Tokyo Taxi [Tokyo Hire-Taxi Association(THTA)]

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Scope of Activities

We are engaged in the following activities, with safe transport and improving customer service, the taxi for hire industry's dual mission, as a pillar.

1. Promoting publicity activities aimed at our customers

  • We periodically issue such publications as Tokyo Taxi, Taxi Outlook, Takkun Mini News.
  • To hear opinions beyond those of general customers in order to improve our service, we have set up a Tokyo Taxi Expert Panel Discussion, questionnaire surveys, feedback postcards.
  • We have designated Aug.5 as Taxi Day, when we carry out a campaign to emphasize good service.

2. Promoting measures to improve customer convenience

  • We are working to increase taxis' transportation capacity through the introduction of Regular taxis,Special-needs and universal-design taxis,Sightseeing taxis and the like.
  • Precisely responding to customer needs in a multifaceted manner through such means as putting up Braille stickers, implementing fare discount systems (a handicapped person discount or
    a long-distance discount), banning smoking wholesale inside taxis and setting fixed price fares (to Haneda and Narita airports and Tokyo Disney Resort).(to Haneda airports and Tokyo Disney Resort)

3. Promoting traffic accident prevention measures

  • We are working exhaustively to prevent accidents by promoting at each taxi company such campaigns as spring and fall traffic safety campaigns, a safe driver contest, a car safety general inspection campaign at the end-start of the year, a zero traffic accidents day campaign,
    a campaign to reduce summer traffic accidents to zero, as well as the "gentle streets of this town" campaign, the "big strategy to prevent accidents" campaign and the "wearing a seat belt correctly" campaign. We also put on an accident prevention responsibility short course in the spring and fall and have designated the fifth day of each month "zero taxi accidents day".

4. Promotion of social contribution activities

  • Disaster reporting taxis
    It is conceivable that during a large earthquake or other disaster, a taxi driver could be the first eye-witness. Our effort was begun in January 1996 with the goal of protecting the lives and property of Tokyo residents by offering information on the actual situation at the scene of a disaster through the Tokyo Metropolitan Disaster Prevention Headquarters and the mass media. On March 31, 2013, 71 disaster reporting taxis and 264 taxi disaster reporters were selected to protect the safety of city residents night and day.
  • Implementing the "Taxi Children's 110 Hotline" system
    Because across Japan crimes involving children are occurring repeatedly, obtaining the cooperation of Tokyo Metropolis and the Metropolitan Police Department in April 2006, at this association, with the objective of securing the safety of children, we have been putting stickers on taxis and implementing the "Taxi Children's 110 Hotline" initiative.
  • Making use of the "Takkun Crime Prevention Information System"
    Making the most of the fact that taxis travel around the metropolis 24 hours a day every day, we began implementing the Takkun Crime Prevention Information System on Aug. 5, 2009. With this system, we partner with police to engage in crime prevention activities and protect the metropolis. Video captured by "drive recorders" mounted on taxis are used in criminal investigations, and using the effect of taxis "always watching" while driving around, the program aims to prevent crime.
  • The introduction of "Support Cabs"
    In partnership with the Tokyo Fire Department, in September 2005, we introduced Support Cabs, which have inside the car a crew member with the technical skill to provide lifesaving aid and who can operate an Automatic External Defibrillator. They are for customers who use a taxi to travel to or from a hospital. As of March 2013, there are 1,300 such taxis in service.
  • Takkun Love Foundation fundraising activities
    To comfort and encourage children who lost their parents in traffic accidents, in July 1972 we carried out fundraising activities, and beginning in November 1995, we have been carrying them out on an ongoing basis to assist not just children orphaned in traffic accidents, but victims of disasters in general and various social and cultural activities of a highly public nature. As of March 31, 2013, 216,945,416 yen has been donated to the publicly financed Foundation for Orphans from Automobile Accident. In addition, it sent 2,675,270 yen on Aug.16, 1991, for victims of the great eruption of the peak Fugen-dake of Mount Unzen, Nagasaki Prefecture, and on Feb. 7, 1995, 20 million yen through NHK and 10 million yen to the Hyogoken Taxi Kyoukai for victims of the Great Hanshin earthquake.
    And for the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, it sent 23 million yen through various taxi companies.