Local Taxi Operators Upset At Mobile App

[MRCboicgy]

I don't have it on my phone anymore, but there is an app called Hailo for use in London with Black Cabs. It tells you the name of your driver, his license number and shows him getting closer on a map. It's an amazing service and it charges the whole ride to your CC. Just get in and out and the receipt is emailed to you. Wonderful when your taxis are going on a corporate Visa too...

It's also a great way to jump the queue if there's a ton of people waiting for a cab - just walk around the corner and they meet you there

[Addick]

Originally Posted by MRCboicgy

I don't have it on my phone anymore, but there is an app called Hailo for use in London with Black Cabs. It tells you the name of your driver, his license number and shows him getting closer on a map. It's an amazing service and it charges the whole ride to your CC. Just get in and out and the receipt is emailed to you. Wonderful when your taxis are going on a corporate Visa too...

It's also a great way to jump the queue if there's a ton of people waiting for a cab - just walk around the corner and they meet you there

I heard it is a really good app and a lot of thought and collaboration with cabbies went into the design. In regards to Fast Cab, I love how this lawsuit is acting as free advertising. After I read the article I immediately went to the Play Store to download it.

[c.t.ner]

Originally Posted by valo403

Sounds somewhat like the Uber app that operates in a few US cities.

I think the biggest difference between Uber and this app is that Uber is pretty much it's own private Taxi Cab company, where Uber drivers work solely for Uber and no other companies. While FastCab is just leveraging the GPS data and drivers looking to join.

Uber is a pretty amazing service and I know a few people who work for the outlets in Washington and San Fran. If I recall, Uber has won some pretty big battles against the DC and California taxi cab companies. Uber's model is intresting as they've been skirting the established Taxi cab foundation and rules, but making it a private transaction. I know they're breaking into Vancouver and I wouldn't be shocked to see a Calgary Uber open up shortly. That fight alone is going to make this Fast Cab battle look like a kindergarten scrap.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/23/iro...bertaxi-in-dc/

Looks like the link above is for UberTaxi which is similar to FastCab and not Uber - The private driver version.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by InCoGnEtO

What is the holdup wiht getting more cabs on the street? ...or with more companies? Why is the City not fixing this issue.

I really am in the dark as to why this is still an issue....can someone explain?

The response I have heard from a couple taxi drivers is that the cab shortage in this city really isn't as bad as it seems. Taxi companies intentionally create the impression of a taxi shortage so that the city authorizes more cars and the companies in turn collect more licensing fees from the drivers.

I do not know if this is accurate or not, and I am not even sure how the business works in this city- This might be the same story every taxi driver gives throughout NA...

Does the city actually need the authorize the number of taxis a company can have? I use a cab a handful of times a year and not sure how this process works.

[GP_Matt]

I really don't understand the cab situation at all. Why does the city control the number of cabs in a city when they place those restrictions on almost no other industry?

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

I really don't understand the cab situation at all. Why does the city control the number of cabs in a city when they place those restrictions on almost no other industry?

It started off as a way of licensing cabs, and making sure there weren't too many. It has turned into a system that needs to change, but makes it nearly impossible to change without putting lots of people out a large amount of money.

[pylon]

When Cab Plates are selling for $200,000+ in Calgary, you know there is a shortage of cabs.

[hurtin_albertan]

Originally Posted by InCoGnEtO

What is the holdup wiht getting more cabs on the street? ...or with more companies? Why is the City not fixing this issue.

I really am in the dark as to why this is still an issue....can someone explain?

I didn't major in business but it seems to me the taxi companies in Calgary have a very lucrative and unfair oligopoloy going here.

I spent nearly 2 hours on hold for a taxi on a recent regular Saturday night, and when I finally got in the car and asked the driver how insanely busy he must be on this night, he just shrugged and said "not really". He told me that the problem is not in a shortage of cars or drivers, but all in the dispatch systems. Apparently these companies all employ small handfuls of people with minimal phone lines, in an effort to minimize overhead by not spending on improved dispatch systems, while at the same time creating the false impression of car shortages with the goal of being granted more licenses to make money off of.

The customer definitely gets screwed, but so do the drivers by not having nearly as many fares put through to them as they could handle. That's exactly why so many from both parties have signed up to use the FastCab app - cut out the antiquated middle man and get a damn ride/fare.

I know that I have declined many a social event JUST to avoid the taxi fiasco that has always existed in Calgary. It's about time this industry was reformed, and I can't wait until the court laughs the greedy pricks right out the door.

[Barnes]

I was in a cab with a driver who said the same about dispatch. He tried to get a hold of dispatch our entire ride just to prove that not even they can get through to them. He even let me use his radio to try.

[Table 5]

Anything that pisses of cabbies is a-ok with me.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by hurtin_albertan

I didn't major in business but it seems to me the taxi companies in Calgary have a very lucrative and unfair oligopoloy going here.

