[sustran] Fare Policies for Taxi Services

[Akshay Mani]

Hi,

I think the recent appointment of the Hakim Committee (news link on this is
provided below) in Mumbai by the Govt. of Maharashtra to come up with a
government regulated fare fixation formula for auto-rickshaws and taxis is
a good time to initiate a discussion on fare fixation for taxi and
auto-rickshaw services.  Proponents of taxi market regulation indicate the
issue of imperfect information in this market, calling for some level of
regulation, particularly in the stipulation of fares.

Are there any best practices on taxi fare policies from different cities,
which could help answer this debate?   Particularly for the Indian context,
insights on some of the following questions would be extremely useful:
 where has regulation worked perfectly in fare estimation; what formula and
input factors are used for fare estimation; how frequently are fares
revised; how are viewpoints of different stakeholders (driver unions,
passengers) managed in arriving at and revising fares; are there cities
where unregulated taxi markets are working well, etc.

Looking forward to some insightful comments.

Thanks,
Akshay

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News on Hakim Committee:*
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/State-again-appoints-Hakim-committee-to-decide-auto-taxi-fares/Article1-840297.aspx


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Akshay Mani
EMBARQ India
Mumbai