Seoul City marks top 10% of taxis with AAA certificates. April. 26, 2017 07:17. by Tae-Ho Hwang taeho@donga.com. People can easily notice taxies that make the top 10 percent among Seoul taxis with their excellent customer service. The Seoul Metropolitan City announced on Tuesday that the city government marked 2,377 taxies from 25 companies operating in Seoul with the most excellent (AAA) certificates on front window and vehicle light after assessing their service quality last year. The triple A mark indicates that the vehicle is outstanding in the categories of customer service, treatment of drivers, and business management.

The AAA taxi certificate was first introduced last year and attached to a total number of 1,309 vehicles from 13 companies. However, issues were raised that people did not understand the meaning of AAA as it was written in English only. Hence, the city government has changed its logo in Korean as well and improved the design to glow at night.

Although companies were given the triple A certificate based on last year's evaluation results, their certificates can be cancelled immediately when their drivers are involved in sex and drug crimes or any violations of laws such as fuel subsidy fraud and employment of people with no driver’s license. “A survey result shows that taxi drivers with the AAA certificates are more kind and drove more safely after the city adopted the certificate system,” said Yang Wan-soo, chief of the Seoul city government's Taxi & Logistics Department.