"If Chair Stanley Yen is a hopeless optimist, I am a hopeless perseverant," said Dr. Samuel Hou, Professor, Graduate Institute of Public Affairs and Social Innovation of Feng Chia University.
The cooperation with The Alliance Cultural Foundation (ACF) began in 2011 with the “Cloud Dispatch Technology” and “Service & City Guide Training for Local Taxi Drivers.” In Taiwan, many find themselves compelled to transition from their original professions and become taxi drivers after losing their occupations due to unforeseen circumstances. Despite the hard work and long hours required in this industry, coupled with unstable income, the development of this industry is limited. However, in the eyes of Dr. Samuel Hou, these taxi drivers who shuttle through the streets and alleys of the city are like microvessels between urban and rural areas, playing an important role in using mobility to convey love and caring for vulnerable groups.
After the value reversal of taxi drivers, perhaps they are still quietly working in society, carrying out service work that even their children may not be aware of, but they are no longer just laborers, they are caregivers. Dr. Hou said that he never measures his actions by success or failure. He is also fortunate to have a force pushing him forward in his faith. He does not "see" before believing in a turning point, but he believes that the efforts of a group of people can eventually trigger a butterfly effect and become a force for changing society. The only question he asks himself is: Have I done my best?
All changes start from Taitung
After Typhoon Morakot devastated Taiwan in 2009, ACF was established, dedicated to the sustainable economic development of Hualien and Taitung (Huatung). In the initial stage, the foundation focused on transforming fast travel culture into a deep slow travel experience, making the tranquility of Huatung a place for people to find inner peace. Through deep cultivation in Huatung, ACF realized that in the remote transportation of Huatung, taxis are the key to promoting deep slow travel and have become one of the transportation tools for youth travel. Therefore, in November 2011, ACF collaborated with the Taitung County Government to hold two sessions of the "Service & City Guide Training for Local Taxi Drivers," inviting Patruck Su, who was then a Professor at National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, to train drivers in basic foreign language communication, tour guiding skills, and service quality.
At that time, there were only over 400 taxis in Taitung County, lacking the economic scale to attract government or private sector investment in establishing a satellite navigation system and a taxi dispatch service center. Dr. Hou was responsible for the National Science Council's "Cloud Dispatch Technology" project at the time, combining it with ACF's “Service & City Guide Training for Local Taxi Drivers.” Through the innovative transformation of local satellite navigation systems and taxi dispatch service centers, he constructed a tourism service network covering Greater Taitung, combining scattered taxi fleets into a strong and close-knit network. Although vehicles could be dispatched with just the satellite positioning function of a smartphone, the limited number of drivers, coupled with the threshold of driver's skills in operating 3C devices, meant that the project ultimately failed to materialize in Taitung.
When Dr. Hou finished the project and was preparing to leave Taitung, local drivers asked, "You taught us to use apps and tablets, but what's next after you leave?" This question stumped Dr. Hou. He had never thought about making commitments to the drivers and realized that he was just executing a project without truly understanding their needs, which had hurt them instead. After returning home, he pondered deeply and decided that he wanted to execute a project for these drivers that would not have an end date.
In 2013, Dr. Hou continued the training program in Taitung and proposed the "Taxi Innovation Academy" project, officially establishing the "Taiwan Goodwill Taxi Service Team" in 2014. This was Taiwan's first taxi “university”, with companionship as its core, aiming to enhance the professional knowledge and service quality of taxi drivers through training, allowing drivers to use technology platforms to expand their customer base and thus create more opportunities.
With the support of Feng Chia University, Dr. Hou took on the Ministry of Science and Technology's new technology innovation and operation model project and founded "Donkey Move" in 2018, renaming the "Taiwan Goodwill Taxi Service Team" to "Taiwan Be the Light Association." "Donkey Move" focuses on serving the elderly and rural areas, using a platform for calling cars, integrating universities, taxi companies, and nonprofit organizations to launch shared transportation services in rural areas, using government long-term care funds to introduce shuttle cars. In addition to transportation, there are also food delivery, daily necessities procurement, and medical care services, allowing isolated or rural elderly people to meet their daily life needs.
