19
de Febrer
de
2016
Act.
19
de Febrer
de
2016
The Mobile World Congress is an obligatory event for technology brands, fans and gurus. Yet it is also a key event in the calendars of hotels, restaurants, local businesses and taxi drivers. It is especially important for the latter, who we were not able to talk to and who are looking with quiet optimism at the TMB and Adif transport strike announced to coincide with the congress. It is a sector that wishes to show that digitalisation has turned it into a competitive means of transport.
The forecasts suggest as many as 95,000 visitors will arrive in the city, with their options reduced for getting around if the unions and the authorities do not reach agreement. If on a normal day the more than 4,000 taxis that circulate in Barcelona are not enough, this situation can only lead to one result: "Chaos". This how the CEO of MyTaxi in Spain, Antonio Cantalapiedra, characterises the situation, believing that "the strike is only beneficial in the short term" for this means of transport. "It is undeniable that it is beneficial for taxi drivers, although not as much as one might think, as they will not be able to cover all the transport needs and that will end up causing trouble," he adds.
MyTaxi, which began its activities at the same time as the MWC 2012 and which is a partner in this year's edition of the 4YFN, hopes to end this campaign with good results. There is a fleet of 3,000 taxis that use their app in Barcelona, a tool that, along with others like Hailo, have helped to restore order and to modernise a service that has not seen any innovation for more than 30 years.
Destigmatising the sector
Uber and BlaBlaCar are not the same as Hailo and MyTaxi. The former turned private drivers into taxi drivers –something that has raised questions about their legality- while the latter work hand-in-hand with professional chauffeurs to dispel the label of a "closed sector". "Taxi drivers are very open to using new technology," says the director of Hailo in Barcelona, Mar Pallàs, "they spend all day in the car, so that anything that can optimise their work is positive." This publication attempted to contact professionals from the industry but received no response.
Hailo gets an order for a taxi every 30 seconds and it has attained a user-base of 200,000 and more than 5,500 taxi drivers. And, in one year, it has increased its business in Barcelona by 200%, which shows that not only does it make the most of resources, but that it is also a profitable business model. "You have to bear in mind that the taxi is a vehicle that was already being used," points out Pallàs, "we have just helped to make the existing resources more efficient."
Cantalapiedra goes further and insists that it is a means of transport that needed to board the technological innovation train: "We are moving towards a smart city model that, according to the experts, will be where 75% of the world population will live by 2025. We needed to join this digitalisation, optimise the service and make it so that the client and the taxi driver could organise themselves better, plan for the demand and contribute to the sustainability of the environment."
For the CEO of MyTaxi mobile devices are the main agents of change in today's society. Their growing penetration has made it so that the real-time management of basic services transforms traditional spheres, and taxis could not be left behind. "The drivers had to call headquarters or intermediaries to know where the customer was, which increased the waiting time and complicated the situation. Now the customer can order a nearby car and evaluate the service with the app," he says by way of example.
Practical advantages of the app
Before the mobile apps, taxis circulated around cities much more without a specific destination, costs were higher and, they even encountered problems when it came to giving customers change. "They were common situations for the drivers, as was how to contact people who had left their glasses or other possessions in the car and could not get them back. We help people to more easily get lost objects back and we offer payment by mobile," says the director of Hailo in Barcelona.
However, the list of advantages that Pallàs details is longer still: "We have solved the fragmentation that existed in the regulations. Barcelona does not work in the same way as Girona or Lleida, you couldn't get a taxi and go from one city to another, when now you can. We have also made the management of receipts for companies easier, so that now they can keep better track of the trips their employees make."
Accounting for market alternatives
The Autoritat Catalana de la Competència also sees the application of technology positively and has questioned the veto of the authorities over sharing economy applications in this sphere. The organisation's head of Àrea d'Instrucció d'Expedients, Susanna Grau, thinks that "they bring innovation" and that they help to "improve the work of the taxi driver and the customer's trip", and she defends the "added value and higher quality in the standard of the service."
Her comments, however, refer to initiatives like Uber. Some consider it to be a threat; others like Cantalapiedra prefer to see it as a timely warning that says: "Guys, you are a public service, if you do not modernise and offer a service like ours, you will be left behind." He does not deny that these companies should be seen as a danger to the market share of traditional taxis, however, he prefers to focus on the positive interpretation.
