Share taxi
A share taxi, shared taxi, taxibus, or jitney or dollar van in the US, marshrutka in former Soviet countries, or a minibus in European countries and Turkey, is a mode of transport which falls between a taxicab and a bus. Share taxis, when not fully formalised, are a form of paratransit. They are vehicles for hire and are typically smaller than buses. Share taxis usually take passengers on a fixed or semi-fixed route without timetables, sometimes only departing when all seats are filled. They may stop anywhere to pick up or drop off their passengers. They are most common in developing countries and inner cities.
The vehicles used as share taxis range from four-seat cars to minibuses, midibuses, covered pickup trucks, station wagons, and trucks. Certain vehicle types may be better-suited than others. They are often owner-operated.
One of the reasons for the widespread use of share taxis in locations like Jakarta in Indonesia or Manila in the Philippines is lack of public transportation of other kinds. An increase in bus fares usually leads to a significant rise in usage of share taxis. Liberalization is often encouraged by libertarian urban economists, such as Richard Allen Epstein of the University of Chicago, James Dunn of Rutgers, and Peter Gordon of the University of Southern California, as a more "market-friendly" alternative to public transportation. However, concerns over fares, insurance liabilities, and passenger safety have kept legislative support for the concept decidedly tepid.
Some share taxi services are forms of demand responsive transport and include shared shuttle bus service to airports. Some can be booked online using mobile apps.
Operation
Terminus
A given share taxi route may start and finish in fixed central locations, and landmarks may serve as route names or route termini. In other places there may be no formal termini, with taxis simply congregating at a central location, instead. The term "rank" denotes an area, specifically built for taxi operators by a municipality or city, where commuters may start and end their journey.Route
Where they exist, shared taxis provide service on set routes within and sometimes between towns. After a shared taxi has picked up passengers at its terminus, it proceeds along a semi-fixed route where the driver may determine the actual route within an area according to traffic conditions. Drivers will stop anywhere to allow riders to disembark, and may sometimes do the same when prospective passengers want to ride.Vehicle ownership
Most share taxis are operated under one of two regimes. Some share taxis are operated by a company. For example, in Dakar there are company-owned fleets of hundreds of car rapides. In the Soviet Union, share taxis, known as marshrutka, were operated by state-owned taxi parks. There are also individual operators in many countries. In Africa, while there are company share taxis, individual owners are more common. Rarely owning more than two vehicles at a time, they will rent out a minibus to operators, who pay fuel and other running costs, and keep revenue.Syndicates
In some places, like some African cities and also Hong Kong, share taxi minibuses are overseen by syndicates, unions, or route associations. These groups often function in the absence of a regulatory environment and may collect dues or fees from drivers, set routes, manage terminals, and fix fares. Terminal management may include ensuring each vehicle leaves with a full load of passengers.Because the syndicates represent owners, their regulatory efforts tend to favor operators rather than passengers, and the very termini syndicates upkeep can cost delays and money for passengers as well as forcing them to disembark at inconvenient locations, in a phenomenon called "terminal constraint".
By location
Africa
Some Francophone African countries use the term taxi-brousse for share taxis.In some African cities, routes are run between formal termini, where the majority of passengers board. In these places, the share taxis wait for a full load of passengers prior to departing, and off-peak wait times may be in excess of an hour.
In Africa, regulation is mainly something that pertains to the vehicle itself not its operator or its mode of operation.
African minibuses are difficult to tax, and may operate in a "regulatory vacuum" perhaps because their existence is not part of a government scheme, but is simply a market response to a growing demand for such services. Route syndicates and operator's associations often exercise unrestricted control, and existing rules may see little enforcement.
In many traffic-choked, sprawling, and low-density African cities, minibuses are used.
Some or even most African bush taxis are old Peugeot and Renault models..
Algeria
In Algeria, taxis collectifs ply fixed routes with their destination displayed. Rides are shared with others who are picked up along the way, and the taxi will leave only when it seats all the passengers it can. While stations, set locations to board and disembark, exist, prospective passengers flag down a taxi collectif when they want a ride.Operating inter- and intra-city, taxis collectifs that travel between towns may be called interwilaya taxis.
