Satisfaction with taxis and private-hire cars rises: Poll
Overall satisfaction with taxis and private-hire car services continued to tick upwards last year, according to an annual survey commissioned by the Public Transport Council (PTC).
Results released yesterday showed mean satisfaction scores for point-to-point services, which include both taxis and private-hire cars, rising across the board.
Pricing remained a key consideration for whether commuters chose taxis or private-hire cars.
The survey found that the vast majority of commuters - 96.8 per cent of those surveyed - had no complaints about their most recent rides.
While fewer commuters were satisfied with point-to-point services last year compared with the 99.3 per cent of respondents in 2019 and 99.2 per cent in 2018, those who were happy with taxis and private-hire car services gave higher ratings, pulling up the mean scores.
The survey, conducted online instead of face to face due to the Covid-19 pandemic, polled a total of 5,741 commuters, who rated taxi and private-hire car services based on seven attributes on a scale of one to 10.
The attributes were: waiting time, ease of booking, service information, ride comfort, the driver's knowledge of routes, customer service provided by the driver and safety of the service.
Those who took taxis also rated their satisfaction with taxi stand accessibility.
The commuters were polled between Aug 3 and Aug 31 last year.
Overall, commuters gave point-to-point services a score of 8.4, up from 8.1 in 2019 and 7.9 in 2018.
Satisfaction in taxi services saw a similar rise, with commuters giving an average score of 8.5 last year, up from 8.1 in 2019 and 7.9 in 2018.
While fewer commuters were satisfied with taxi services compared with 2019, those who were happy with their cab rides gave higher scores, with marked improvements in ratings for ride comfort and service information.
Both categories saw mean scores go up by more than half a point.
PRIVATE-HIRE
Meanwhile, private-hire car services were also rated higher last year compared with 2019, though the improvement was slight.
Commuters gave a mean score of 8.3, up from 8.2 in 2019 and 7.9 in 2018.
Scores for attributes such as safety and the level of service provided by private-hire car drivers remained consistent, the PTC said, with ease of booking, satisfaction with service information provided and ride comfort helping to pull the overall score up.
However, longer waiting times was a bugbear for some private-hire car users as the score in that category dipped from 8 in 2019 to 7.8 last year. It was the only attribute across both transport services that saw a decline.
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