Few factors contribute quite so much to the liveability of Shanghai as its taxis, but just how does it work for those men and women who ferry us around this sprawling city? Ask Gillian Lu and Douglas Williams.

Prior to the first time touching down in Shanghai, there are a few Mandarin phrases that most try to grip with - "ni hao," "xie xie," "you guai," "zuo guai" and "yi zhi zou."

Even the Chinese find the Mandarin for taxi, chu zu che, a mouthful and subsequently there are many shortened versions - the Shanghainese is ca tou, Beijing's is di shi.

While the pronunciation may be difficult, using taxis in Shanghai is reasonably straightforward and inexpensive. Those Volkswagen Santanas, with their white-gloved drivers in assorted livery add value to Shanghai in lots of ways. Many of us spend a lot of time in taxis but how exactly does it all work for the taxi drivers themselves?

For a start, there are around 45,000 taxis and in the region of 90,000 taxi drivers. Most of Shanghai's taxi drivers alternate between a day driving and a day of rest and most rent their taxi from one of the big companies.

The biggest taxi company in the city is Da Zhong, with 9,000 light blue-green taxis; 8,000 yellow Qiang Sheng taxis; 6,500 green Ba Shi taxis; 4,500 white Jin Jiang taxis and 4,000 blue Hai Bo taxis.

Song Yueping, a manager at Hai Bo's Minhang depot, has been in the business for more than 10 years. He's a systematic sort of guy and it's just as well or he'd get in an awful pickle with 500 taxis under his watch. Each taxi is rented out for 9,500 yuan (US$1,256) per month with an additional 500 yuan monthly maintenance fee.

Those drivers who rent the car as solo operators pay 75 percent of the rental fee. Each car must visit the depot twice a month for a cleaning and check over; it's the same with all the big companies.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200708/20070801/article_325497.htm