New business www.icabbi.ie

I Was VB

Firstly i wish you every all the best with your new venture.

I drive a taxi myself and use them quite frequently also on nite outs and day time.

As i'm sure your aware Ireland has a major influx of taxi's in every city, but as a regular taxi customer i've never had to pre-book a taxi its become a matter of stepping out onto the road and choosing a taxi as i know only too well. Myself i've affliated with radio companys before both voice and datahead systems and i choose to work the streets, because when the streets are busy so is the radio.

There are also other companys offering the same service:

http://www.dublintaxi.ie/
http://www.charliescabs.com/
https://www.winicabs.com/

*note charliescabs tryed for a 100% contrywide fleet of taxis and failed when they didnt have enough intrest.

Call me old fasioned but when i do call a taxi i'd like it to be a driver of my locality, supporting my local Businesses there are two that regulary drop cards into my door. As for icabbi what kind of advertising are they gonna do?? 8-20-20-20 have it sown up IMHO in terms of ads, now on 2 Dublin radio stations also offering a discount. Day work has contracts to hospitals and hotels.

I wish you the best in you endevors, also what are Icabbis owners/directors experence in the taxi industry?

iCabbi

Hi all, our iPhone app is now live, we would appreciate any feedback you could give us. We have noted a small bug that we are currently fixing where some people are encountering issues registering on the app and have to try twice, this isn't an issue where wifi is being used.

http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/icabbi-ireland/id386959553?mt=8

As for advertising - we are a new techology business and we have no plans or intention to compete with the old businesses using old advertising techniques that aim to drill their phone number into peoples heads.

Booking will now be in peoples pockets so they have no need to remember a number. We will be promoting through websites, apps etc.

We also have strategic partnerships in place with various companies such as Nokia, Vodafone, Carphone Warehouse & Georgina Campbell's Ireland. These will all be kicking in in the coming months and should drive significant amounts of business our way.

Hi iCabbi, Great idea I hope it works out for you. If you haven't already you should write yourself up a press release a couple of weeks before you go live and send it to every media outlet you can. Try and get on local radio as much as possible.

Atlas_IRL

Cheers El Rifle we are launching the press and media campaings very soon and have some great contacts for the press, i saw from Zumpty you where in all the local newspapers around the country that is something we also need. Did you get that access from one source or many?

If anyone has any issues with the iphone app please let us know.

iMax

Just downloaded & installed it. Looks great as an app & has great benefits. Will report back when I actually get to use it.

Atlas_IRL

Atlas_IRL wrote: »

Cheers El Rifle we are launching the press and media campaings very soon and have some great contacts for the press, i saw from Zumpty you where in all the local newspapers around the country that is something we also need. Did you get that access from one source or many?

It was from a few different sources. Often what happens is if you get a nice article in say The Irish Times, other outlets like radio will contact you.

You can get that by either hitting the right person at one of the big newspapers, or you can have a PR company do it for you.
But also send a press release to absolutely everyone - all those small papers too.

Put yourself in the shoes of the journalist, they want to write about new and interesting things, so if you present yourself and your idea in the right way they will cover you. But you need to sell yourself alongside your new business, and be entertaining to interview etc.

trad

Looks like a good idea.

On your driver charges you charge €1.21 incl vat per job.

I am of the understanding that booking services for taxis is vat exempt.
http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vat/rates/decision-detail-00487.jsp

If this is correct it will make you service more attractive to drivers.

Bluetonic

It's a bit strange the way these business owners never seem to answer to many of the criticisms.

Are you just using this thread as a cheap marketing tool or are you going to engage with us at all?

I would have thought stepbar's point was slightly important and needs to be covered?

Just as a side you really need to get more active on your social media sites. Fresh content is king and your content is seriously lacking, get TweetAdder for your twitter account as soon as you can to get yourself lots of focused followers in the Dublin region.

ocallagh

Bluetonic wrote: »

It's a bit strange the way these business owners never seem to answer to many of the criticisms.

