On taxi quality and the state of the taxi fleet

Every part of the car should be in ideal condition: the running gear and transmission, the cooling and fuel systems, the controls and any extra equipment. New technology and equipment that let drivers ditch the crackle of old radios, respond to a call faster, and navigate a big city’s traffic better all matter less against the backdrop of a car in poor shape.

That’s why servicing and repairing a taxi fleet should be done on a regular basis by qualified specialists at a well-equipped facility. Only then can you guarantee trouble-free operation of the car, and with it, service quality. The car should be inspected daily to avoid serious breakdowns, and repairs should follow the same logic. Unlike with privately owned cars, repairs on a taxi should be preventive rather than reactive, since the heavy load placed on every system in the car without exception creates fertile ground for faults that lead to serious consequences. So the odds of a taxi’s mechanisms failing or breaking down on the road need to be kept to an absolute minimum.

Besides timely repair of every part of the car, it’s important to keep the engine in excellent shape. Choosing the right oil and the right change interval goes a long way toward that. There’s no single recommendation for choosing or timing an oil change — it’s a highly individual matter, usually settled at the service centre. But given the sheer number of negative factors that don’t exactly do the engine any favours, it’s advisable to cut the manufacturer-recommended interval between oil changes in half. Traffic jams in the capital, poor-quality fuel, polluted city air, harsh weather, and even express oil changes — all of this and more significantly shortens how long an engine keeps running trouble-free. That’s exactly why the oil change deserves top priority during servicing. Do that, and a taxi ride to the airport or the dacha, to work or from the station, will always be fast and comfortable for your customers.