Women guaranteed taxi home late at night

Women are being offered a cash compensation guarantee of a late night taxi ride home by a  Shanghai firm.

Qiangsheng taxi firm will start the service on March 15. 

The taxi firm will guarantee that women who call for a taxi between 11pm and 2am will get one for sure, otherwise the firm will pay 20 yuan (US$3) compensation.

The service is provided through Qiangsheng’s dispatching center 62580000, said manager Tang Jian.

“We should be able to provide a better, safer service for female passengers," said Tang.

All Qiangsheng drivers who receive a dispatch order must go and pick up the passenger.

“If there is no car available in that area, we will pay 20 yuan as compensation," he said.

Qiangsheng is not the first taxi firm to offer such a service.

In May 2018, about 200 Dazhong taxi drivers with no violations or complaints for three years were formed into a team called “rose shield.” They provided a priority service for women from 10pm to 5am. 

Dazhong set a strict threshold for the drivers so that “quality of the service could be guaranteed,” said Dai Jianhua, director of Dazhong.

However, 10 months later Dai said there are only about 20 taxis left offering the service.

“It turned out the demand of taxis from women late at night wasn’t high,” Dai said.