Taxi in Korea

Taxi is very common in Korea. Relatively, it is rather inexpensive. Unlike here where you have to ask first before boarding, or worse still, reject your destination due to weather condition or traffic jam. It is rather a relief that they don't practice such annoying taxi-driver-has-final-decision. The meter installed inside taxi calculates the price based on two factors. First, distance based, if the taxi is moving at normal speed. Second, if the taxi is moving slowly, i.e. traffic jam, it will switch to time based calculation. Basic fare varies between taxi company and city.

Taxis in Korea are rather efficient, i.e. they are darn fast. Once when I was in Busan, we took a taxi and on normal road with traffic lights, the driver can speed on an average of 120km/h. Also, most taxis in Korea have in-vehicle GPS Navigation System, which I think is rather cool.

Some taxis use older GPS Navigation System, with simple 2D map, just like the one above, while newer device has more of a console game interface, and also a total car entertainment control panel in one device, which will control the radio, MP3 player, CD player, Television and so on. You can see the difference from the following picture.

Also, one thing that taxi in Malaysia should have is the complain card. In Korea, taxi will need to have a complain card inside, which any passenger can get hold of it. Taxis in Korea are usually running on compressed natural gas, in which the gas tank is installed in the boot, thus making less storage space for luggage and so on.