The "Taiwan Be the Light Association" focuses on accompanying drivers, transforming the industry, and benefiting society. The accompanied groups also include caregivers and women re-entering the workforce. The association has transformed the structure of the industry, making drivers not just employees or members, but partners in entrepreneurship. Everyone shares the responsibility of an entrepreneur and, through the feedback, observation, and creativity of the drivers, extends the value of more action, such as disaster relief, food conservation, and transportation of goods to rural areas.
Named "Be the Light," because taxi drivers become the most direct and warmest hope in the darkest moments. In 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic reached level three alert, long-term care and transportation services plummeted. However, Dr. Hou saw the need to transport confirmed cases. In the most severe 82 days of the epidemic, drivers transported more than 4,300 confirmed cases from the airport. Facing the invisible source of infection, although they were full of fear, they still protected their homeland like frontline medical staff.
Dr. Hou said, "Becoming a epidemic prevention driver can reverse their original disadvantages. This is not only a source of income for them, but also a mission they undertake for society, risking infection. It also lets them know that in this difficult time, they are a group of people who are needed."
Turning mobility into care, reversing the lives of both parties
After the epidemic subsided, the “Taiwan Be the Light Association” integrated barrier-free transportation vehicles, allowing people with special needs to receive safe transportation services, and recruited more than 200 drivers. Long-term care transportation services have been deployed in Taipei, New Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Taitung, and other places, serving more than 100,000 long-term care transportation trips to date.
Hengyi Hong, a senior driver at the “Taiwan Be the Light Association” and a father of three, has a wife who also works at the association and holds a qualified caregiver certificate. He shared that he used to resist picking up a grandma who had dementia because she often forgot her own home and refused to admit her condition, let alone let anyone touch on this taboo topic, so he always had to deal with it cautiously. Once, Hong drove the grandma to meet her old classmate, and accidentally went too far. The grandma hurriedly said, "Here! Here! This is it!" Hong was very surprised that the grandma with dementia remembered her classmate's address, and praised her, "You are amazing! Remind me next time so I don't overshoot again." The grandma laughed happily like a child. Some elderly people live alone, and their children cannot visit them regularly for various reasons. When Hong goes to take care of them, the grandma holds his hand and says, "Thank you for coming. Thank you. Come back soon." Although it is only a brief visit, it allows caregivers to understand the true situation of the elderly more deeply and lets them know that someone cares about them.
He also once drove a grandma who had a stroke three months ago. When the grandma pessimistically said, "Rehabilitation seems to be useless..." Hong cited a successful rehabilitation case he had experienced to encourage her. Every time the grandma got off the car, he would say, "Auntie, keep it up! You will get better and better!" The bright eyes of the grandma made him feel very comforted.
In recent years, Dr. Hou has seen changes in the relationship between drivers and passengers; drivers and passengers no longer just provide transportation, but there is more companionship, and they even become like family to each other. Hong also shared in his work diary the changes in his four years as a long-term care driver. Hong said, "Being a long-term care driver, I was not used to interacting with strangers, but after seeing the warmth of my indigenous colleagues towards customers and knowing the inner pain of sick individuals, I am now able to bring singing, laughter, warm greetings, and attentive service."
In the training for long-term care drivers, there is also the "Mulan Program" for female drivers. The association recruited more than 60 women aged 45-64 to help them obtain both caregiver and driver's licenses, allowing elderly people living alone in rural areas to safely seek medical treatment and helping them with laundry and cooking. It also provides these women participating in the "Mulan Program" with a stable income from their second career. Currently, legal long-term care taxi services are available in rural areas such as Lishan, Wulai, Meinong, Qishan, Chenggong, and Fengbin.
