Taxis of Vietnam

In its early years, its main customer base was among European colonizers within then-French Indochina, with a small number of French firms holding a quasi-monopoly on both manufacturing and circulation.

After the proliferation of public cycle rickshaws (xích lô, from cyclo) and rampant rickshaw taxes forced reform and regulation in the 1910s, Vietnamese residents became a more significant portion of the customer base and began to regularly use the vehicle-for-hire service for daily urban life.

Air-conditioned, metered taxicabs were a contrast to the lower priced, but informal services offered by the xe om motorbike and the xích lô rickshaw taxi drivers, and the burgeoning middle class of Vietnam was looking to use its disposable income[9] While riding a taxi was once an elusive a status symbol for many, car ownership has become an increasingly attainable status symbol for others.

[10] With Urban Rail Transit projects being continuously delayed in the cities,[11] residents continue to access an array of transportation options, including buses, private vehicles, taxicabs, motorbike taxis [12] Taxicab companies and independent cab drivers operate side by side.

[18] Taxi companies that refuse to adjust fares to market circumstances, such as drops in the price of fuel, have been cautioned with fined by authorities.

[28] The 2016 film Taxi, What's Your Name stars Angela Phuong Trinh as the taxicab driver protagonist and Truong Giang as her passenger.