Worldwide eye in the sky could be finding a taxi for you in Dublin soon

A Global Positioning System to track the precise location of taxis could be in operation in Dublin within a year.

A Global Positioning System to track the precise location of taxis could be in operation in Dublin within a year.

GPS, a worldwide radio-navigation system, is formed from a constellation of 24 satellites and their ground stations.

The satellites are used as reference points to calculate positions accurate to a matter of metres.

Dublin Corporation is undertaking a feasibility study of GPS and expects to release its findings within eight weeks. A spokeswoman said it would be up to the taxi companies to operate a new system.

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Ideally, customers ordering a taxi would ring one main number for a central booking system and would get the next available taxi in their area. Customers now may have to try a number of companies to order a taxi for a certain time.

Fine Gael's spokeswoman on traffic, Ms Olivia Mitchell, said GPS could solve a lot of problems by allowing fewer taxis to do more work, as they would know where the business is.

She also said it was "the solution to cherry-picking and would also make taxi fleets more efficient".

Ms Mitchell said cherry-picking, where taxi-drivers choose the most lucrative fare, had been a widespread practice for years. Ms Mitchell said taxi-drivers had been known to "interview" people at a rank before choosing which passengers to take, instead of taking the first person in the rank as they were legally bound to.

Sometimes, she said, they would pass a rank and go round the corner and pick up a lucrative fare. Disabled people were at a similar disadvantage as they might not be deemed lucrative fares.

She advised victims of cherry-picking to complain to Dublin Corporation.