People who reserve a taxi by phone and then stand up the driver will find it much more difficult to book a cab in the future.

Officials with a taxi booking hot line have set up a customer rating system, so repeat offenders might find themselves waiting the next time they try to book a cab, especially during rush hour.

"We want to be fair to taxi drivers and protect their rights," said Yao Qi, an official with the control center for the city's largest booking hot line.

As an industry rule, taxi drivers are required to pick up a passenger within minutes of their call. However, cabbies say they are frequently stood up and often wait for a long time before they are told the customer has already left or canceled the order. 
"There are many reasons why customers fail to show up," said Yao.

"Some will just hail an empty cab passing by on the street and forget all about the phone order. Some actually make several calls to different taxi fleets and get in the car that arrives first."

Yao said such behavior leads to a waste of limited taxi resources, especially during rush hour, and is unfair to the cabbies.

"An available cabbie driving nearby is told on the radio by the control center to arrive as soon as possible for the passenger and he must give up any business opportunities on the way there," Yao said.

"So they usually become very angry when they wait for a long time but the passenger never shows up."

After a call is made to the hot line (96965), a cab usually arrives within 10 minutes. Cabbies can be punished for arriving late or leaving too quickly without picking up the rider.

The customer rating system will give drivers the chance to only accept calls from reliable customers.

"When we have many orders coming in, we will show the drivers the callers' credit history and they can choose to pick up the one with a good record," Yao said.

He said the customer ratings are based on several criteria, but he wouldn't say exactly how they are determined. The whole system is computerized, and ratings are linked to the phone number used to book a cab.

"Customers who have a history of booking cabs are divided into five groups under the five-star rating system and the best ones will have the best chance to successfully get a ride, especially during rush hour," Yao explained.

The hot line is currently linked to more than 2,000 cabs from the Haibo fleet, and will expand to more than 10,000 taxis from various fleets by the end of this year. 

(Shanghai Daily November 14, 2005)