Along with all forms of public transport in Algeria, the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada recommend against using these share taxis. The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs asks that you use taxis recommended by a hotel.
Burkina Faso
In Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, the share taxi or taxi brousse role is not filled by the traditional African minibus.Democratic Republic of the Congo
Those in Kinshasa, DRC, may call share taxis fula fula meaning "quick quick".There was no independent transport authority in the city of Kinshasa as of 2008.
Cameroon
Share taxis do exist in Cameroon, but as of 2008 minibuses cannot be used for this purpose, by law. That same year, Douala, Cameroon, also was without an independent transport authority.Egypt
ian share cabs are generally known as micro-bus. The second name is used by Alexandrians.Micro-buses are licensed by each of the governorates of Egypt as taxicabs, and are generally operated privately by their drivers. Although each governorate attempts to maintain a consistent paint scheme for them, in practice the color of them varies wildly, as the "consistent" schemes have changed from time to time and many drivers have not bothered to repaint their cars.
Rates vary depending on distance traveled, although these rates are generally well known to those riding the micro-bus. The fares also depend on the city. Riders can typically hail micro-buses from any point along the route, often with well-established hand signals indicating the prospective rider's destination, although certain areas tend to be well-known micro-bus stops.
Like the Eastern European marshrutka, a typical micro-bus is a large van, most often a Toyota HiAce or its Jinbei equivalent, the Haise, and the latter is produced by the Bavarian Auto Manufacturing Group in 6th of October City in Egypt. Smaller vans and larger small buses are also used.
Ethiopia
Minibus taxis in Ethiopia are one of the most important modes of transport in big cities like Addis Ababa. They are preferred by the majority of the populace over public buses and more traditional taxicabs because they are generally cheap, operate on diverse routes, and are available in abundance. All minibus taxis in Ethiopia have a standard blue-and-white coloring scheme, much as New York taxis are yellow. Minibus taxis are usually Toyota HiAces, frequent the streets. They typically can carry 11 passengers, but will always have room for another until that is no longer the case. The minibus driver has a crew member called a weyala whose job is to collect the fare from passengers.In 2008, publicly operated public transport was available in Addis Ababa in addition to that provided by the minibuses. A fleet of 350 large buses may operate for this purpose, as such a number does exist. Also as of 2008, the city lacks an independent transport authority, but some regulation, such as that controlling market entry, does exist.
Route syndicates may be present but are described as "various".
Ghana
In Ghana and neighboring countries, share taxis are called tro tro. They are privately owned minibus that travel fixed routes and leave when filled to capacity. While there are tro tro stations, these shared taxis can also be boarded anywhere along the route.Operated by a driver and a bus conductor, who collects money, shouts out the destination, and is called a "mate", many are decorated with slogans and sayings, often religious, and few operate on Sundays. A 2010 report by The World Bank found that Tro tro are used by 70% of Ghanaian commuters. This popularity may be because in cities such as Accra had only basic public transportation save for these small minibuses. An informal means of transportation, in Ghana they are licensed by the government, but the industry is self-regulated. In Accra, syndicates include GPRTU and PROTOA.
Aayalolo, a bus rapid transit system opened in November 2016; however, most people continued to use trotros as of 2019.
The term "tro tro" is believed to derive from the Ga word tro, "threepence", because the conductors usually asked for "three three pence", which was the standard bus fare in the 1940s, when Ghana still used the British West African pound and later the Ghanaian pound. Alternatively, its origin is not "three times three pence" but rather "threepence each": doubling a coin's name in the vernacular means "that coin for each person ". Three pence was the price per passenger in the early 1960s, when pounds/shillings/pence were still in use, including threepence coins, before decimalization of the currency into cedi and pesewa in 1965.
In Ghana, tro tro are licensed by the government, but the industry is self-regulated. There was no independent transport authority as of 2008 in the capital, Accra. In the absence of a regulatory environment, groups called syndicates oversee share taxis. These may collect dues, set routes, manage terminals, and fix fares. In Accra as of 2008, such syndicates include Ghana Private Road Transport Union and PROTOA.
Despite the regulatory challenges, the service was regulated during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. There was 98% compliance to guidelines on physical distancing, although guidelines on individual use of face masks were more difficult to enforce.