Taxi Driver Online

got to agree with most of the above. these apps do nothing but take a little slice out of our trades pie. unfortunately for johncc he's come on here and given some ridiculous examples and unwittingly made himself look a little foolish. they do have some use for streetcabs in quieter periods and my guess is that most people that sign up will use it in the quiet periods and not bother in the busy periods. we all know what a pain in the ass the radio system is during the busy periods when you just want to work the street and that will be where the app could struggle - their busiest period will be when no one wants to work it - and who do they customers have to complain to? no one. that aint good for their business at all.

Spot on Reggie

Well well, who would have thought we would have created such a fuss just by offering public taxi drivers/owners a means of extra business.
Thanks to colleague Johncc for supplying the answers meantime.
I'm Roy, the guy who has been talking to you guys on the Edinburgh ranks. Let's see if I can add to previous answers.
The Time2taxi app is designed to be a PUBLIC SERVICE aid, using modern technology to solve a need - FAST.
Finding a taxi is the need, Fast is what it needs to be to satisfy today's generation - look at the fuss about broadband speeds.
The T2T app offers a fast solution, especially if you are a visitor to a city, whether on business, government or tourist, as well as locals.
The T2T app goes live in a National campaign launch across the whole of the UK at the beginning of December. So far only drivers have heard
of it because we can't tell the public about it until we have drivers on-board in each city.
For drivers there is NO CATCH.
£1 per app use when a fare is confirmed - no confirmation, no charge. Billing is weekly and payment is the same as buying on-line,
through a secure banking/card system.
NO FIXED CONTRACT, NO MONTHLY FEES, NO TRACKING or REPORTING,
USE THE APP WHEN/IF YOU WANT (log-in) DON'T USE IT WHEN YOU DON'T WANT (log out or don't even log in). If you have a job, hit the decline button.
We are not trying to replace Ranks or Radios, just offering a modern technology alternative to hailing a cab.
I'm happy to receive PMs to discuss further
royt2t

ps to Reggie
we're not brokers, we work directly for the company who have spent 2 years developing this system.
Both the companies/cooperatives you mentioned are furiously working and investing heavily to come up with their own
apps that work.
The internet has changed the way we shop, apps are changing the way we work.
Give it a try - if you are right just delete the app. You are free to do so when and if you want, but in the meantime
you may expose yourself to the danger of extra business!!
royt2t

Sorry to spoil your post but our APP has been running very successfully for over a year, the other was launched this year, both APPS are very well marketed in the back of over 800 Black Taxi's,Then we have our business cards, reciepts, radio ads and we even have T.V ads, then you have to take in to account social media and the willingness of our members to promote our companies through this avenue and then there is the old RELIABLE word of mouth,The 2 companies have around 2000 drivers, part time/full time, that equates to a massive base of customers in my book, out of an Edinburgh fleet of 1300 id say that is job done as far as cornering the Edinburgh APP market, you would agree or accept that fact You have no chance in Edinburgh, why don't you jump in to a taxi at Edinburgh Airport and see for yourself, both companies work together at the airport and on many other issue's concerning competition from outsiders like you.

The problem you have if the above is not enough to put you off is Edinburgh is a limited market, its not LONDON, take the hint mate

Good luck though

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Alway's been about Tightening the Grip!

Have Time2taxi been in contact with the two biggest 'firms' in Edinburgh?
City and Central between them account for more than half of Edinburgh's taxis. I would be willing to bet my house that they would not tolerate your app being used by any of their drivers. It would be a conflict of interest. ComCab came onto the Edinburgh scene some 15 years ago promising the earth. Where are they today-a struggling company that are losing contracts to the big two. Street cars are street cars because they don't want the hassel of being told what to do by a company or receiving money through a bank account, that the Taxman has access too. They only want cash jobs. Short sighted l know but that is how they operate. I also wish you well but can't see this venture being worth your while in Edinburgh.

The rep told me that they had given a presentation to citycabs and didn't get any negative type of response as to the drivers using them. Maybe the citycabs guys realised that all the drivers will soon enough decide that the £1 charge is way too high so it's not really competition. I'd like to get some sort of response from the time2taxi guys about this charge as I honestly believe that if they knocked it down to the 25p mark you'd get a lot of drivers signing up. The less guys that sign up means the bigger drags you get as a driver. That leads to both customer and driver dissatisfaction and the whole business model implodes. Why set it as high as £1? Doesn't make much sense to me.

And yes, they're a year behind citycabs in launching this app so will already have lost a huge amount of the local market already. The citycabs app allows you to see where your car is on gps I'm led to believe and if there's any problems they can call the company. What can the time2taxi app do regarding problems? Who does the customer speak to?

Speaking of which, if you were to get a big drag, say 2 or 3 miles across heavy traffic and you want to throw the job back, is there any facility for this?

Durr i would imagine that its against the rules of both companies to accept work from the competiton, imagine it, taking work from Central and ECPH, i also think City Cabs would professionaly show these guys the door(IF they did approach) knowing that accepting work from another such as a rogue APP would be against there rules.

What im saying is don't encourage what is effectivily an un-licenced taxi booking system, licencing is there to protect, drivers, customers and data, only when these companies can prove 100% should they be considered as licenced booking systems, i imagine they would also have to apply per LA for such licence.

The one thing our trade could do though is to not encourage these rogue APP companies by signing up, we all know the only time they will be used is during quiet periods, lets not feck our trade for a couple of jobs per cabbie a week, these companies are only concerned about numbers.

They say they aint BROKERS so what are they?

Unlicenced APP booking offices

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Alway's been about Tightening the Grip!

You are selling us jobs that we would normally be getting either through the radio companies or off the street , the only people who will make extra money out of this is you and your staff. I reckon your in this for the quick buck and probably this will flop

If the customer wants a hack in Edinburgh they will find one easy using the i phone to call a company that has a face ,asking the waiter, barman or walking onto the street.

I could travel to any city in the uk and find a taxi without too much trouble

They might be selling you jobs, like a radio circuit sells you jobs, but some of us dont subscribe to radio circuits, and come from deregulated areas.......its only a few short months since edinburgh drivers were on here bitching about PH taking their work, now we know everything is fine and dandy......so presumably there'd be no objection to PH utilising this technology?

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

The point im making tho, if the customer is looking for a hack, in Edinburgh, they are still going to find it without this app.

As they do at the moment and without us paying a £1 for it

The guy stated this app was for hacks only

Iv already stated that this app might transfer some work from the radio companies to the street cars, but in theory when this happens it will leave more radio cars on the street, diluting the street work meaning we are paying a £1 for work we are already sharing

Unless this app brings in a mass of extra business that would have to mean a transfer of work from ph to the hacks then it not really going to make any difference to a drivers wage

The same amount of hack work shared with the same amount of drivers = the same amount of money , minus the£1 per job = less money

Unless it takes away work from the ph then we will as a whole be worse of

We would all be better putting a £1 or 2 in an organised kitty each week and start a prolonged advertising campaign



Of course i dont want the ph to take work from us but what is to stop them having a similar app

CC do you have a financial interest in this particular product ??

None whatsoever, but having spent the past 18 months trying to convince the Law Commission that the Taxi trade are not luddites and are all embracing of technology, I feel a little like King Canute.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Not all technology is of benefit tho if you would stop acting like king canute, you might see that

As for your comment on luddies most hand made items are of better quality and fetch higher premiums than those that are mass produced by machines

I'm yet to be convinced you read what I wrote

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin