Even during the monsoon season when catching a taxi becomes a challenge, the success rate of using ‘Kakao T Taxi’ has shown continuous improvement based on advanced platform technology.

Kakao Mobility reported that the average daily success rate of Kakao T Taxi rides during this year’s monsoon season has increased by 12.6 percentage points to 92.5% compared to 2022.

The success rate indicates the ratio of passengers who attempted to hail a taxi and successfully completed their rides. While the number of taxis on the road decreases during the rainy season, the number of passengers increases; thus, in 2022, more than 20 out of 100 users struggled to catch a taxi, whereas this number has dropped to fewer than 10 this year.

When comparing the lowest success rate days during the monsoon, the improvements are even more pronounced. The day with the highest failure rate for users in 2022 was June 30, when only 66.5% of passengers managed to hail a taxi. However, even on this year’s hardest day to catch a taxi (June 29), the success rate reached 85.1%, confirming that users are enjoying increasingly stable taxi services each year.

During the monsoon season, taxi calls surge while drivers are hesitant to operate due to traffic congestion or safety concerns, leading to a supply-demand imbalance between passengers and drivers. Kakao Mobility has been working on various technologies to reduce idle time for taxis and minimize the time taken for dispatch and rides, thereby increasing the success rate.

The ‘Pickup Location Recommendation’ feature helps drivers and passengers meet effectively at large venues like COEX and Seoul Station, enhancing user convenience. Meanwhile, navigation-based technologies such as multi-start route finding and Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA), along with a ‘real-time demand map’ predicting busy taxi areas using platform data and deep learning, contribute significantly to improving dispatch efficiency.

Kakao Mobility’s advancements in platform technology and new function development have also led to an increase in the number of rides that each driver can handle in a day. The daily completed rides per driver during the monsoon season have risen by approximately 13% over the last two years, indicating improved operational efficiency thanks to reduced idle time due to technological advancements.

Ryu Geung-sun, CEO of Kakao Mobility, stated, “We are striving to create a platform that users can always trust for their mobility needs through big data analysis and platform technology enhancement. We will continue to explore new endeavors for the swift and safe travel of our users in the future.”

Lee Sang-jin daedusj@autodiary.kr