Economic Aspects Of Taxi Accessibility

Taxis are an essential part of the transport system, providing door-to-door services round the clock. As with other forms of public transport, accessibility for older and disabled people has become an important issue for taxis. Progress to improve taxi accessibility has been slower than hoped and the implementation of ECMT recommendations from the early 1990s has been slow. One of the main reasons has been that the taxi profession is a private business in difficult competitive circumstances and therefore reluctant to take on any extra costs without guaranteed benefits.

The ECMT, through its working group on Transport Accessibility as representatives of government and the IRU, through its Taxi working group as representatives of the profession consequently set up a joint Task Force to examine the economics of taxi accessibility and to make recommendations on a way forward.

 The following report has been drawn up and agreed by the Task Force. The report has subsequently been approved by the ECMT Ministers of Transport at its Session in Lisbon in May 2001, and by the IRU at the meeting of its competent governing body that same month in Brussels. The recommendations set out in the report are aimed at both Governments and the profession. It is hoped that their implementation will see a significant improvement in the service that taxis provide to older and disabled people. The ECMT and IRU would like to thank the members of the Task Force for their work as well as Philip Oxley for his research and careful drafting.