Beck prepares to launch Uber-style phone app

Taxi company’s feature will tell riders which cab is coming, give estimated time of arrival

Uber’s smartphone-based taxi service has been decried as unsafe by taxi companies, derided as unfair by competitors and declared illegal by city bureaucrats.

While the San Francisco-based company faces backlash in cities across North America, partially along with a taxi industry set on defending its market share, here in Toronto, one cab company is taking a different tack.

Instead of trying to beat ’em, Beck Taxi has decided to join ’em.

For the past several months, Beck has been testing a new app that would show passengers a map and give a real-time estimate for how long a cab would take to arrive, according to taxi fleet operator Sam Moini, who runs 30 cabs with Co-op, Crown and Beck.

Passengers would know the taxi number before it gets there and could pay with a credit card on their phone, Moini said.

Passengers would still retain the option of traditional payments, including cash, credit and debit cards in-car.

“It’s kinda like (Uber), but more legal,” said Moini.

Beck wouldn’t discuss any details about the new app because it hasn’t been officially released. Operations manager Kristine Hubbard confirmed the app had been built and was in the testing phase, but says it does not imitate Uber.

“We’re a tech company; we can make a taxi app,” she said. “So I decided we’re going to build our own.”

Meanwhile, Uber currently faces three dozen Toronto bylaw charges and an injunction to shut down its operations. Uber argues that it doesn’t need to be licensed because it is not a taxi service.

But having the convenience of the Uber app with the peace of mind brought by the city’s biggest taxi dispatcher might end up being the best of both worlds.

Beck is rolling out the app at the same time as it is installing tablets in its cabs, giving drivers a similar interface as passengers would have on their phones.

The tablets, which are already in 99 per cent of the fleet, display a realtime GPS-driven map that allows drivers and passengers to follow their progress, Hubbard said.

Uber spokesperson Susie Heath said traditional taxi companies have tried to imitate their app in other cities, and they encourage it.

“Riders and the community at large benefits from more competition, and Uber has helped drive change in an industry that hasn’t made efforts to adapt in decades,” said Heath.

Beck is the biggest brokerage in the city, with more than 1,900 taxis and 8.5 million radio dispatches per year. Hubbard stressed, however, that while their current app brings in about one million orders a year, radio will remain the business’s backbone.