Cabs already booked up for college entrance exam days

• Source: Global Times
• [09:18 June 01 2010]
• Comments

By Shen Weihuang

With the National College Entrance Examination approaching, taxi companies are advising the city's 67,000 graduating high school students to take the subway to their exams as they have been overwhelmed by customers making bookings for next Monday to Wednesday.

The five main local taxi companies Qiangsheng, Dazhong, Jinjiang, Bashi and Haibo, which own and operate more than 80 percent of the cabs in the city, told the Global Times Monday that they had run out of advanced booking slots for the three-day exam period within five hours of opening the service to customers on Sunday.

"The students can still try to call a cab on exam days, but they probably won't be able to get one," a manager surnamed Lu with Bashi Taxi Company told the Global Times Monday. "Taking the subway might be a safer option for students who have not already booked a taxi to take them to their exam."

Out of the city's 450,000 cabs, the five companies are altogether able to offer some 8,500 cabs to customers who book in advance, but that quota has shrunk by as much as 20 percent due to taxis that have been assigned to provide service to the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, according to Lu.

Tang Mei, director from Qiangsheng Taxi Company, agree that the situation this year makes it especially hard to cater to demand.

"The beginning of the week is always the busiest day, and on top of that, we usually have some regular bookings," she said. "In the previous years, two of the exam days were on the weekends, which eased a lot of traffic pressures; with the workdays and the Expo coming together this time, our company is facing a taxi shortage in meeting demand from customers."

Meanwhile, mothers like Liu Qiming, who were able to secure a booking for their child next week, were feeling somewhat relieved they would be able to take their kid to their exam, even if it meant having to resort to a 6:30 am reservation.

"It's quite early, but the traffic gets really bad as it nears 8 o'clock," she said. "Besides it will be good to get there early so my son can have enough time for a hearty breakfast, and to go over his notes before the test starts."