ABSTRACT
In recent years, the growth in taxis and hire cars in the United Kingdom has been in remarkable contrast with other sectors of local passenger transport, particularly with the buses owned and operated by the large organizations characteristic of the bus industry. Very little, however, is known about the economics of these sectors; indeed for the hire cars, which till 1976 were completely unregulated and therefore unregistered, even the overall scale of activity is much in doubt. This chapter concentrates on the comparatively well-documented London taxi trade, and presents some results of research designed to improve our economic understanding of it.
