Taxi Hawk - White paper

MOBILE APPS FOR TAXI COMPANIES

USING TAXI MOBILE SOLUTIONS TO INCREASE REVENUE

INTRODUCTION We all experience days filled with inconvenience when we have to bear scorching heat or pouring rain or freezing snowfall just merely to wait for a taxi so as to reach our desired destination. At times we are stuck in the crowd, waiting eagerly for a yellow cab but do not find any.This is the condition being faced by most of the passengers in major cities, as they are not able to book or hail a cab from a traditional taxi service whenever they need to. This scenario should not be mistaken as a consequence of under supply of drivers. In fact, some drivers spend up to 60% of their working days idle on road.

This indicates that there is a disconnection between the two parties. As a result dissatisfaction amongst passengers increases, as well as the good, experienced cab drivers are forced to leave the business in pursuit of a more profitable and financially reliable profession.

Premier of Victoria, Australia, Ted Baillieu, said, “It’s a troubled industry that needs significant reform to drive improvements in service.” Almost as if in agreement, Ed Grose, Director of the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association said, “A Philadelphia taxicab is often the first and last impression a visitor has of the city. It’s a problem.”

But thanks to technology and smartphones that have penetrated deeply in our lives, and mobile app companies like Uber and Lyft who have injected a new business model into the taxi service industry, calling a cab has now become a child’s game. But is this idea of taxi mobile solution appreciated enough? If yes, then why is it facing so much protests. If no, then why not?

What is the reason that most of the taxi companies all over the world are experiencing bundles of problems? What could be an effective solution to it?

2

This report will explore the problems experienced by both, the passengers as well as the drivers. Apart from this, different features and functions of Taxi hail apps have also been enlisted for better understanding. Lastly, you will be able to read more about our white label Uber-like wireframe Taxi Hawk, and how it will be the next best move for your company.

CURRENT TAXI SERVICE SCENARIO Problems faced by Passengers & Drivers Usually passengers base their opinions and comments about a taxi company on the following factors: cost, vehicle condition, travel time, driver’s behaviour and attitude, and availability of cabs for pick-up. Among these, ‘availability of cabs’ plays a major role in their decision making regarding which taxi company to patronize.

Most of them suffer due to long queues at taxi stands and (or) have to wait for long when the cab is booked over the phone, unwillingness of drivers to travel short distances even on cold nights, drivers not showing up, and occasional perilous behavior.

Drivers, on the other hand, are often the victims of insufficient support from the taxi companies they are working for, which has forced almost half of them to leave the profession within a span of four years and about two-thirds to leave in the last six years. Besides, drivers’ frustration is on the rise because of poor vehicle quality, expenses of car repair, gasoline, bad working conditions on the road and customer no-shows.

The fact that nearly every single city in the world with a traditional taxi service has this problem indicates that there is a true and valid disconnection just waiting for an optimal and usable solution.

3

Finding the solution The divorce between the supply and the demand of taxis in major cities of the world has become a cause of concern, leaving both City Administrators and Taxi Companies desperately looking for a solution.

The divorce between the supply and the demand of taxis in major cities of the world has become a cause of concern, leaving both City Administrators and Taxi Companies desperately looking for a solution.

It is recommended that to improve customer experience and therefore increase their loyalty for the cab company, waiting time should be considerably reduced.

This is crucial because if a passenger fails to get the company’s taxi in the first place and this happens on a repetitive basis, they will eventually give up calling for their service and might decide to patronize the competitors.

Apart from this, to help the drivers become more efficient (which inturn will address the common complaint of low availability), they should be provided with faster and more efficient communication devices with integrated GPS system, up-to-minute traffic information,security for slow days and customer no-shows. This will not only increase their productivity and satisfaction, but also their as well as their company’s earnings.

TAXI MOBILE SOLUTIONS: FOR AN ACCELERATED FUTURE How taxi companies can use mobile solutions?