That is why he defends the "accounting and coordination" of all alternatives, as in smart cities "there cannot be only one transport option". As an example, and in-line with Grau, he cites the use of the electric car, for which it is expected there will be increasing demand if society continues to have concerns about pollution and the accumulation of private vehicles.
However, to get to this point, action from the authorities is needed to adapt the legal framework. It is a task that, according to Grau, is not easy because "taxis are a world of limitations and regulation". He thinks that these apps have been successful at the "difficult task of differentiating themselves and providing a higher-quality service" and that the window of opportunity they have opened cannot be allowed to pass by.
Creating a new market segment
Another proposal that has been on the market for barely six months is Ntaxi. The start-up was set up by three taxi drivers who, knowing the everyday reality of these professionals, wanted to take advantage of the opportunities offered by new technology.
Their app does not exclude any professional, and they accept both drivers working for companies as well as independents, while they filter customer orders by post code to avoid unnecessary travelling and the need for extra information. They are two points that, according to the company coordinator in Catalonia, Eduardo Guía, differentiates them from Hailo and My Taxi because they "depend on radios and only work in large cities, not in small towns."
Their stand-out feature is taxi sharing. "We want to attract that segment of the public that is not used to getting a taxi for economic reasons," says Guía, who gives the example of trips to the airport: "If a car is shared by two or three people, it can even work out cheaper and quicker than going to the centre of Barcelona and taking the Aerobús."
So far nothing about it seems so new, but the truth is that they have another innovative proposal. The team is working on a tourist route service via the mobile app, with a menu in different languages and with explanations of the main sights in a city. All the tourists have to do is get in the tax, order a route through the app and listen to a virtual guided tour while the car follows the route they have chosen.
"We want to squeeze all of the potential in tourism, to create a new line of business and to give taxis a more modern image," says the coordinator of Catalonia. The idea comes from the founders' experience as taxi drivers, among whom there is a significant lack of the knowledge of languages and the culture of the place in which they work: "The drivers often cannot explain anything to the tourists, but with this we solve that and we are going out looking for a new type of customer."
All of this puts customer attention at the centre of the debate. Can it be improved? "I recognise that customer attention is not adequate, there are colleagues who do not understand how it is possible for them to get accreditation. But I think that it is more a problem of the requirements for getting a license, there were more exhaustive tests in languages, culture and history before," points out the Ntaxi cofounder. By using his app, he insists that this will be resolved, as it obliges drivers to keep their cars clean and to be friendly and polite in order to establish a quality service.
The forecasts suggest as many as 95,000 visitors will arrive in the city, with their options reduced for getting around if the unions and the authorities do not reach agreement. If on a normal day the more than 4,000 taxis that circulate in Barcelona are not enough, this situation can only lead to one result: "Chaos". This how the CEO of MyTaxi in Spain, Antonio Cantalapiedra, characterises the situation, believing that "the strike is only beneficial in the short term" for this means of transport. "It is undeniable that it is beneficial for taxi drivers, although not as much as one might think, as they will not be able to cover all the transport needs and that will end up causing trouble," he adds.
MyTaxi, which began its activities at the same time as the MWC 2012 and which is a partner in this year's edition of the 4YFN, hopes to end this campaign with good results. There is a fleet of 3,000 taxis that use their app in Barcelona, a tool that, along with others like Hailo, have helped to restore order and to modernise a service that has not seen any innovation for more than 30 years.
Destigmatising the sector
Uber and BlaBlaCar are not the same as Hailo and MyTaxi. The former turned private drivers into taxi drivers –something that has raised questions about their legality- while the latter work hand-in-hand with professional chauffeurs to dispel the label of a "closed sector". "Taxi drivers are very open to using new technology," says the director of Hailo in Barcelona, Mar Pallàs, "they spend all day in the car, so that anything that can optimise their work is positive." This publication attempted to contact professionals from the industry but received no response.
Hailo gets an order for a taxi every 30 seconds and it has attained a user-base of 200,000 and more than 5,500 taxi drivers. And, in one year, it has increased its business in Barcelona by 200%, which shows that not only does it make the most of resources, but that it is also a profitable business model. "You have to bear in mind that the taxi is a vehicle that was already being used," points out Pallàs, "we have just helped to make the existing resources more efficient."
Cantalapiedra goes further and insists that it is a means of transport that needed to board the technological innovation train: "We are moving towards a smart city model that, according to the experts, will be where 75% of the world population will live by 2025. We needed to join this digitalisation, optimise the service and make it so that the client and the taxi driver could organise themselves better, plan for the demand and contribute to the sustainability of the environment."