Are you just using this thread as a cheap marketing tool or are you going to engage with us at all?

I would have thought stepbar's point was slightly important and needs to be covered?

Just as a side you really need to get more active on your social media sites. Fresh content is king and your content is seriously lacking, get TweetAdder for your twitter account as soon as you can to get yourself lots of focused followers in the Dublin region.

I think all questions have been answered, just that the quote tag wasn't used much so they might have been missed! I assume you're talking about the safety of working the phone while driving. The phone sits in a car cradle (like a sat nav) and when a job comes through the phone unlocks, lights up and beeps. Two buttons are presented Green and Red and a distance to customer in km. It' very easy to use and while we would urge drivers to pull over if they're going to pick up their phone, pressing a button on something attached to the car is very easy. We met with the Taxi regulator to go over the whole process. They came up with a few suggestions to improve security which we implemented. They were very much behind it and especially liked the wheelchair option and benefits for those hard of hearing.

trad, we initially thought we were VAT exempt. The VAT act does exclude the transport of passengers and their luggage and up until 2010 this exemption also extended to any service which provided drivers with fares, but no more. http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/foi/s16/vat/chpt-05/5-11.pdf We've had two VAT experts look into this for us and both came to the same conclusion.

Bluetonic

Bluetonic wrote: »

It's a bit strange the way these business owners never seem to answer to many of the criticisms.

Are you just using this thread as a cheap marketing tool or are you going to engage with us at all?

I would have thought stepbar's point was slightly important and needs to be covered?
.

What you might see as constructive criticism, someone else might see as negativity. Sometimes its best to just disengage with negative people because you are never going to win. Some people are negative no matter what the case.
I for one think that if Im a taxi driver and im driving around looking for work that if I get a special beep in my phone which tells me there is a pickup waiting, I will pull over for and check it. Obviously if Im already inundated with work Im not going to do that, but with all those drivers out there there can't be too much work for all of them. Taxis in Ireland are a rip off as well, so I imagine usage has dropped in the last 3 years. Drivers will be looking to make more cash and better ways to make cash. This is an option for them.

And if I was a driver id like the idea of a fancy new phone as well!

Bluetonic

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on licencing the software to existing dispatch companies as I suggest already rather than being the operators.

Also I would imagine a feature like a type of reverse tendering for a job would be one which may give your app a niche, i.e as a consumer I would be allowed to push out a job say City Center to Balbriggan for 30 euro and a driver can accept if they are willing to do it for that price. The majority of drivers for such distances will work on the price so why not have the software arrange it all in advance? Taxi drivers could register their minimum price in advance for such jobs and only get the message should the job be within their lower price range.

CompFix

Great idea, hope it goes well for you.

Any plans for an android app?

iCabbi

BlueTonic I don't really know what to say as you appear not to have read some of our responses, do you want to read through the thread again and come back to us with any questions that haven't been answered adequately?

I addressed the dispatch company item in one reply where I said we hadn't discounted involving dispatch companies but have had no interest from any of them to date. Licensing is an attractive option but its no good if you can't get other parties to engage with you.

To go into it further we have contacted several dispatch companies of varying sizes and they either haven't wanted to meet us, have met us and saw it as a threat or diarised a meeting and didn't show up.

As for pressing a button on your phone when driving - it is easier than turning your car radio on. Also when iCabbi drivers get a job (from us or otherwise) they are meant to deactivate themselves from the iCabbi system, so if they have a fare in their car they will not get a beep at all.

As for our financial projections and other figures you have asked for - they are our own business and we wouldn't be comfortable discussing any of them on a forum. Hope you can appreciate why.

iCabbi

Bluetonic wrote: »

Also I would imagine a feature like a type of reverse tendering for a job would be one which may give your app a niche, i.e as a consumer I would be allowed to push out a job say City Center to Balbriggan for 30 euro and a driver can accept if they are willing to do it for that price. The majority of drivers for such distances will work on the price so why not have the software arrange it all in advance? Taxi drivers could register their minimum price in advance for such jobs and only get the message should the job be within their lower price range.

