Shanghai has formed an army of 4,000 cabs dedicated to serve the World Expo 2010 due to open on May 1, municipal traffic authorities said Thursday.

The cab team consists of 3,650 Volkswagen Touran sedans and 350 Buick LaCrosse hybrid power cars from Shanghai's five major taxi companies, said a spokesman with Shanghai's Transportation Department.

A sophisticated system had been set up to dispatch the cabs catering to the needs of Expo visitors, residents and enterprises in the Expo area, participants of the event and travels to and from hotels, he added.

The system offers regular telephone taxi booking in Chinese, English and Japanese. Interpreters are available for other languages, said Yang Guoping, general manager of Dazhong Transportation (Group) Co., Ltd, developer of the system.

Round-the-clock hotlines would be available for inquiries, complains and lost property claims. Complains would be delivered to the driver's company within an hour and handled with in 24 hours, Yang added.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2010)