United Cabs unveils new app

SASKATOON — United Cabs has come out with its own mobile app that allows you to order a cab using your smartphone.

“We have to go with the times,” says Troy Larmer, general manager for The United Group. “We needed to improve customer service and the ability for our customers to reach out and get to us.”

Larmer said they have been working on the app for about 10 months and upgrading their system.

“This includes our phone, dispatch and in-cab equipment,” Larmer said. “This was necessary so we could be current with new technology and allow our system to support our own mobile app and not one from a third party company.”

Larmer said the app is user friendly.

Once you have downloaded the app and set up a profile you can to call a taxi to your current GPS location, or select a different location. You can also book a cab for a later date and time.

He said you will receive an immediate email confirmation for your order, notification of the cab number that accepts your trip and then you can track your cab driving to your location on your screen. Once the cab arrives the driver sends a text notification.

“It is another convenient way to order a cab,” he said.

And if you are at a busy place someone can’t take your cab because the driver has your name and confirmation number.

Larmer said the next phase will be to make the system have the ability to pay with a smart phone.

Comfort Cabs also has an app for hailing a taxi that it introduced last September.

Both apps are similar to that used by Uber, the U.S. ridesharing company that has made overtures about coming to Saskatoon.

Uber posted online ads looking for drivers in Saskatoon late in 2014 and met in October with city officials.

Shelley Sutherland, director of corporate revenue for the city, said they have not heard from the company since that first meeting.

“They haven’t suggested they are coming and I haven’t seen any proposals from them,” Sutherland said.

The United Cabs App is available at the Apple App Store, Google Play Store or at www.unitedgroup.ca.