This is something that we looked at but if I recall correctly prices are set by the regulator, I can't really remember why we didn't go for this so will ask my colleague later to check (we also don't want to alienate drivers by causing price wars), also we looked at taxi sharing which may come later. We have to take it one step at a time and we took a very big one in the last week.

iCabbi

Will of course look at Google Android but the numbers in Ireland are still quite small but we are aware that it is growing quite quickly, but we will have our mobile app out in the next couple of weeks which can be used by any web enabled mobile phone so Android devices will be able to use it anyway

witnessmenow

Interesting idea, i wish you luck!

Quick question though, what is to stop a Taxi driver abusing this system (e.g Accepting a job when he is already on a fair).

Will there be monitors on driver performace visible to customers (average wait time etc)

iCabbi

We have procedures in place to monitor drivers in relation to bookings accepted, if they are going the wrong way we will find out and there is a clear disciplinary process should it happen eventually leading to being kicked off the system.

Customers can watch the progress of drivers on the maps anyway, so there will be no pulling the wool over their eyes (although I had to laugh the other day as I watched a taxi getting lost while coming to pick me up, he took a wrong turn into a neighbouring estate and went all over the world before getting to me)

Bluetonic

iCabbi wrote: »

This is something that we looked at but if I recall correctly prices are set by the regulator

The taxi regulator sets the maximum price, once agreed in advance the journey can be any cost below this.

The reason I found it a little difficult to follow the answers to the questions is that there seems to be a number of people responding who are representing iCabbi, not very organised

suey71

iCabbi wrote: »

We have procedures in place to monitor drivers in relation to bookings accepted, if they are going the wrong way we will find out and there is a clear disciplinary process should it happen eventually leading to being kicked off the system.

Customers can watch the progress of drivers on the maps anyway, so there will be no pulling the wool over their eyes (although I had to laugh the other day as I watched a taxi getting lost while coming to pick me up, he took a wrong turn into a neighbouring estate and went all over the world before getting to me)

I asked earlier in the thread about the amount of time that you will give drivers to get to their fare, 5, 10 20 mins?

20 mins seems to be the norm with taxi companies, but at night as I said earlier, it only takes 5 mins to get to Finglas from Blanchardstown.

Any earlier and you get a bollocking, off the customer, because they are told that it will take 20 mins. and off the base for getting there too early.

20 mins will lead to a lot of thumb twiddling on the drivers side, and if a person puts their hand out to hail the taxi, he is not, and I repeat not going to turn it down.
And as I said in the earlier post, this 20 min time limit is there to make the Taxi company look busy, but in reality its a false representation of how busy the company is.

Its all fine and well saying how great of a company and service this has the potential to be, but if you dont address the issues of the taxi drivers themselves you'll run into difficulties.

I know drivers that drive for 8202020 and they turn there radio of at 2am because of this 20 min rule, and because of the 20% off and sometimes 25% off.

Imagion your driving around looking for a fare for lets say a half an hour, you get a call to go to a house to pick someone up in 20 mins.
So you get there in 2, because you where local(remember, you have to be local because the nearest gets the job). Then you sit there for 18 mins and the fare only wants to go around the corner, a €4.45 fare (Do you charge the customer €2 call out charge or are you going to drop that?)
The driver then waits for another job from the base and it all starts again.

Sometimes its better to turn the base/radio off or not be with a company at all.

This is what the other companies do, not saying you will, but you have to intice customers somehow and knocking the callout charge and maybe 20%/25% off will intice custom even better.
20% off €4.45 min fare and you leave the driver with €3.56. And the driver pays YOU €1 off every job for this.€2.56. This is for some jobs and not all are this small granted.

You'd get sick if you found out how much taxi drivers make.

