7 minute read
Local heroes
IT’S BEEN A TUMULTUOUS TWO YEARS FOR DISPATCH systems provider Autocab. In 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company delivered something of a bombshell when it announced it was being taken over by Uber.
The move resulted in a few raised eyebrows – and some typically robust comments – after all, Uber’s track record had been aggressive and uncompromising, For many, it was the enemy.
In reality, the Autocab takeover signaled a change in Uber’s approach to markets outside “megacities” such as London. The company’s management had completely changed, with experienced e-commerce executives replacing the tech disrupters who had founded the business. When Dara Khosrowshahi replaced Travis Kalanick as CEO, the picture changed.
As Uber’s former head of Europe Jamie Heywood – one of Khosrowshahi’s key appointments - admitted, Uber needed a new “more humble” approach. That involved putting a stop to new Uber launches in UK cities.
In an interview with Professional Driver in the aftermath of the Autocab takeover, Heywood said: “It’s been almost four years since we launched in a new city, and we currently have no plans to launch with our previous model in any more. I can see a world where almost all the future expansion with Uber, particularly in the UK, will be in partnership with local taxi and private hire companies.”
It took almost a further year for this to start to happen – the Autocab takeover had to be given the green light by the Competition and Markets Agency, which took several months.
But by June 2021, a pilot scheme called Local Cab started in Plymouth, through which customers with Autocab dispatch systems were able to use Autocab’s iGo network, designed to connect operators on the platform, to take on Uber jobs.
Plymouth was followed by other towns such as Bedford, Gloucester, Cheltenham and Exeter. Under the scheme, passengers in any of these towns were able to book a trip with a local taxi company via the Uber app.
The demand was there – in Plymouth alone, Uber said its app had been opened up to 16,500 times per month, but passengers had not been able to book a ride there as Uber had no service in the city.
The pilot was a success, and since then the roll-out has been rapid, says Autocab chief marketing officer Jon Smith (pictured),
While the initial partners tended to be fairly small companies, Local Cab was soon attracting bigger operators, such as 001 Cars of Oxford, one of the “big two” operators in the city, which came on stream with Local Cab in May 2021.
Oxford turned out to be a perfect place to launch Local Cab. “The standout success story has to be 001 Cars,” says Jon Smith. “Their drivers have generated over £1 million pounds worth of trips in the first 14 months, and the work has allowed them to increase their driver numbers by 70 to accommodate the extra work. In weekly terms they’re looking at 3,500- 4,000 extra jobs.”
001 Taxis’ Amir Khan said the move was benefiting local drivers who work for his company: “As a locally licensed operator and Oxford-based business we provide earning opportunities to many drivers who live in the area.”
There’s no limit to the potential for Local Cab, Smith says. “In geographical terms there’s work for everyone – we’re working to get them to sign up to iGo and then it’s up to each individual operator if they want to sign up to Local Cab.”
In the post-pandemic world, the industry has new issues to confront. For the taxi industry, top of the agenda has been a lack of drivers – so that a fleet may not want to take on more work, as it simply cannot fulfil the jobs it has.
But Jon Smith says there’s another way of looking at Local Cab. “Operators might say they’re really busy, so do they want to be turning the tap on to external work? But what we’re actually doing with Local Cab is working to fill the capacity gaps that they may have.”
He continues: “If you have, say, 100 drivers working on a busy Friday and Saturday night, of course you don’t want more work then. What you do want is to make sure there’s work at 3 o’clock on Wednesday afternoon or 10 o’clock on Tuesday morning. That’s really where Local Cab comes to the fore, because we’re able to turn on the tap when your existing drivers are available to accept the work.”
One unexpected development was the roll-out of Local Cab into cities and towns where Uber had a directly-run operation. Most significant of these was Greater Manchester, where more than 10 operators have signed up for Local Cab, including some of the biggest operators in the city, such as Street Cars Manchester and Lynx Taxis of Stockport.
Smith said the move was justified, as “the demand is there” in Manchester. “From Autocab’s point of view, our operators will take as much work as they can. Uber and the local cab operators are working together. It’s up to the rider to choose whether to use Uber X or Local Cab, and having that choice is excellent for the end user.”
And size doesn’t matter. Smith is keen to stress that while some very large fleets have taken on Local Cab work, smaller operators have much to gain by signing up.
“We’ve got a lot of 40-50 car fleets on board and that just adds to the marketplace,” he says. A particular success story has been Key Cars in Bedford – one of the very first operators to participate in the pilot scheme back in 2021.
Since the Uber takeover was first announced just over two years ago, Autocab has been on quite a ride itself. Earlier this year it moved from its old base on the outskirts of the city to prestigious new offices at Circle Square, close to the city centre and near a cluster of high-tech universities and colleges that will provide a good source of tech-savvy workers going forward.
And the wheels that were set in motion in 2020 are still turning. Uber has not returned to its direct model, and no further towns beyond the 40 or so operations that opened before 2017 have been targeted. Nor have any Local Cab operators been replaced by an Uber-owned operation – even in towns where Local Cab and Uber compete. Instead, Local Cab remains the growth vehicle.
There’s still a long way to go before Local Cab fulfils Uber’s ambition to be able to offer national coverage via a single app. “The focus for next 12 months is to get all our operators on to Local Cab – we’ve done 80, but that still leaves hundreds,” says Smith.
