Shanghai's urban transport administration said yesterday that the 4 yuan (50 US cents) fee for reservations recently adopted by Dazhong Taxi was reasonable, though surprising, Youth Daily reported today.

Dazhong's practice, effective since June 18, doesn't run counter to rules set by the local pricing bureau, while it still needs time to see if it fits the local taxi market, said an official with the administration.

Dazhong Taxi riders now have to pay an extra 4 yuan for phone or online reservations.

The charge had been abandoned for eight years in the city.

The fee is meant to encourage drivers to take the reservations on short notice and to cover the extra cost of fuel and time for attempting to pick up no-show passengers, said Dazhong, which runs the city's biggest taxi fleet – more than 8,000 sedans.

Dazhong was satisfied with the number of reservation phone calls yesterday, which was around 20,000, while the daily figure before last Saturday usually reached 50,000.

Meanwhile, Qiangshen Taxi, another major taxi company in the city, reported a 20 percent of increase in yesterday's reservation calls.

The 4 yuan surcharge will fully go to drivers' pockets to cover the extra cost they take to carry out a reservation, especially during rush hours when they have to ignore passengers already waiting on the street, a Dazhong official said.

The company also issued rules to ensure that customers will get a taxi in time through reservations.

Currently the taxi base fare is 11 yuan for the first 3 kilometers and 2.1 yuan for each additional kilometer. The fare was raised by 6.7 percent last month to account for rising fuel prices, the only rate change since 1998.

(Shanghai Daily June 20, 2006)