(Yicai Global) Nov. 27 – China’s leading digital map and navigation service provider Autonavi Holdings will initiate a project in Shenzhen in southeastern Guangdong province to help taxis digitize and upgrade. The program is set to finish the integration of networks targeting 1 million taxis within one year, assist 300 cab companies in completing digitization and upgrading to enable drivers’ earnings to grow by 30 percent, and their vehicles’ vacancy rates to fall by 20 percent.

Beijing-based Autonavi Holdings -- as known as Amap -- pledged to also refrain from plying online ride-hailing, online news outlet The Paper reported yesterday. The company’s services will also help governments and firms set up Big Data platforms to keep tabs on taxis in a timely manner and thus anticipate demand and reasonably deploy fleets to cut vacancy rates and increase drivers’ orders and income, and further intelligentize customers’ vehicle hailing.

Autonavi has also debuted the first-ever service map for drivers with discounted dining offers, lists of public lavatories, route recommendation and preferential prices for oil and gas refills, as well as recharging. The chart also helps drivers achieve self-service shift changes and seeks to direct subsequent orders close to staging areas for shift changes to lessen driving distances without fares between shifts.

Such programs are already in operation in Shenzhen, Beijing, Tianjin, Guangdong’s Huizhou and many other cities, the report added, with the number of integrated taxis connected to the network via this project leading the entire sector.

Editor: Ben Armour