Accessible Taxi Service Subsidy Pilot Plan

【Innovation Program】Accessible Taxi Service Subsidy Pilot Plan

Last year, TFRD started implementing the Accessible Taxi Subsidy Pilot Plan, and the reactions of patients differed.  Many who tried to make an appointment with accessible taxi service expressed that cars were commonly difficult to reserve.  There were even residential areas where accessible taxies were unavailable, which made boarding impossible in the first place.  However, for patients who did successfully aboard, they provided positive feedback, saying that accessible taxi ride indeed made going outside easier, and was a good option, when rehabus was dicey.

Under the government’s enthusiastic execution, there was an estimated 600 or so accessible taxies in Taiwan by the end of 2017.  With the rising demand of users, more drivers, hopefully, can be recruited in the future, so that the service of accessible taxies is able to get on track gradually. 

To subsidize reasonably, several adjustments of the pilot plan have been made according to the valuable opinions of patients. These include the reason for having to choose accessible taxi service, the continual use of the service, the degree of difficulty to make reservations, the fare, and the interaction, etc. The accessible taxi service charged approximately NTD$500 for one-way trip.  An additional of NTD$100-200 would be charged according to the meter.  In another case, one-way short-distance trip would be charged NTD$500 (up), and NTD$900 (up) for the round trip.  Based on our observation, on average a patient will take the ride two times in a month for clinic visits or physical therapy treatments.  Thus, this year TFRD will subsidize each ride NTD$250 at most, up to 32 rides (approximately NTD$8000) during the subsidy period from March to October, a total of eight months.  We expect that patients can put the service to good use.

Translator: Rachel (Wilson's Disease), Reviewer: Nicky