Taxi app meter using GPS, officially introduced from the end of April

The inside of a private taxi in Seoul in operation with an app meter installed. No. 1 was a newly installed App meter, and No. 2 was covered with vinyl with an existing mechanical meter.[중앙일보]

Taxi Apmeter, which was used with temporary permission approval through the sandbox (regulatory deferral system), will be officially introduced from the end of April as early as possible. Corporate taxis as well as private taxis can be changed to App Meter if desired.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 9th that it will legislatively and an administrative notice of amendments to the’Enforcement Rules of the Automobile Management Act’ and’Regulations on how to implement automobile inspections’, which are about institutionalizing taxi app meters using GPS, a satellite navigation device. It is expected to be implemented as early as the end of April after going through related procedures.

Apmeter calculates the location, travel distance, and travel time of the vehicle through GPS information, and calculates the taxi fare accordingly. Currently, most taxi meters are an electric type that calculates distance and time using pulses (electrical signals) according to the number of wheel revolutions and calculates the fare.

Until now, Apmeter has been used in some taxis with temporary permission. A total of 8 companies (Kakao, T-money, Lirasoft, SK Telecom, Uber, KST Mobility, VCNC, and Konai) have been approved for the regulatory sandbox from October 2019 to the present. Has completed the inspection by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and is running Apmeter in Kakao and T-money.

Currently, Kakao and T-money are running App Meter. [뉴스 1]

Mobility Policy Manager Kim Dong-hyun of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport explained, “If ApMeter is institutionalized with this revision of the law, companies will be able to use ApMeter immediately through the approval of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport without interim procedures such as application/approval for regulatory sandbox, and temporary permission.” did. Even if the app meter is institutionalized, the existing electric meter can be used as it is, and taxi operators can choose between an app meter and an electric meter to attach.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport explained that passengers using a taxi using Apmeter will be notified in advance of the driving route, time, and fare before boarding, and can select and use a taxi service at a fixed fare. Even after boarding, you can check the route and fares in real time, and it is expected that the disputes and misunderstandings over fares can be resolved to some extent by automating the surcharge.

In addition, when the taxi fare was raised, the electric meter had to visit a city/province designated company to adjust the meter, but since the app meter is automatically updated by the supplier, there is no need for a visit procedure. In the case of Seoul, it was found that about 4 billion won was spent on meter adjustment each time the rate was revised. It is about 60,000 won per unit.

Eomyeongso’s General Transportation Policy Officer of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, “Based on the introduction of App Meter, it will be possible to discover new taxi services based on various fare plans such as monthly subscriptions.”

Reporter Kang Gap-saeng [email protected]