NEED A RIDE?
New app helps taxi companies fight Uber
Days after furious Toronto taxi drivers snarled traffic to protest Uber Technologies Inc., a Canadian company is launching a new app that aims to give cabbies access to the same technology that’s helped make Uber so popular.
Beginning Monday, The Ride app will allow people in 35 Canadian cities and towns to e-hail a cab. Similar to the Uber app, users can enter a pickup location and destination and watch on a map to see how far away their driver is. The only Uber feature it doesn’t incorporate is automatic payment of fares.
Unlike Uber, however, The Ride also gives users the ability to compare the cost and length of a cab trip to that of local transit options.
Users who are members of carsharing services like Zipcar and Car2Go can also use the app to find available cars near them.
“It’s really the first app that’s an all-in-one transportation app,” said Nick Quain, CEO of CellWand Communications, the Torontobased company that developed The Ride.
CellWand is also behind the #TAXI service, the easy-to-remember phone number that connects users to a taxi dispatcher in their area. The Ride will piggyback on #TAXI to connect users to taxi dispatchers in locations where it doesn’t yet offer the e-hailing service. In total, the app will serve more than 700 Canadian cities
We have to pick up our game and we have to improve our customer service.
and towns — basically anywhere there’s a taxi service.
The only transportation option that won’t be available through The Ride is — you guessed it — Uber.
Quain said he’s had “conversations” with Uber but is really focused on working with cab companies.
However, the taxi industry’s traditional complacency made it difficult to get them on board, he said.
“We’ve had visions for many years of rolling out the app that we’re rolling out Monday, but for a number of reasons it’s been a big challenge,” Quain said.
“There’s a number of taxi industry leaders who acknowledge that their model was much more focused on the status quo than it was on embracing innovation. It’s taken this type of threat (Uber) to shake them up a little bit.”
Toronto became the most recent flashpoint between taxi drivers and Uber last week, with protests that clogged major downtown arteries, injured a police officer and even saw a particularly irate cabbie dragged more than 20 metres while confronting an UberX driver.
“Certainly taxicab companies have had a douse of cold water,” said Jim Bell, president of Toronto’s Diamond Taxi and executive director of operations and member services at the Canadian Taxi Association.
“We have to pick up our game and we have to improve our customer service.”
The Ride charges users $2 every time they successfully e-hail a taxi. The charge will show up on the user’s next cellphone bill, and the telecom carrier will take an unspecified cut of the fee. Another portion of every transaction is donated to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Quain said.
Development of The Ride was funded through the profits generated by the #TAXI service. Quain wouldn’t share the details of CellWand’s finances, but said #TAXI has generated revenue “in the tens of millions” to date and has been profitable for more than five years.
The timing of the app’s launch — just before the holidays — was strategic, he added. One of Uber’s more notorious features is its use of surge pricing when demand is high, something cab drivers can’t do.
“This is perfect timing for someone who’s a regular Uber user to say, ‘OK, I need some other options here,’” Quain said.