Big data technology helps with taxi service in Shanghai airport

Speakers: Li Ningjing and Sam Duckett

Taxis are waiting in a long queue to pick up  passengers. [Photo: from Baidu.com]

Many travelers have had the experience of lining up in a long queue to hail a taxi at Shanghai's airports. But Pudong International Airport recently adopted big data technology to reduce travelers' waiting time for a taxi from 40 to 20 minutes.

Cao Liu, a vice general manager responsible for transportation at the airport, said that, previously, both travelers and taxi drivers waited for hours, caused by an imbalanced supply and demand.

For an international airport that deals with over 200,000 travelers every day, it is not easy to estimate how many arrivals will take taxis. But with this technology, airport staff found that the percentage of arrivals who take a taxi is around 15 percent during the day and 45 percent at night.

If 1,000 passengers are about to arrive at the airport, around 150 people will need a taxi. Cao said "With the statistics we have collected, we can allocate car resources in advance."

The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI.