Urban passenger-and-package sharing transportation by e-hailing taxis: A simulation-based pricing analysis in shanghai

This study proposes a framework of an urban passenger-and-package sharing (PPS) system that utilizes e-hailing taxis to transport packages in addition to passengers. We examine the interactions between stakeholders and highlight the role of the pricing strategy in the system, including passenger fare discounts and driver incentives for PPS trips. Higher discounts and incentives stimulate more passengers and taxi drivers, respectively, to participate in the PPS system but possibly limit the profit of the service provider. A multi-agent simulation model is developed to analyze the influences of the pricing strategy on the behaviors of the service provider, passengers, and taxi drivers. The real-world case study demonstrates that the service provider, passengers, and taxi drivers benefit from different combinations of the passenger fare discounts and driver incentives. The pricing strategy could be set up to produce the system optimal (SO) situation that maximizes the total benefit, or win-win situations that simultaneously benefit all stakeholders—the service provider gains a higher profit, passengers enjoy lower travel costs, and taxi drivers have higher incomes when compared to the traditional e-hailing taxi system. The public authority is suggested to provide a subsidy to expand the domain of win-win situations to cover the SO situation, such that the system benefits all stakeholders and obtains the maximum total benefit.