Seoul Taxi Passengers: "Refusal to Take Passengers" Wasn't the Top Complaint

Reckless driving tops the list at 20.8%, followed by refusal to take passengers and unfriendly service
Foreigners also report difficulties using apps: "Foreign languages are difficult"

A survey of taxi passengers in Seoul found that their biggest complaint about taxi services was "reckless driving."

Taxis are lined up. File photo unrelated to the article. The Asia Business Daily DB.

According to the results of the "2023 Citizen Satisfaction Survey on Taxi Services," an online survey of 1,038 Seoul residents conducted by the Seoul Institute at the request of IRC from October 16 to November 3, 2023, 20.8% of taxi passengers selected "reckless driving" as their biggest complaint about taxi drivers. This was followed by "refusal to take passengers" at 19.1% and "unfriendly service" at 16.8%, then "unpleasant odors" at 13.5% and "unnecessary small talk" at 12.7%.

The Seoul Institute noted, "Reckless driving was also the most common complaint in the 2022 survey, at 20.6%," adding, "Taxi drivers need training and evaluation to prevent reckless driving."

The survey also found that the improvement in service following taxi fare increases fell short of citizens' expectations. Asked whether the fare increases had helped ease the difficulty of finding a taxi, 42.7% of respondents said they had not, while only 16.7% said they had.

Asked whether taxi services had improved since the fare increases, 49.9% of respondents gave a negative answer, while just 8.5% gave a positive one.

Foreign passengers also reported difficulties. In November 2023, individual one-on-one interviews were conducted with 512 foreign taxi passengers who had been dropped off at Gimpo Airport, Incheon International Airport Terminal 1, or Incheon International Airport Terminal 2.

Among foreign passengers who had used taxi-hailing apps, the most common difficulty was "having trouble using a foreign language to enter an address in the app," at 44.5%. This was followed by "difficulty booking a taxi" at 10.2% and "the estimated fare differed from the final confirmed fare" at 9.1%.

Foreign passengers who had not used a mobile taxi app were also asked why. The most common answer was "I didn't know about mobile taxi apps," at 32.1%. This was followed by "the identity verification process is complicated and signing up is difficult" at 19.0% and "having trouble using a foreign language in the app" at 17.3%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.