Hi everyone,
I wanted to draw to your attention an iPhone application for booking taxis called Cabulous (some brief details can be found on their website
www.cabulous.com). I am taking on the license for Cabulous in the UK and the idea is to build Cabulous as a brand across the whole of the UK so no matter what area of the country you are in, a passenger can just go on the Cabulous phone app and see all the black taxis in their city or town moving on a map in real time and can hail one at the press of a button. No phone calls are needed! This will make it very easy to get a black taxi no matter where you and what time it is, especially if the dispatch office is really busy.
The technology is available now to make this work very well and the traditional means of communication by phone is gradually declining in favour of email, text messages, social media, etc. Cabulous takes advantage of this trend to make sure your potential passengers can reach you easily as well as delivering added customer benefits. For example, when a passenger has hailed your taxi on the phone app then they can track the progress of that taxi all the way to their location on a map on their phone. Therefore, for example, if there is heavy traffic and you are running a little late then there is no need for the passenger to clog up the dispatch phone lines asking if their taxi is far away because they can see on the map that you are just a few streets away.
Cabulous will be a one stop shop for every black taxi across the country. The idea is not to replace the traditional dispatch system but to give a very convenient alternative to the passenger that will also help cut down on cruising time for the drivers looking for a passenger, save fuel and take the load off the dispatch system. You can even build up customer loyalty by passengers selecting your taxi as a favourite which will then show up on their map every time they need a taxi.
Think of the benefits, especially on a busy Friday or Saturday night! It’s incredibly difficult to get through to the dispatch office and rather than having to drop off a fare a few miles away from the nightlife area and drive back with an empty cab looking for a fare, lots of passengers could see your available taxi on it’s way back and you could pick up multiple fares in a short space of time, therefore increasing revenue and saving on fuel.
The system is incredibly simple and costs nothing to set up. All it needs is for the driver to have a smartphone and they can be up and running in no time. Currently Cabulous has been designed for the iPhone but more versions for the Android and Blackberry operating systems will be coming in the next month or two. In terms of costs to use the application on a day to day basis then the proposed cost is £1.80 although discounts will be available to larger fleets. However, and this is the best bit for the drivers, if you don’t get any fares in the day from the application then there is no cost and if you get 20 fares in the day then you still just pay the £1.80. We feel that having no charge if there are no fares is the fairest way to build up the business because obviously there will initially be very few passengers using the application.
We will provide all of the advertisement for Cabulous to the public such as posters and business cards in the taxis and when the number of taxis using the application have reached a sufficient number then we will really start to publicise in the media. There’s no point building the media coverage too early if there are not enough taxis on board but the advertising in your taxis will give an excellent initial growth in passenger numbers. The idea is to initially start in Scotland and then branch out across the entire UK.
I’d like to get your thoughts on Cabulous and if it’s something that you think you would use when you’re out driving.
Many thanks.
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Cabulous Smartphone Application
www.cabulous.com
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