Posted by French cab company invests in capital where Uber drivers have over 50% downtime
(London, 10/6/19) French cab company Kapten, backed by Daimler and BMW, has launched in London with promises of 20% lower fares and sleights at Uber’s not paying local taxes. The last thing London (and many other metropolises) needs is another taxi company clogging up the streets, causing pollution and eroding current cab drivers’ diminishing business.
A recent report in The Times (June 9th) said that Uber drivers in London carried fares less than 50% of the time they were at work, raising concern the company was adding to congestion and pollution. The rest of the time was spent cruising for work (35%) or driving to pick up a passenger (23%). A passenger was on board only 42% of the time. The story is similar in Nottingham and Glasgow.
Further, The Department of Transport figures show that the number of licensed PHVs (Licensed Private Vehicles) in London has risen 120%, since 2005, to 88,000.
They just don’t get it do they? The only effective way to make digital hailing truly national, and that means rural Scotland, a farming village in North Yorkshire, a market town in Somerset, is for independent cab firms to aggregate under one affordable online platform. That way the consumer will have access to 250,000 cabs throughout the UK, five times as many as Uber.
One consumer, Jenny Bell, put it:
“The last thing you want is to arrive at Thirsk station, a mile and a half from town, and have to ring 8 or 10 cab companies before you can get a cab. Why can’t we have the same digital hailing option in the country that we have in the city?”
Cabs.com (www.cabs.com) already has 8000 cab firms, with 150,000 cabs, listed on its website. Customers are currently using this to source local cab firms. On the 7th May it launched its technology platform which enables all of these to participate in the growing digital hailing revolution. This comprises a sophisticated dispatch software package and state-of-the-art driver and passenger apps. Cabs.com’s vision is to migrate many of these independent cab firms to its technology, providing the consumer with digital access to a truly nationwide network of private hire cabs not currently available, potentially 2 to 3 times as many as Uber, and with real UK coverage, urban and rural.
It is affordable too. Currently Uber drivers pay 25% commission on each fare. Cabs.com charges only 10p a fare, on top of £30 per month for a fully-automated dispatch system, driver app, and consumer digital hailing app. This equates to about one-tenth of Uber’s charges.
William Berry, CEO and founder of Cabs.com, said:
“Our service is aimed at local companies, with local customers, who pay local taxes. It can truly provide a national network where customers are able to source a ride in the closest cab available, whether in Perth, Central London or North Yorkshire.
Under the cabs.com umbrella every local cab company and driver can fight back against Uber and its like, effectively and affordably.”
Cabs.com Blog 