Or don't make.

I Was VB

I-Cabbi, i asked in my first reply to this topic, what is your experence in the taxi industry?

Could you please answer? Thank you.

suey71

suey71 wrote: »

This is what the other companies do, not saying you will, but you have to intice customers somehow and knocking the callout charge and maybe 20%/25% off will intice custom even better.
20% off €4.45 min fare and you leave the driver with €3.56. And the driver pays YOU €1 off every job for this.€2.56. This is for some jobs and not all are this small granted.

You'd get sick if you found out how much taxi drivers make.

Or don't make.

But Suey how many jobs cost 4.45? 1% maybe. Would you even get a mile for 4.45?

Perhaps to solve the 20 minute issue they might make the person put in their destination in the app and so the driver won't be worried about waiting around for a very small fare.

When you say youd get sick if you found out how much they make or dont make, I don't get it, you mean they make loads? or peanuts? Would they have a fare every 20 minutes anyway? Or do many drivers wait around a lot during the day waiting for fares?
I would think if all the drivers are getting loads of business, then your points above would be an issue alright. If they arent constantly getting fares Im sure they utilise this service once it kicks in.

I havent seen the app or anything, but it seems to me it could be refined to solve the problems you mention. Whats to stop the person putting in the time they want the taxi to arrive?, and if the message goes out to ten drivers, maybe 3 of them won't like the timing.

JonJoeDali

iCabbi wrote: »

Will of course look at Google Android but the numbers in Ireland are still quite small but we are aware that it is growing quite quickly, but we will have our mobile app out in the next couple of weeks which can be used by any web enabled mobile phone so Android devices will be able to use it anyway

Haven't you been working on this idea for several years now?

Are you a licensed dispatch operator?

iCabbi

I Was VB wrote: »

I-Cabbi, i asked in my first reply to this topic, what is your experence in the taxi industry?

Could you please answer? Thank you.

Sorry we did answer that & as before - we are internet entrepeneurs and with several long standing taxi drivers on our team.

We aren't an official dispatch company as the regulator deemed that it wasn't necessary, however one of the drivers on our team has sat the necessary exam so we can become one immediately if deemed necessary.

The nearest active driver to the job gets it, we have no time limitations or penalties.

BlueTonic can appreciate the confusion with several replying, apologise for this and thanks for the heads up on the fare price. We still wouldn't want to start a price war.

suey71

Deleted User wrote: »

But Suey how many jobs cost 4.45? 1% maybe. Would you even get a mile for 4.45?

Perhaps to solve the 20 minute issue they might make the person put in their destination in the app and so the driver won't be worried about waiting around for a very small fare.

When you say youd get sick if you found out how much they make or dont make, I don't get it, you mean they make loads? or peanuts? Would they have a fare every 20 minutes anyway? Or do many drivers wait around a lot during the day waiting for fares?
I would think if all the drivers are getting loads of business, then your points above would be an issue alright. If they arent constantly getting fares Im sure they utilise this service once it kicks in.

I havent seen the app or anything, but it seems to me it could be refined to solve the problems you mention. Whats to stop the person putting in the time they want the taxi to arrive?, and if the message goes out to ten drivers, maybe 3 of them won't like the timing.

Hi El Rifle,

You'd be amazed how many jobs you get for €4.45, all local runs to and from the pub, dropping a Grandmother home, girlfriend going home from boyfriend and is too afraid to walk etc. You get these small jobs off the radio aswell, there's always a little favouritism in taxi companies. Even in the most modern ones. Every system can be manipulated.

And on the subject of how much a taxi driver makes, heres some food for thought, 2 Sundays ago I made less than €20 for 5 hours work, from 8pm to 1am, then called it a day, and spent about the same on petrol.

When the radio is busy so are the streets and vise versa.

iCabbi is it true that to use your system a driver has to sign up to bill pay?
This is yet another expense that I dont think drivers will be too eager to pay. How much does it cost per month to get one of those fancy phones using bill pay?