Before we move further into the discussion, let us first understand how

4

companies like Uber and Lyft work. A passenger uses the taxi mobile app on his smartphone to send out a request for a cab at a particular location. The mobile app company receives and transmits the same request to the nearby driver who is working with the company as an independent partner. As both the driver and the passenger are in the same vicinity, the wait time is significantly reduced.

Traditional Taxi Companies vs. Taxi App Providers In the United States, a person is legally prohibited to drive a cab i.e. giving customers a ride in exchange for a fee without a city medallion, which are kept restricted to limited numbers in every city. The reason given is that adding more taxis to the streets will only extrapolate the problems that customers and drivers are currently facing. Getting a medallion is considered valuable as they are sold for as high as $1 million in cities like New York. However, the startups offering taxi mobile apps have very smoothly surpassed the need to own these medallions and therefore can set any pricing model they want.

This has enraged lots of taxi companies and city councils around the different parts of US. Where mobs of people are chasing Uber cabs and detaining them in traffic in Seattle, taxi companies are collectively filing against lawsuits in San Antio, Houston, California and Massachusetts. The same hatred can be seen in Europe and Australia as well. Protests in Milan and Paris in the form of taxi strikes can easily explain the gravity of the situation. This is not all. Uber drivers are also raising their voice against the company which can be very clearly seen in the class action lawsuit in California by two Uber drivers, who accused the company for skimming their gratuity charges.

It’s time to embrace the ‘Change’ IIt is important to note that these companies have addressed a lot of problems that the traditional taxi companies are facing right now. For example, these companies are offering higher standard vehicles, drivers who can speak fluent English

5

and ratings for both passengers and customers to get an idea about each other.

When traditional taxi companies have to pay approximately $1 million to get a legal permission to operate in a city, other parts of the services suffer. The pressure of recovering the amount before they start recovering overhead expenses, let alone earning profits, forces them to cut expenses in places that directly affects customer service and driver’s support. This is one reason why it’s considered “good” that mobile-app companies do not have to pay for medallions.

For example, in order to cover their expenses, most taxi companies are willing to let some things (like vehicle quality and driver pay) slide because it’s cheaper for them. These modernized taxi companies don’t have to pay the high price tag of an entry fee just to start serving customers, so they get into their profits much faster.

Because of this, they can afford higher standards which translate into higher levels of customer satisfaction, loyalty, customer retention and hence more revenues.

Better Features and Functions offered by Taxi mobile apps Let’s highlight the features and functions of these mobile solutions for taxi companies to understand why there is a need to promote them.

Using a smartphone or a tablet (attached to car’s dashboard), with the taxi mobile app giving turn-by-turn GPS directions and showing the heat maps of traffic help the drivers in managing time and routes more efficiently.

Besides, an easy-to-use review system keeps a check on both the parties. Passengers are more likely to tip better and behave themselves while drivers make their best efforts to show up on- time and good services. Since regular cab companies don’t keep a tap on individual rides, behavioral infractions are much more common on both sides thus reducing the satisfaction of everyone involved.

6

With automatic payment features that eliminate the need for cash payments, the awkwardness of the tip amount disappears. Riders can leave ratings and tips based on their experience and if a driver feels ripped off, he can do the same from his side of the review.

Having an app that nearly guarantees good taxi services also keeps the citizens of your city much safer. When they know they can rely on your organization, they’re much less likely to hail a cab service of any other company during the times of need.

Getting Ahead of the Competition Hence it is very much clear that adding more and more cabs to the streets is not an answer to the poor taxi services that the people in the world’s top cities are facing.

The answer, to which we’ve come across with the new cab companies like Uber and Lyft hitting the streets with tremendous success, is simply improving communication and accountability. The easiest and most effective way to do this is through the creation of a company-specific mobile app.

