Well it seems that the race for App supremacy in the London Taxi Trade really sped up this week with the launch on LDNTaxiAPP. Most of you who have taken an interest in this area of Taxi App’s which could obviously enhance the our working lives and provide a valuable alternative stream of work will already be aware of the offering from TaxiZapp and the much awaited impending release of the TLC/TaxiStop App.
TaxiZapp were the first to enter the market with their app being available for download from the iPhone App store for a few months now, the App is quite good and offers most of the necessary features that you would expect from a Taxi hailing App. The problem with this app is that the company behind it seem to lack the knowledge of how to promote the app to the Licensed Taxi Driver here in London, this combined with the very loose form of vetting for driver subscriptions leaves it somewhat lacking. That said the GUI is intuitive and easy to use even for the worst technophobe! The other problem is that the trade in London have not really embraced this app in any great numbers with just a few drivers playing with it over the last few weeks. The App works on the basis of credits, you buy credits and it uses 1 credit per 24 hours that you are logged into the system. At present there has not been any work coming through the system so TaxiZapp are not charging for the credits but are giving a number of credits free which are then replenished until such time that there is sufficient work coming through on the system. Once they start charging the price per credit will be from £2.71 per day or 24 hour period dependant upon how many credits you buy in advance. The following pricing was taken from the TaxiZapp website:
3 Credits = £15.00
7 Credits = £24.50
14 Credits = £45.00
28 Credits = £76.00
TaxiZapp state on their website that if a driver does not receive any work during a 24hr period then the credit will be refunded to the drivers account, but as you will see from the above pricing using this App could work out to be very expensive, even more expensive than belonging to one of London’s radio circuits.
The next offering has come from our own TweetaLondonCab team who have partnered up with TaxiStop, there is not much yet known about this App except by the Core Team of TLC. We are promised that this App is going to be something special with TaxiStop providing real time taxi booking and driver management system. TaxiStop is part of the Medianet Group who claim to be the World’s largest producer of award winning mobile applications supporting over 2000 applications on 5000 devices with compatibility across all OS platforms sold in 60 Countries so I was somewhat disappointed when I eventually found their website which in my opinion is somewhat poor for a company who makes such claims! That said I am sure that the TLC Core Team have done their homework regarding this company and are satisfied of their integrity and level of competence and if the App lives up to the hype then I am really looking forward to seeing it’s release. Apparently Beta testing will start very soon with the App being offered to the rest of the drivers of TLC sometime in May. Pricing has not yet been confirmed but it is hoped to be kept competitive.
Now the latest offering has come from LDNTaxiApp.com with an app available for download from the App store, at present the app is only available on the iPhone with Android and Blackberry versions due for release soon. This app is a partnership between a London taxi Driver, a Software Developer and an Application Coder. I recently downloaded this app and I must say that I was very impressed at the amount of thought that has gone into it’s development. All of the basic elements of a good App are present with a lot of thought gone into the driver sign up process. I was a little sceptical as to where or how the drivers details would be stored so I emailed the company and was assured that drivers details are stored on the server only and will not be used for any other purpose except for the LDNTaxiApp. The App is free to download from the Apple App store on the iPhone and it is free to use at present, I have asked the question regarding charging and the Developer said that they are looking for sponsorship and advertising but they cannot rule out having to charge the driver a small subscription charge. This App seems to offer everything that is needed for a smart phone type of Taxi Hail, there is a 2 way messaging facility built into the App so that the driver and customer can communicate with each other and the facility for the customer to know the drivers name a registration number so that they get into the right taxi which will reassure lone female travellers.
So which app do you go with? well my heart tells me to wait for the TLC/TaxiStop App but business sense tells me to go with LDNTaxiApp as they have the right name, are only offering the service to London Taxi Drivers and are the first London only Taxi app available at present! Now the good thing for me is that I really don’t have to make a choice at the moment as I use an iPhone and the beauty about the iPhone (assuming that you are using and iPhone 3Gs or newer) is that you can have as many of these Apps as you like all running at the same time so you will be able to subscribe to as many as you like offering multiple streams of work, I am not sure whether the same applies to the Blackberry or Android type handsets. Obviously once all of these Apps start to make a charge to the drivers for subscription then I will have to make a choice and the obvious choice will be to go with the App which is more financially viable for me personally which means the App which secures me the most work and the most money which after all is what we all drive a Taxi for.
