[1] A car-rental company in Paris ordered 1,500 cars in 1905 as a result of a recent invention that automatically calculated how much the passenger had to pay, the taximeter.

[2] However with the onset of World War I, only 3,000 taxis were still in service in Paris by September 1914; typically driven by chauffeurs aged 55 to 65.

[2] On 6 September 1914, General Gallieni gathered about six hundred taxicabs at Les Invalides in central Paris to carry soldiers to the front at Nanteuil-le-Haudouin, fifty kilometres away.

[8] Although the Marne taxis were used to transport members of the 62nd Division, its public prominence was largely due to the improvised nature of the effort.

[8] However, reports on the Marne taxis had a real effect in boosting the morale of French Army, and its civilian populations.