutinomial logit model of urban taxi services has been developed for the study of the operational characteristics of the taxi industry, in which it is hypothesised that the customer-searching behaviour of vacant taxis follows a multinomial logit choice model. Although the model is commonly used, little empirical evidence exists to validate the choice mechanism and determine the set of important factors that affect the choice. In the present study, a stated preference survey of 400 taxi drivers was conducted to analyse the customer-searching behaviour of vacant taxis. The results explain how the considered parameters of waiting time, journey time, travel distance and toll affect the driver behaviour when searching for customers. In addition, market segmentation analysis was carried out to study the effects of driver demographics and operational characteristics on the searching behaviour. The parameters that were considered in this section of the study were the age of the driver, taxi ownership, driver experience and marital status.