APP's - The Way Forward...By Thomas the Taxi.

There's been a lot of talk about various Apps and how successful they may or may not become. Com-cab have quietly had an iPhone app for some time which  is proving very successful. 

The idea behind Taxi Apps is to provide a swift and safe way of ordering a Licensed Taxi, with some of these Apps using Google maps to enable the passenger to see where they are in relation to the Taxi they have ordered.

Trouble is, there are at least four major types of mobile device format ie; Apple, Windows, Android and RIM (Blackberry). Unfortunately they are incompatible with each other. Each App has to be developed three/four times, at three/four times the cost for each separate operating system. 

The benefit of having such an App is, bookings are taken without the involvement of a third party which is an immediate cost-saver.

Radio Taxis are currently developing an App along the lines of the Com-Cab App, which they hope to start testing soon. They firmly believe this App will become the preferred way of ordering a Licensed Taxi in a very short period of time. Pressing an icon and making a couple of selections on a mobile device will have a job on the drivers screen in less than 10 seconds.

No more need to call somebody on the telephone to place an order unless you have technophobia, or just plain lonely?

Currently, some 15% of their bookings go through their Internet-booker and this figure is growing. Within a year of launching an App, Radio Taxis could be processing as many as 50% of their bookings will be made in this way.

As far as mobile phone Apps go, drivers seem apprehensive with concerns other "Data Limits" imposed by most of the well known service providers. Some drivers who use Twitter and other on-line social network services express concerns that some Apps do not function in the background.

There also seems to be hostility between groups currently up and working, directed at new Apps yet to launch, similar to when new radio circuits emerged to challenge the long established ones.

We will see many Apps come and go over the next few years, operating in a climate of "the survival of the fittest". 

To survive the App must be competitively priced, have a large customer base and many drivers to give a good service. Any variation of these three components could spell disaster and the App will fail.

I believe the Radio circuits will have guaranteed success as they already have a large customer base and a couple of thousand drivers who are used to picking up booked customers. Their job made all the easier by the fact they only have to develop an App that gives a booking service. Jobs would them be dispatched in the normal way through the circuit.

Things To Come ( If only Carlsberg ran TfL) 

One of the best Apps that could ever be developed for the Licensed Taxi Trade, would be a PCO complaint App...

Click add registration number-

Click add location- (Backed by GPS positioning)

Click drop down menu, chose offence committed.
Send...

  

Could be financed by the UTG if they really want to do something for the trade!!!