In Germany, the taxi market is strictly regulated and enforced.
Cities have uniform tariffs, calibrated meters and forced availability (i.e. a taxi driver is obliged to take everyone everywhere, unless the guest is a danger to the safety of the taxi like drunk or agressive) to avoid the horror stories of other cities like wildly varying prices for the same route (hello Uber surge pricing!), cabs not responding to a hail (multiple accounts of this on HN e.g. for New York)... and the drivers have to undergo a rigorous testing of location knowledge, which usually takes into account not just the streets, but also basic history and points of interest.
Also, in most cities the number of available medaillions usually represents the amount of taxis needed, so there is no unhealthy competition and enough taxis on the road to serve the demand.
Edit: Yep, the cars also are mandatory checked once every year and the cars are commercially insured. Rigorous checks also make sure every driver is appropriately registered and no "illegal" workers drive. The downside of the system, though, is that the fares are seen to high from customers' POV and too low from the company POV (because the prices are often adjusted only once every couple of years and in the meantime, gas and insurance costs only go up).
Another thing which will be massively disrupting the German taxi space will be the mandatory minimum wage of €8.70/h - while now a huge lot of the taxi drivers are paid a percentage of their income, everyone will have to shift to hour-based payments, which will definitely affect the companies.
Cities have uniform tariffs, calibrated meters and forced availability (i.e. a taxi driver is obliged to take everyone everywhere, unless the guest is a danger to the safety of the taxi like drunk or agressive) to avoid the horror stories of other cities like wildly varying prices for the same route (hello Uber surge pricing!), cabs not responding to a hail (multiple accounts of this on HN e.g. for New York)... and the drivers have to undergo a rigorous testing of location knowledge, which usually takes into account not just the streets, but also basic history and points of interest.
Also, in most cities the number of available medaillions usually represents the amount of taxis needed, so there is no unhealthy competition and enough taxis on the road to serve the demand.
Edit: Yep, the cars also are mandatory checked once every year and the cars are commercially insured. Rigorous checks also make sure every driver is appropriately registered and no "illegal" workers drive. The downside of the system, though, is that the fares are seen to high from customers' POV and too low from the company POV (because the prices are often adjusted only once every couple of years and in the meantime, gas and insurance costs only go up).
Another thing which will be massively disrupting the German taxi space will be the mandatory minimum wage of €8.70/h - while now a huge lot of the taxi drivers are paid a percentage of their income, everyone will have to shift to hour-based payments, which will definitely affect the companies.