Passengers alight from a taxi in China's financial hub of Shanghai. (Photo : Reuters)
Three cities in China have launched on April 27, Monday, a special taxi service that cater exclusively to women, providing them with safe public transport options at night, according to a report published on Women of China.
The report said that the women-only taxi service--available in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou--is offered as an add-on to the existing taxi app Kuaidi ONE.
Under the new scheme, only those registered as females will have access to the mobile service, which is available from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.
The developers of the app said that the app is limited to users based on the gender they used when they sign up to register. Male users or those who registered their gender as "confidential" will not be able to access the service.
According to developers, when a client calls for this exclusive taxi service, the nearest female taxi driver available will respond and pick the client.
"Nowadays, many white-collar women get off work late at night. We hope that this group of consumers could have one more safe commuting option," Xiao Shuangsheng, general manager of Kuaidi ONE, was quoted as saying.
According to the report, China Women's Development Foundation (CWDF), in partnership with Didi Taxi Company, the owner of Kuaidi ONE, and over 100 other enterprises launched a special campaign dubbed "Pink Love Action" in Oct. 2014. The campaign was aimed at providing women with safe taxi service and raised public awareness in safety for women's travel.
In many countries of the world such as U.S., India and New Zealand, mobile phone taxi service apps are popularly used to provide women-only taxi service.