The more I think about this the more I think it won't work.
Did you do an in dept study from taxi drivers or did you just go to the Regulator and some Taxi companies.
I've seen some of your posts on some taxi forums and the responses aren't encouraging.

I think this idea would have worked a bout 4 or 5 years ago but there are so many changes in the taxi industry these days ie, Regulator being totally unrealistic, Economy etc.
But I do see it taking off if the economy picks up and the Regulator buys back some Plates from drivers wanting to leave the industry, and doesn't resell them to make more revenue.

Did you stress test your plan? and if so when? I'd suggest you do it again.

Heres an idea. Go to a taxi rank, one outside a busy shopping center any day. Ask as many taxi drivers as you can what they think of your plan?

These are the guys that your money will come from, without them your business isn't viable.

iCabbi

suey71 wrote: »

Hi El Rifle,

iCabbi is it true that to use your system a driver has to sign up to bill pay?
This is yet another expense that I dont think drivers will be too eager to pay. How much does it cost per month to get one of those fancy phones using bill pay?

The more I think about this the more I think it won't work.
Did you do an in dept study from taxi drivers or did you just go to the Regulator and some Taxi companies.
I've seen some of your posts on some taxi forums and the responses aren't encouraging.
.

The interesting thing about the taxi forum is that all the narks reply with negative attitudes, look at any of the threads on there and all the same people are moaning and being negative about everything.

The fascinating thing is that we are getting loads of drivers signing up who have been reading the taxi forum, never post anything and tell us to ignore the narks they are just a bunch of &%$£. These drivers can see the possibilities of improving their business (they can still use radio, cruise, q at ranks etc and now have another string to their bow).

More importantly these guys signing up are positive which is what's required with something new. they understand iCabbi isn't going to make them rich overnight but even if it threw an extra few euro a week at them it's money they didn't have before.

The phone is supplied to drivers for free, we already have 200+ drivers in Dublin and have stopped taking drivers in some areas. We also have a group of 30+ drivers in Cork ready to go. the only time a driver pays is if they get a fare and then it is €1.21 if they have their own phone or €2 if they have one of ours.

I was chatting to one driver yesterday who pays €65 a week for his radio and has got €17 out of it so far this week, he has paid nothing to iCabbi but already had a €23 fare that will cost him €2.

Launching next week so watch out for us!!!

iCabbi

P.S. Suey why don't you check out the drivers section of www.icabbi.ie as the answers to any other driver related questions will be on there.

If you want to come in to see us in our offices in Finglas for a chat you are more than welcome, you might even leave with one of our free phones!

suey71

Hi iCabbi

Thanks for the offer but I intend to get out of this business soon, I'm going live with my online shop any day now.;).

I was never a taxi driver at heart. I've got too many ideas to be stuck in a car.
Plus, I have to work around my wifes job as it pays better, and we have 4 kids to look after when she's in work, so I cant work 60-80 hours a week like most other taxi drivers.


I should have never invested my redundancy money in this game 7 years ago like so many other chumps.

If I had have found this forum back then I'd be rich by now:D.

Back on topic.

You didn't answer my question about needing to be a bill pay customer with a mobile phone network before you can use your system.

Extra expense etc.

Good luck anyway. I hope you succeed.

iCabbi

All you need is a compatible phone, our system uses a tiny amount in data a month but you need credit or a bill phone to cover the data useage.

So when I said we give drivers a free phone we give them a compatible Nokia which has been locked down to allow data use only, there are no charges at all & the iCabbi software is loaded on to it.

There is absolutely no charge to drivers until they get a fare and then it's the rates as outlined. So no fare no pay - for anything!

So you don't need a bill phone but you need a compatible phone and enough credit to cover data used (minimal)

Suey

Ah yes forgot about getting granny to mass!

iCabbi

Launching today, new viral below has already got over 1,000 views in one day, hope you like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YcesQXBC58