Research of Relationship between Incentive Factors and Individual Profile of Taxi Driver in China

This research adopts a statistical approach to identify the correlations between the effective incentive factors and profiles of drivers, which contributes to establishing an advanced individual-based incentive mechanism that can be applied by taxi companies in China. Firstly, a questionnaire survey was conducted among taxi drivers in Yiwu City of China to gather information about their profiles and their opinions on the effectiveness of the eight incentive measures which were defined by the experts in the field of urban transport. Through a principal component analysis with the survey data, three principal components were found and defined as incentive factors using the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, which includes physiological, esteem, and self-actualization factors. Then, the correlations between these factors and the profiles of taxi drivers were analyzed by applying the one-way analysis of variance. The results indicate that the drivers’ profiles of monthly income and work experience are significantly correlated with incentive factors.