Taxis that offer a variety of ways to pay and come equipped with systems to keep an eye on the driver are about to arrive on the city's streets, with officials saying the only way is up when it comes to service quality.

Five new taxi fleets with more than 3,500 vehicles between them were unveiled on Monday.

Hundreds of the taxis are brand new and as well as accepting various forms of electronic payments rather than just cash, the fleets' various boasts include a number of wheelchair-accessible vehicles, some electric vehicles, online booking, and driver monitoring systems "for passenger convenience and driving safety", according to the government.

Transport Secretary Mabel Chan said that after years of challenges, the taxi trade can only make improvements when it comes to service and she hopes the fleets will play a leading role in this.

"I think today is a start," she said.

"We hope that we can promote and attract more taxis to join such a kind of fleet management so as to provide more modern and more user-friendly services."

Big Boss Taxi Company, CMG Fleet Management, Sino Development (International) Company, SynCab Service and Tai Wo Management are the operators granted licences.

Between them they will run around 20 percent of all the city's taxis, with the first fleet expected to start operating by the end of this month and all of them arriving by July.