In Malaysia, MyTeksi is a company that has optimized the communication lines between passengers and drivers. Their goal is to reduce the average cab booking cycle in Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding areas from 30 minutes to 10 minutes.

In addition, another Malaysia-based app, GrabTaxi is getting loads of success.

In Ottawa, Canada, cab company administrators are signing up to work with the Mobile Knowledge Solution, TaxiHail. The company helps the drivers get trained in using the app and once it’s implemented, taxi operators notice an increase in efficiency.

Kudai, a taxi-hailing app of China, claims to make more than 6 million transactions per day and earn $1.6 million revenue each month through advertising.

It should be noted that, even for traditional taxi companies, leveraging the

7

latest mobile technology for solving passenger and driver problems will be far less expensive and these companies can take its advantage at the fraction of the cost of a medallion. But also take a note that developing an app from scratch can be quite costly. Normally, an app with all the features and functionalities needed to improve communication in the taxi industry would have a price tag in the neighborhood of $100,000. However, customizing and building upon pre-existing wireframes makes things considerably less expensive and opens the door for these traditional companies to modernize and reap the benefits of mobility.

INTRODUCING TAXI HAWK In the wake of the shift from traditional taxi operations to tech-based communications, we connected with some of our favorite cab companies and served few clients in the industry. We learned the ins and outs of making some of the best solutions possible, and also how to adapt the solutions based on city-by-city basis as each location is independent with unique needs.

Since we have built a basic wireframe that includes all the functionalities a taxi company could ever dream of: driver and passenger reviews, in-app payments, traffic heat maps, GPS directions, trip history, real-time communication etc, it is easier, faster and cheaper than ever for companies that are looking out for a high-quality app and wishes to take full advantage of mobility in this sector. Our price tag is well below the typical $100,000 app development mark, and will pay for itself much sooner than you think.

We provide an intuitive UI with basic aesthetics that makes communication and information

8

the core of the app, giving users everything they need.

Taxi Hawk has 3 sides of the app that serves everyone involved in the communication, booking and management process:

PASSENGER To increase customer satisfaction and loyalty for your cab company, customers will be able to enjoy the following features: Enables live tracking of status of the cab Enables the customer to review and rank his driver The customer can see the driver’s previous reviews and rankings before confirming a ride Report no show or late drivers Payment is automatic through the app Feed in their frequent and favorite trips Provide feedback directly to the company Share the experiences on social media Tiered pricing module Payment by SMS using Zaypay SDK Number Masking and SMS integration using Twilio API The customer can manage his profile.

Referral program for providing monetary points to a customer on inviting his friends.

DRIVER To give drivers the support they need as well as the help to secure a more stable income for

9

them, Taxi Hawk provides a number of benefits from securing a longer-lasting, more experienced work force for your company to: A list showing active rides A map showing riding details.

Provides directions to get to the desired location.

Enables the driver to chat with the passenger prior to pick up.

Allows cancellation of ride if necessary.

Offer rides to available pick ups.

The driver can manage his personal profile.

The option to decide final ride price and generate invoices Ability to provide feedback about customers.

Available for download on iOS and Android.

ADMINISTRATOR As a company’s administrator or shift manager, the backend management panel provides: Automatic, manual and interactive scheduling of the daily tasks of the driver.

Review the driver’s statistics and the customer’s reviews for his performance report.

GPS based management Ability to modify the options available to the customers based on their location and time sensitive needs.

Ability to edit and update the elements, contents and features of the app.

Get further insight into your business through analytics and user statistics.

Generates monthly reports.

Ability to see tiered pricing for taxis.

10

CONTACT US Accelerate the speed of your Taxi Business!!!

Get to know more about what Taxi Hawk can do for your taxi company?

Get in touch for a free consultation on how to retain your drivers, provide a better passenger experience and increase your bottom line through higher communication efficiency.

www.click-labs.com/enterprise-mobility/taxi-services

contact@click-labs.com

Also follows us on:

+1 415-758-1522