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A taxi, often known as a cab or a taxicab, is a form of rental vehicle with a driver that is typically employed by a single passenger or small group of passengers for a non-shared journey. A taxicab transports customers to and from their desired place. This varies from public transportation, where the service provider determines the pick-up and drop-off sites rather than the consumers, while demand responsive transportation and share taxis give a hybrid bus/taxi option.

There are four main types of taxicabs, each with somewhat different names in various countries:

Hackney carriages, often known as public hire, hailed or street taxis, are taxis that may be hailed anywhere in the world.
Vehicles permitted for pre-booking only, often known as minicabs or private hire taxis.

Taxibuses, often known as jitneys or jeepneys in underdeveloped nations, operate on pre-determined routes characterized by many stops and several independent passengers.

Limousines are specialty vehicles that must be pre-booked in order to operate.

Although the types of vehicles and the processes of regulating, recruiting, dispatching, and negotiating remuneration vary greatly from nation to country, there are many common traits. Some jurisdictions have enacted additional laws for ridesharing services as a consequence of disagreements over whether they should be regulated like taxicabs.

The word “taxicab” is a combination of the words “taximeter” and “cabriolet.” “Taximeter” is derived from the German word taxameter, which was derived from the previous German word “Taxanom.” “Taxe” (pronounced tax-eh) is a German term that means “tax,” “charge,” or “charge scale.” “Taxia” is a Medieval Latin term that also meaning “taxation” or “charge.” To the extent that (taxidi) currently meaning “journey” in Greek originally signified an organized military march or campaign, “taxi” may eventually be traced to from meaning “to set in a definite order” in Ancient Greek, as in ordering an orderly battle line or ordaining the payment of taxes. The word meter comes from the Greek word v (metron), which means “measure.” A “cabriolet” is a horse-drawn vehicle derived from the French term “cabrioler” (“jump, caper”), Italian “capriolare” (“to somersault”), and Latin “capreolus” (“to leap, caper”) (“roebuck”, “wild goat”). The word has taken on the connotation of a convertible automobile in most European languages.

Beginning on March 9, 1898, the first meters were installed in Paris taxicabs. They were initially known as taxibread, but on October 17, 1904, they were renamed taximètres.

The phrase “taxicab” was adopted from London by Harry Nathaniel Allen of The New York Taxicab Company, who brought the first 600 gas-powered taxicabs into New York City from France in 1907.

It was named after Franz von Taxis, of the family of Thurn and Taxis, a 16th-century postmaster for Philip of Burgundy, and his nephew Johann Baptiste von Taxis, General Postmaster of the Holy Roman Empire, according to a folk-etymology. Both established rapid and dependable mail systems across Europe (conveying letters, with some post routes transporting people).

Horse-drawn carriages for hiring In the early 17th century, hackney carriage services began to operate in both Paris and London. In London, in 1605, the first known public hackney carriage service for hire was established. Innkeepers in London began renting carriages around 1625, and the first taxi station opened on the Strand outside the Maypole Inn in 1636. Parliament established the Hackney Carriage Act in 1635, making horse-drawn carriages permissible for rent. Innkeepers rented out coaches to merchants and travelers. In 1654, Parliament passed another “Ordinance for the Regulation of Hackney-Coachmen in London and the Places Adjacent,” and the first hackney-carriage licenses were given in 1662.

Nicolas Sauvage established a comparable business in Paris in 1637. His cars were dubbed fiacres after the primary vehicle depot, which was said to be located next to a shrine to Saint Fiacre. (The French name fiacre is still used to designate a hired horse-drawn vehicle, whereas the German term Fiaker is used to refer to the same thing, notably in Austria.)

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