I spent nearly 2 hours on hold for a taxi on a recent regular Saturday night, and when I finally got in the car and asked the driver how insanely busy he must be on this night, he just shrugged and said "not really". He told me that the problem is not in a shortage of cars or drivers, but all in the dispatch systems. Apparently these companies all employ small handfuls of people with minimal phone lines, in an effort to minimize overhead by not spending on improved dispatch systems, while at the same time creating the false impression of car shortages with the goal of being granted more licenses to make money off of.

The customer definitely gets screwed, but so do the drivers by not having nearly as many fares put through to them as they could handle. That's exactly why so many from both parties have signed up to use the FastCab app - cut out the antiquated middle man and get a damn ride/fare.

I've heard that song and dance about not enough dispatchers from cabbies for years now.

"You must be busy on this Saturday night in December, it took me hours to get through on the phone..."

"Nah, not really, they don't have anyone answering the phones..."

"Oh really, it's quiet tonight? So you've just been sitting there while me and 500 hundred other people are madly calling your business so we can give you money?"

I don't buy it.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

It started off as a way of licensing cabs, and making sure there weren't too many. It has turned into a system that needs to change, but makes it nearly impossible to change without putting lots of people out a large amount of money.

Cabs have been licensed threw the city in Calgary since the 60's,up until the mid 80's anyone could start a cab company and request plates from the city for an annual license fee with little questions asked.

Amazing as it sounds racism was the biggest reason for the city to lock down the number of plates allowed, Associated Cabs,Red Top Cabs and Mayfair Cabs wouldn't hire anyone that was Hindu,Muslim..etc.Red Top for example would take a drivers application and if you weren't white you would drive for Yellow Cabs,Associated would just throw away your app!

But those very cab companys started complaining about the amount of cabs in the city and demanded a cap on plates.

The city locked the plates down and after a few "hush hush" paid out lawsuits demanded no more racism within the companys.

[SebC]

This might provide some insights into the taxi industry:

http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/577...atch-troubles/

Images captured from the dashboard computers of taxis operating in Calgary on the busiest nights of the week appear to show routine frustration from dispatchers over an unwillingness among drivers with one of the city’s largest brokers to respond to calls for service.


[...] the images indicate some drivers are unwilling to respond to those trips and would rather search for “flags,” a term used to describe customers hailing cabbies from street corners.

“There are 425 cars working — 210 of them are empty — why are there 50 plus trips on the bid screen?” one dashboard computer read last weekend.

Of course, experience will tell most Calgarians that hailing a cab isn't always the easiest thing either.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by fotze

Why would they prefer to pick up randoms? Is there a different fee structure? Can tell if they are hammered?

Bar hoppers downtown I'm sure, as I've never seen a cab flagged down anywhere outside DT other than along Centre Street or Macleod (alright, Kensington too).

$3 cab ride + $2.50 entry fee + $5 tip (drunk people) is $10.50 made in 10 minutes

as opposed to someone at a house party in the NW going to the NE may be

$15 cab ride +$2.50 entry + $5 tip = $22.50 made in ~30m (when drive to location + trip is included)

[KTrain]

Whenever I get into a cab downtown and say "McKenzie Towne", I can hear the annoyance in their voice because they're going to have to drive back downtown without a fare.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by KTrain

Whenever I get into a cab downtown and say "McKenzie Towne", I can hear the annoyance in their voice because they're going to have to drive back downtown without a fare.

Associated Cabs loves going from DT to the NE, but other companies not so much (airport).

I live just off Centre St in the NW, and when I tell cabbies to take Centre St from DT they get really pissed. Taking Deerfoot gets me home ~3 minutes faster, but costs about $5 more because of the extra distance travelled. I don't even say where I live any more to avoid argument. I just act drunk and slur "urrrr just go north on centre street...".

[polak]

Originally Posted by KTrain

Whenever I get into a cab downtown and say "McKenzie Towne", I can hear the annoyance in their voice because they're going to have to drive back downtown without a fare.

Yup. On the flipside though, if you ever need a cab at night in the deep south, the wait is usually not even 5 minutes as they all want to salvage a fare while they're down there.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by fotze

Ya, good one, "ACT" drunk. Ok there booze-o.

Fine, more drunk.

Geez.

[Vulcan]

I drove some cab in Calgary years ago. It was a good temporary job. The thing is if you're downtown and there are flags around, why bother taking a dispatch trip. If you do accept the trip, once you get there odds are the person is gone or the fare says let me finish my drink so it's costing me money and sometimes they never come out.

If you're outside downtown, it's probably best to take dispatch trips but even then when it's busy, they may have been sitting on that trip for an hour or more and they've found other transportation. What I'd do is take my share of dispatched trips but after getting say 6 no trips I'd rely on myself. The other thing is, say the trip is at the Cecil or the loser of some fight at the Back Alley, do I really want that hassle.