So now the race is really on to see which of these offerings becomes the King of the London Taxi Apps and this will depend on quite a few factors, number 1 we need the public to use these apps, 2, we need the drivers to use the apps and 3 the cost to the driver of using the app, it is no good having a cheap app if the general public are not using it so it is going to be down to the people behind these apps to make sure that they gain ground on the competition and create the largest customer base and ensure that they have sufficient drivers to meet customer demand.
Hi Jamie
Thanks for the mention in your article – I would however like to make a few comments – sometime ago Taxizapp updated it’s approval process for drivers and passengers and I do not think it can be described as “loose” as it asks for copies of licenses now and we can ask for further info to be supplied before approval if not happy. Similarly for passengers we now ask for their mobile number to be confirmed to protect against abuse of the system with false bookings.
With regards to London it is not a case of not knowing how to Market – rather it is a case of not being ready to Market fully in London as yet. I have visited and had discussions with various people and groups in London and when ee feel the time is right then we will do so – Despite what it thinks there are Taxis outside of London! It is a large and yes potentially nice Market to be in but balancing matching expectations of passengers with driver numbers is not something we will take lightly – and the public and drivers can be very damming and unforgiving
However we are pleased when any driver wishes to trial the app in a particular area (and Market it’s use themselves)
We will endeavour to give them support where we can and some who are going it alone are being very successful
With regards to price – this is something we will keep under review – our commitment is to a reduction when then time is right, it is not a barrier to anyone checking out the app and as it only kicks in when work is coming through. In terms of the cost – we are being upfront and not trying to mislead anyone – we could have said no or low cost but the reality is that running promotion – providing marketing materials, advertising, future dev, ongoing tech support and peoples time all have a cost – therefore it does have a charge – set so that it will not increase when we reach VAT threshold. In comparison to charges of others – checking around the country (not just London) the pricing is very low cost compared to other systems and even within London when I checked prices it compared favourably – but if you could supply details of where it doesn’t I will reflect on this. Compared to a circuit with a low weekly charge but then a per booking cost on top it more than holds its own.
BTW in regard to your comments re the other systems we do also offer resal time booking and driver management system (we can even offer a dispatch system and/or a branded app for companies) drivers can speak to passengers by calling them if necessary (convenient when driving rather than messaging) plus passengers get all driver and vehicle details which they can send to others if required! We also have a number of other features not mentioned in the article – so I would encourage people to check it out via the website or download
I wish others entering this sphere the very best – indeed the more there are it actually helps ad it creates awareness amongst drivers and passengers that such an app is an option and that can only help all of us.
Thank you Jamie for your review -great to see a fairly balanced article – if you or others have any further questions I will be happy to respond to them
– I can be emailed at Rosemary@Taxizapp.com. Best wishes and to all drivers – be safe out there!
Rosemary
Thank you for your comments, I am sorry if I got it wrong about the driver sign up process but I can only go by when I signed up and as there is no need to sign up again I was obviously unaware of these changes.
Personally I feel that Hailo are currently leading the way with their taxi app by a far mile.
It is easy to use,very comrehensive and you only pay for jobs you receive (10%) They have plenty of my work and a friend of mine has done 58 jobs for them.
I think Hailo has the potential to become mahoosive, especially if they can get together a selling team and concentrate on corporate accounts. Then once the funds start to roll in then concentrate on advertising in the suburbs for the benefit of both gb & yb drivers.
The downside for me is that the driver swallows a 4% fee if the passenger pays via credit card, but if it places work into taxis whilst reducing ‘down time’ then so be it.
The question for me is when will there be wholesale use of taxi apps UK wide? Especially an app which will seemlessly integrate into London but also work as effectively elsewhere in the UK. If anybody knows the answer, please let me know as I am looking partner or build this into my own site and app. sales@smartphonetaxis.com