“Donkey Move” - TTGO 2.0 Returns to Taitung
On the evening of September 17, 2022, a major earthquake struck Taitung, causing the collapse of the Hualien Luntian and Gaoliao bridges, as well as the rupture of the railway tracks from Yuli to Fuli on the Taitung Railway Line. In response to the sudden disruption of daily life and transportation, “Donkey Move” accelerated the implementation of the "TTGO (Taitung Transportation Reservation Matching Platform)" local transportation trial project, which was originally scheduled to start the following year. With support from the Ministry of Transportation and the National Development Council, they quickly integrated resources, established north and south routes, and ensured that people in the disaster area could safely reach their destinations. "TTGO" ended its first phase trial on January 31, 2023.
TTGO 2.0 was re-launched in 2024, training local residents to obtain professional licenses and become part-time "taxi drivers" exclusively operating in their hometowns. With the spirit of "locals serving locals," they use the TTGO reservation platform for taxi bookings to improve the intra-county shuttle services in 15 remote areas of Taitung County. In villages such as Changbin, Chenggong, Donghe, Yanping, Haiduan, Jinfeng, and Daren where there are no train services, they provide cross-town shuttle services, connecting remote tribal residents, elderly people, preschoolers or students for medical treatment, schooling, employment, and daily travel needs that are far from public transport stations. Moreover, due to the special project subsidy from the National Development Council, passengers can receive a 50% fare subsidy, making Taitung County the first county in the country to implement a shared transportation pilot led by the local government.
Compared to the Ministry of Transportation's "Happiness Bus," which targets towns and townships and mainly focuses on subsidizing losses, lacking a sustainable financial model, TTGO is operated and marketed by the county government. They invite local residents to join as self-employed workers, develop various local daily shuttle needs, and complete service and shuttle tasks on the platform to receive the deserved driver service fares from the county government. This service model, which involves local drivers serving local people, not only expands the service scope but also enhances the employment opportunities for local residents in remote areas. By adopting a full-reservation service model, it can effectively reduce the waste of vehicle return trips. This innovative solution legalizes the traditional private transaction of white plate car shuttles, turning the white plate cars of rural residents into legal green plate vehicles for passenger service. Drivers join the transportation service queue as part-timers, forming a positive market cycle. Dr. Hou said, "The concept of local revitalization can be learned from Japan, but under the circumstances where land area and transportation costs cannot be replicated, TTGO can be said to be a Taitung-born, Taitung-fashioned, and original revitalization service. TTGO is the first and most successful case of inter-agency cooperation."
Going the Extra Mile
Looking back on his relationship with taxi drivers, Dr. Hou has also stumbled on the road to entrepreneurship. Reflecting on the past decade, he says that the biggest challenge now is that while app technology has become diverse, government regulations often lag behind the times. He considers himself fortunate to have worked in research during university, giving him more opportunities to propose policy recommendations to government departments. However, he notes that the government's pace of change remains slow. The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Council of Indigenous Peoples all have their own opinions. Even if the central ministries are willing to change, local governments or townships often do not know how to implement them. Therefore, he says, they can only trade time for space, continuously accompany different stakeholders, and try to make each change, gradually loosening the local structure.
He starts from the perspective of rural and disadvantaged groups, making taxi drivers providing services become mission-oriented workers. To solve the problem of insufficient transportation capacity in rural areas, he deeply appreciates the trust given by drivers from all over Taiwan, including taxi matchmaking platforms, local fleets, Car Plus, Yulon Finance Corporation, various government departments, and Feng Chia University. "Drivers are not just members of the association, but also lifelong partners in entrepreneurship." Looking to the future, Dr. Hou thanks the students he has mentored at Feng Chia University and National Chengchi University. These students have joined him in his academic practice of "transforming society through mobility" while completing thesis research. "In this process of mutual learning and growth, the greatest satisfaction as a teacher is seeing students find their own calling and courageously respond, embarking on their heroic journey without fear. As for whether the social practices I have invested in will succeed or not, it is no longer important, because seeing the light in the eyes of the students makes everything worthwhile."