Taxi Driver Study: Field Notes

I have been on the field collecting more observations and interviews on the adoption of GPS by taxi drivers in Barcelona. On one hand I am interested in the co-evolution process and the modifications of the practices, on the other hand I focus on the context of use of the technology (other artifacts/tools, influence of landmarks, type of location information used (how, where, when, granularity). Here are a few notes that will need to be interpreted further. I collected data from a unbalance population of either find very experienced (15+ years: seniors) taxi drivers or novice in the practice (2- years: juniors). It has been harder to anybody in between. At least, it revealed dissimulates in the appropriation of the technology between the “seniors” and “juniors”.

Uniformity in the wild
First of all, there is a concenus that GPS an unbeatable tool when it come to reaching a specific destination in a village and leaving it (link to previous post). It is a strong reason to acquire a sat-nav system. But it is not really to be more productive and hence earn more, rather than feeling more serene (i.e. tranquility was the word). Some mention that it does not only tranquilize them but also their clients (“they know I cannot cheat them with it”, “it reassures them that I go to the proper destination”). When it comes to seniors, they now know that they have a “companion” (some refereed to their car with an affectionate “she” and their sat-nav with a “he”) can take them anywhere and avoid these moment when they had to search endlessly browsing the street directories of the suburbs of Barcelona, asking their colleagues via radio or mobile phone. One mentioned me that “the fear of getting lost with a client I felt in my stomach now disappeared”. Another was relieved that he did not have to use his radio to ask colleagues about particular location informations and wayfinding (even though many taxi drivers are extreme social animals). Currently the radio is uniquely used to get dispatching orders and professional questions (e.g. asking on special rates for some destinations). To get out of the unfamiliar environment, the driver would be either very cautious in the path taken to enter the area (“I am a very good observer”) or use their GPS with destination Barcelona. In their exit strategy, their reach their bookmark of saved destinations are hit “home”, “Barcelona, any street”, or “Barcelona center”.

Disparities in the urban space
However, when it comes to the context of the city, practices differ and the “Guia” comes into play. The “Guia” is a dense book of all the streets and POI in Barcelona. Experienced drivers have been using it all their professional lives and have partially learned the city with it. Another big part of the knowledge drivers acquire come from the clients themselves. They know all the tricks and secrets official books and commercial systems can’t tell. As the experience drivers contain most of the knowledge of the city in memory they rarely return to the Guia. In fact, they prefer using their sat-nav and hit the Guia only as fail-over (e.g. when the system does not contain a street number or lacks of information). Even after 20 years of experience, one drivers still perceived accessing the Guia as a demanding task. Compare to that, hitting the screen of his Tom-Tom was a pure pleasure. This process of accessing correct information is executed differently by the juniors I interviewed. First, they had mixed feelings about their experience with their GPS (“It is like my mobile phone, sometimes it does not work well”, “it is a potential problem”) in terms of quality of services and precision of the information. They very early reached the limits of the systems and the inaccuracy (erroneous information) of the system directly impacted the quality of their service (mostly because they had to deeply rely on it in the beginning). In consequence, they embraced the use of the “Guia” which is “more accurate and complete” (particularly when it comes to POI). In the city, they learned not to completely rely on their sat-nav (because it is hard for them to judge if the information is erroneous or not) and first open the “Guia” prior to enter an address. One told me that he learned to interpret the system and its errors. When a conflict emerges between his sat-nav and his “knowledge” he starts to “improvise” (in his own terms). Depending on the circumstances he would either switch it off or ignore it for a while.

The confirmation of the funnel
Confirming what I mentioned previously, the wayfinding practice takes place in 2 main stages. There is a separation difference between “ir” (to go) and “llegar” (to arrive) and the location information are different in each phase. First the driver has the knowledge of the area where to go or checks in the Guia to get a rough awareness of destination (one driver told me he would directly enter the address in his navigation system). This is done at any occasion at a traffic light or in dense traffic (if the driver knows he will have to go on the highway directly, he/she will check prior to leaving). It is only at the entrance of the area (e.g. a neighborood – it would be interesting to define it better) that the active mode of the sat-nav system starts by entering the full address (once again taking advantages of traffic lights and busy traffic).
Mobile phone
The mobile phone often available is seen as a social link to family and friends, and is very rarely used as a tool to support their work. One driver told me that he used it a few times to check if a table was available at a restaurant for clients (particularly foreigners). This is a service he gives as added value, but he “normally should not do it”.

Passive mode
As mentioned in a paper by Nick Forbes,there is a clear tendency to keep the system in passive mode at any time. It is done so mainly to keep track of the radars (seems to be more a priority for experienced drivers) and (for juniors) to keep an awareness of where they are (keep track of the proximate streets) and it was also very valuable to learn the city. On this point, an experienced driver explained me that younger drivers who use a navigation system do not gain knowledge of the city, because they follow the recommendations and “stop to think”. My contact with the younger generation proved somehow the opposite. They are eager to learn the city and the imperfection of their systems forced them to get knowledge from the “Guia” and from the clients.

Relation to my thesis: Working on The co-evolution of taxi drivers and their in-car navigation systems, I stereotyped a bit the practices based on my notes to reveal the main patterns. I keep 3 main tracks that are worth investigate more in details:
- different appropriation of the location-aware system depending on the overall knowledge and experience of the space. The shortcoming of GPS forced the younger generation to rely on the Guia, while the older generation has little use of the Guia now. This goes in the direction of understanding and supporting “mobilities” instead of mobility.
- a tool not to make more money, nor to improve the efficacy, but to tranquilize (“I can go everywhere”) and relax (e.g. passive mode to have a continuous awareness)
- funnel-type of access to location information (I will model the process, this is part of the understanding of granularity) with multiple sources (kwnoledge, sat-nav and Guia)