您是否有过深夜中在闹市中到处徘徊拼命寻找出租汽车的经历？不过，这已经是过去的事情了。至少在伦敦，一项出租汽车呼叫服务使得旅客可以通过移动电话与城市内可以使用的计程车直接联系。

注释：
1.desperately adv. 拼命地, 失望地    2.cab  n. 计程车
3.drove  n. 一群                     4.laden  adj. 装载的，充满的
5.rational  adj. 合理的              6.hail  v. 招呼
7.antenna  n. 天线        8.cabbies (cabby   的复数) n. 计程车司机

Mobile Phone Hails Taxi

ANCHOR FEMALE
Have you ever found yourself wandering around town late at night desperately looking for a taxi? Well, that could be a thing of the past. At least in London a taxi-hailing service is putting passengers in direct contact with available cabs in the city via their mobile phones. Tony Campion has the details.

TONY CAMPION
Red buses and black cabs. London’s famous for them and they’re famous for appearing in droves when you don’t want one. But you’re laden down with shopping and you’re desperate to get home in a hurry, can you find one?

Well, one company says yes, you just dial one central number on your mobile phone and the call gets you directly to the nearest free cab.

You agree where to meet directly with the driver. The service developed by Manganese Bronze is provided by Zingo. Zingo’s managing director is Mark Fawcett. Mark, what is the rational behind Zingo?

MARK FAWCETT ZINGO
For centuries now in London, whenever you point to a black cab, you have to go out through the street to hail one. And the advances in communication technology over the last two decades have meant that you don’t need to do that anymore.

TONY CAMPION
It works like this. Your mobile phone company tells Zingo which antenna you’re making the call through so Zingo knows where you are to within a few tens of meters. It then locates its nearest taxi by GPS satellite technology, automatically puts you through to the driver. Taking the risk out of hailing a cab, say, late at night.

But not everyone is a fan. Cabbies are proud of the years they’ve spent coming to places like this to learn the knowledge as it’s known they’re way around London. And some see technology as a threat.

UNIDENTIFIELD MALE
It is bound to get worse. Maybe it’s alright when it’s busy, say, you come out of the restaurant and you try to get a cab, but...

TONY CAMPION
Even then, there’s no guarantee.

BOB OPPY, LICENCED TAXI DRIVER’S ASSN
Obviously if the taxi arrives, for example, outside a busy pub with lots of people spilling out or maybe spilling out of a theater, it’s possible you might get the wrong passenger in.

TONY CAMPION
And one aspect which, even in this mobile age, still seems a disadvantage.

VOICE ON THE LINE
Please call back from a mobile phone to hail a taxi.

TONY CAMPION
Of the 24000 cabs in London, and so far only about 500 of them have signed up to the Zingo system. But not stopping the company having big, international expansion plans.

MARK FAWCETT
We’ve had people contacting us to ask us how we could fit in to their country. Now, each city has a different taxi using culture. So we have to adapt customer service to their side. And we also have to adapt the technology as well.

PEPORTER
Would you use the service?

UNIDENTIFIELD FEMALE
Uh, probably not. No, cause we got quite a good taxi service where we live.

UNIDENTIFIELD FEMALE
I’d rather be safe, than sorry, even if it costs a little bit more.

TONY CAMPION
$2.50 more in fact. Money straight to Zingo. The cabbies also pay the company $25 a week for the extra business. But with 13 million dollars invested to date, it could be years before Zingo makes a profit. Tony Campion, CNN, London.

完美的出租车服务

女主播
您是否有过深夜中在闹市中到处徘徊拼命寻找出租汽车的经历？不过，这已经是过去的事情了。至少在伦敦，一项出租汽车呼叫服务使得旅客可以通过移动电话与城市内可以使用的计程车直接联系。托尼•坎平将报道详细情况。

托尼•坎平
红色公交车和黑色计程车。伦敦因它们而闻名，它们也因在你不需要的时候成群结队地出现而出名。但是，在你手中满是购买的商品并且急不可待想要回家时，你是否可以马上找到一辆车呢？

一家公司说可以。你只需要通过移动电话拨出一个电话总机号码，电话将指导你立即找到最近的空闲出租汽车。

你直接跟驾驶员确定碰面地点。这项由Manganese Bronze开发的业务由Zingo提供。Zingo 的总裁是迈克•福赛特。迈克，Zingo 提供这项服务的方案是什么？

迈克•福赛特， Zingo公司
几个世纪以来，在现在的伦敦，每当你想要叫一辆黑色出租汽车时，你必须穿过街道走到出租车面前才能招到一辆。随着最近二十年通信技术的发展，你已经不必再那样做了。

托尼•坎平
它是这样工作的。移动电话公司告诉Zingo你进行通话所使用的天线，从而使Zingo知道距你所在位置数十米的范围。然后，它通过全球定位通讯卫星技术确定距你最近的出租汽车的位置，自动地使你和驾驶员联系上。在深夜有可能呼叫不到出租汽车。
但是，并不是所有的人都对此感到高兴。出租车司机自己逐渐积累经验，变成了伦敦的活地图，他们对这段岁月感到自豪。他们中的一些人把新技术看作是一种威胁。

男被访者
情况一定会变坏。也许当它忙碌时情况还不错，比方说，你从饭店出来并设法搭上一辆出租车，但是……

托尼•坎平
甚至在这种情况下，也不能保证。

鲍伯•欧普，资格认证协会
显然，如果出租车到达有大量客人从中走出的繁忙酒店或者来到大量观众纷纷离场的电影院门口，很有可能接错乘客。

托尼•坎平
还有另一个方面的问题，即使在这个移动时代，这个方面仍然是一项缺点。
电话声
请用移动电话回复订车呼叫。

托尼•坎平
在伦敦总共24000辆出租汽车中，到目前为止只有500辆与Zingo系统签订协议，但这并没有阻止该公司宏伟的国际扩张计划。

迈克•福赛特
已经有客户跟我们联系，询问我们的系统如何在他们的国家使用。现在，每座城市具有不同的出租车使用文化。因此，我们必须使客户服务适应他们的习惯。另外，我们还必须改进技术。

记者
你需要这种服务吗？

女被访者
嗯，可能不需要。因为在我们在生活的地区得到相当周到的出租车服务。

女被访者
我宁愿选择安全也不要出现遗憾，即使这项服务需要多花一点钱。

托尼•坎平
事实上，用户需要多花2.50美元。款项直接转给Zingo。出租车司机还要为得到额外的业务每周付给公司25美元。到目前为止Zingo已经为此投资了1300万美元，但Zingo要想赢利可能还需要几年时间。美国有线电视网托尼•坎平伦敦报道。