For the CEO of MyTaxi mobile devices are the main agents of change in today's society. Their growing penetration has made it so that the real-time management of basic services transforms traditional spheres, and taxis could not be left behind. "The drivers had to call headquarters or intermediaries to know where the customer was, which increased the waiting time and complicated the situation. Now the customer can order a nearby car and evaluate the service with the app," he says by way of example.
Practical advantages of the app
Before the mobile apps, taxis circulated around cities much more without a specific destination, costs were higher and, they even encountered problems when it came to giving customers change. "They were common situations for the drivers, as was how to contact people who had left their glasses or other possessions in the car and could not get them back. We help people to more easily get lost objects back and we offer payment by mobile," says the director of Hailo in Barcelona.
However, the list of advantages that Pallàs details is longer still: "We have solved the fragmentation that existed in the regulations. Barcelona does not work in the same way as Girona or Lleida, you couldn't get a taxi and go from one city to another, when now you can. We have also made the management of receipts for companies easier, so that now they can keep better track of the trips their employees make."
Accounting for market alternatives
The Autoritat Catalana de la Competència also sees the application of technology positively and has questioned the veto of the authorities over sharing economy applications in this sphere. The organisation's head of Àrea d'Instrucció d'Expedients, Susanna Grau, thinks that "they bring innovation" and that they help to "improve the work of the taxi driver and the customer's trip", and she defends the "added value and higher quality in the standard of the service."
Her comments, however, refer to initiatives like Uber. Some consider it to be a threat; others like Cantalapiedra prefer to see it as a timely warning that says: "Guys, you are a public service, if you do not modernise and offer a service like ours, you will be left behind." He does not deny that these companies should be seen as a danger to the market share of traditional taxis, however, he prefers to focus on the positive interpretation.
That is why he defends the "accounting and coordination" of all alternatives, as in smart cities "there cannot be only one transport option". As an example, and in-line with Grau, he cites the use of the electric car, for which it is expected there will be increasing demand if society continues to have concerns about pollution and the accumulation of private vehicles.
However, to get to this point, action from the authorities is needed to adapt the legal framework. It is a task that, according to Grau, is not easy because "taxis are a world of limitations and regulation". He thinks that these apps have been successful at the "difficult task of differentiating themselves and providing a higher-quality service" and that the window of opportunity they have opened cannot be allowed to pass by.
Creating a new market segment
Another proposal that has been on the market for barely six months is Ntaxi. The start-up was set up by three taxi drivers who, knowing the everyday reality of these professionals, wanted to take advantage of the opportunities offered by new technology.
Their app does not exclude any professional, and they accept both drivers working for companies as well as independents, while they filter customer orders by post code to avoid unnecessary travelling and the need for extra information. They are two points that, according to the company coordinator in Catalonia, Eduardo Guía, differentiates them from Hailo and My Taxi because they "depend on radios and only work in large cities, not in small towns."
Their stand-out feature is taxi sharing. "We want to attract that segment of the public that is not used to getting a taxi for economic reasons," says Guía, who gives the example of trips to the airport: "If a car is shared by two or three people, it can even work out cheaper and quicker than going to the centre of Barcelona and taking the Aerobús."
So far nothing about it seems so new, but the truth is that they have another innovative proposal. The team is working on a tourist route service via the mobile app, with a menu in different languages and with explanations of the main sights in a city. All the tourists have to do is get in the tax, order a route through the app and listen to a virtual guided tour while the car follows the route they have chosen.
"We want to squeeze all of the potential in tourism, to create a new line of business and to give taxis a more modern image," says the coordinator of Catalonia. The idea comes from the founders' experience as taxi drivers, among whom there is a significant lack of the knowledge of languages and the culture of the place in which they work: "The drivers often cannot explain anything to the tourists, but with this we solve that and we are going out looking for a new type of customer."
All of this puts customer attention at the centre of the debate. Can it be improved? "I recognise that customer attention is not adequate, there are colleagues who do not understand how it is possible for them to get accreditation. But I think that it is more a problem of the requirements for getting a license, there were more exhaustive tests in languages, culture and history before," points out the Ntaxi cofounder. By using his app, he insists that this will be resolved, as it obliges drivers to keep their cars clean and to be friendly and polite in order to establish a quality service.