In this report results are presented of an evaluation study into a new transport system in the Netherlands: the "teletaxi". This new concept was tested in 20 areas. The teletaxi is a demand-responsive transport system based on the shared taxi use. The objective of the teletaxi is to improve the standard service in rural areas and/or urban areas during the off-peak period. This transport system can be combined with bus use (feeder function). However, it can also be used only for travel to or from a bus stop, with the teletaxi (partly) replacing the bus. Transport performance of the teletaxi system was below expectations. A summary of all the experiments undertaken in 1994 shows that only 25% of the predicted number of travellers utilized the teletaxi. Significant explanatory factors are the relatively high fares, low product familiarity, unfamiliarity with the front door bus stop concept, competition with other transport modes, and the lack of a single uniform product formula. It may be concluded that market opportunities for the teletaxi formula are modest. Therefore, a number of changes have been proposed, mainly to improve the financial performance of the teletaxi system. See also C 7426.
Abstract