Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest
MyTaxi - booking charge
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
There was no change in senior management on rebranding. When Daimler merged it’s mytaxi subsidiary with Hail0, Hail0’s senior management team took the reigns. The decision to rebrand was probably an easy one as Hail0 had a global track record of failure (US, Asia, etc) with Ireland and, to a lesser extent, Spain being the exceptions. By point of fact Hail0 was in negative shareholder equity and was very close to insolvency at the time of the merger. Globally, mytaxi had more drivers and customers than Hail0 so I guess it made sense to adopt it’s tech infrastructure. As far as the User Interface goes (driver and passenger apps) Hailo was infinitely superior to mytaxi, under the bonnet was probably quite different. With this in mind Hail0’s development team was tasked with integrating it’s platform into mytaxi’s infrastructure while being put on notice.
Drivers in Ireland, being accustomed to a reasonably good UI, were given the new app and they clearly didn’t like it. Just to give a little insight for passengers, a driver probably presses “Accept” 5 or 6 times per actual job allocation. For the most part pressing accept does nothing more than display a bouncing car for a short time. There is a logical reason for this - offering jobs to several drivers simultaneously ought to increase efficiency for passengers and encourages drivers to accept faster, without necessarily considering the cost/benefit implications - but drivers lose interest in looking at bouncing cars so eventually switch off. At the same time drivers are reading snippets of interviews with senior management talking about covering 25% of their taxi fares with autonomous vehicles within 10 years and noting that their primary resource is now the data they harvest for Daimler.
As you note, despite complaining that it cannot satisfy current demand, the firm continues it’s aggressive marketing campaigns with vouchers being thrown around like confetti at a wedding- the confetti being at the wedding, not necessarily the vouchers. It’s disruptive agenda doesn’t end there, it is currently paying €100/€150 cash bonuses to drivers who complete 15/20 jobs between 5p.m. Saturday and 5a.m. Sunday. As well as improving acceptance rates for the firm this also serves to starve ranks and other dispatch firms of cars at the busiest times of the week.
Getting back to the substance of the topic, when Hail0 launched in Ireland we were in the depths of a recession and offering discounts was standard practice among taxi firms. The economic climate is somewhat different now and most firms have withdrawn such incentives, mytaxi being one of the last to do so. As iamtony notes, drivers were happy to absorb the cost of eHails (and other call outs) while work was scarce. They aren’t now so the firm has found that it simply cannot satisfy demand under those terms. On a political level the data the firm collates will carry more weight as far as general levels of supply and demand within the trade as a whole are concerned as it will no longer be skewed by requiring drivers to discount fares they accept.
Going forward mytaxi will resolve whatever technical gremlins remain and improvements will be made to the UIs of both apps. It has increased investment in it’s development facilities and it is working with drivers in Ireland to provide Irish customers with a professional, reliable service.
Very good post.
Welcome to Boards
Do you work for MyTaxi?
I'm sure it won't take long before the vultures decend to rip you a new one and tell you that you don't know what you are talking about.0 -
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
To be pedantic
"The €2 Booking Fee
The €2 booking fee is an industry-standard fee charged by all taxi providers in Ireland. In the past, we've asked mytaxi drivers to discount this fee for our customers.
Improving the Service
From Thursday the 21st of September 2017, to align with taxi industry standards, we’re no longer requesting that drivers discount the €2 booking fee."
So...optional, but you can be certain that taxi drivers will add on the fee.
The "booking fee" or call out charge was scrapped by Hailo as 99% of e hails were within 500m of driver`s location and there was no mandatory free waiting time. Drivers didn`t object to this. However, drivers are now being asked to travel to jobs over 5km away and give 5 minutes waiting time when they arrive at the pick up address . Most drivers ignore these jobs. Hailo was a great idea. It`s customer base was built by drivers servicing the public and the public return custom because of the great service.
The drivers are still the same drivers . The customers are still the same customers. So who`s responsible for the current situation....? I deleted Hailo app nearly 3 years ago when I seen people trying to fix something that wasn`t broke.0 -
-
Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 23,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 22874
What did you do before failo came along ?
Maybe ring another taxi company?
There are many other taxi companies who also have apps if you don't like speaking on the phone.
The old way of having to ring a radio company was just a terrible experience and I personally avoided it as much as possible. This is what it was often like for customers:
- Ring local radio company, wait ages on hold to finally get through to only be told they are hammered and won't have anyone for another hour.
- Ring a second company, wait ages again, told the same.
- Ring third company, finally get through, told a taxi will be around soon, slowly callout your name, address and phone details to a non native speaker.
- Wait for an hour, no sign of a taxi, phone the company again only to be told the driver was in the area, but couldn't get me on a mobile, check the number they have only to find that they took the number down wrong!
Really it was just a sucky experience. Apps were a revelation from the customer experience. Pull phone out of pocket, press one button, two minutes later a taxi at the door. It really was a fantastic new experience. And I have to say my use of taxis went WAY up as a result.
Also just being able to jump out at the end, use your credit card and not have to mess about with change or asking a driver to stop at an ATM was also a pleasure.
I'd never go back to phone dispatch again, I'd rather walk! But as you say, other apps now exist.It's interesting that some on here and elsewhere have suggested that they don't mind paying the €2 to their local cab firm as it doesn't have a huge fleet so the driver might have to travel for the job. In essence they are saying that poor service is worth paying for i.e. €2 is a fair price for being left wondering whether you'll catch your flight or make your appointment while a reliable service is worth nothing! This is all very well in the theoretical world of social media, in practice passengers will chose the service that is right here right now.
I think the difference was simply the speed that Hailo taxis got to you. You could see that they were just around the cornet, so really it was more like waving down someone on the street then booking a taxi. When a taxi is no more then 500meters away and you are already outside and waiting as he pulls up, it just makes the €2 feel unjustified from the customers perspective.
BTW welcome to boards R. C. 0 -
-
-
-
Advertisement