Feb 27th - Taxi Firms Offer New Mobile Services For Customers

Major taxi companies in Tokyo are ramping up efforts to attract more repeat customers by providing new services that offer greater convenience to mobile phone users.

Tokyomusen, a taxi association in Shinjuku Ward that has a fleet of roughly 4,500 taxis, will launch a new service as early as June that helps customers quickly find cabs by dialing a phone number on their handsets. Customers will not need to tell the dispatcher where they are, as drivers will be able to pinpoint their locations with the global positioning systems in mobile phones.

Nihon Kotsu Co., meanwhile, will launch a service Tuesday that allows customers to make reservations with an application on smartphones equipped with U.S.-based Google Inc.'s Android operating system. This service is already available through U.S.-based Apple Inc.'s iPhone.

Nihon Kotsu, the largest taxi company in Tokyo, also plans to expand its lineup of taxi stands at hospitals and large buildings to about 20 locations in fiscal 2013, up from 15 at present.

Taxi sales reached about 1.8 trillion yen in Japan in fiscal 2009, down more than 60% from the fiscal 1991 peak.