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New business www.icabbi.ie

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24

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    #32
    suey71
    Closed Accounts Posts: 805 ✭✭✭suey71


    Have you thought about expanding this service to the UK?


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    #33
    ocallagh
    Registered Users Posts: 3,140 ✭✭✭ocallagh


    Mr.S wrote: »
    brilliant idea.

    Looking forward to the mobile app.

    Just a question, when you create a booking, do you get a text confirming a driver is on the way/arrived to pick you up? or do you just stand around and wait and hope someone turns up!

    You get a text (or push notification on your iphone) that the taxi is outside. Also, you can track the taxi as it approaches you on the map (on both phone and website) so can finish your pint accordingly or whatever!


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    #34
    nice1franko
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,300 ✭✭✭nice1franko


    Cracking idea. I'll pass on the link to my missus, she hates leery taximen so she'll love the transparency and security this gives.

    I've a feeling you don't need it but ... g'luck!


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    #35
    Cianos
    Registered Users Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭Cianos


    Best of luck with the venture. If done in the right way it should be a very handy service. One pointer, I don't think the name is good enough. If I said to my friend "I booked a taxi with icabbi", they won't know how to spell the name. Is it i-c-a-b-y? i-c-a-b-b-y? i-c-a-b-b-i-e? etc. A name has to be audible to be communicable.

    Another issue you're facing is the amount of instances people HAVE to ring for a taxi. Most people on a night out are in a fairly populated area that taxis flock to for picking up fares. In these cases taxis are generally very available on the street and it's a lot quicker and instinctive to flag one down then to remember that you have an app on your phone that can do it for you (but won't you then still be competing with the fact that your local drivers have the option of all the other punters who need a taxi?).

    The only times I've personally needed to find a number to ring for a taxi is when I'm at a friends house that isn't in my own town (meaning I wouldn't have the local cab numbers saved in my phone). These are the times that your service would be most useful, but they are extremely rare for the average person. This is the backbone of necessity that your service will be based on, but how can it grow from there?

    So as other posters have said, your strongest USP is the safety factor, and thus your primary target market should be women, as they are more likely to feel uncomfortable with the anonymity of a flagged down taxi. If you can get the service popularised with lady customers then you can progress to making it a normal every day method of getting a taxi.

    With the above in mind I think your website has loads of room for improvement. It reads like you are trying to sell the idea to yourselves rather than to the customer. The function of the map seems to be communicating the idea that you have icabbi associated with loads of taxis around Dublin...but, shouldn't that go without saying?

    (I've just noticed you have made a thread in the website reviews section, so I'll pass any remarks about it through there instead of here!)


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    #36
    bigneacy
    Registered Users Posts: 1,222 ✭✭✭bigneacy


    its a fantastic idea, I can't wait until its in the rest of the country.

    Its total convenience in a total convenience era. Now you can order a cab straight from the nightclub before last orders are called, which wouldn't be possible with the sheer level of noise. you can order it before your last sip of coffee without having to interrupt the conversation.

    Its a brilliant idea, the transparency, ease of use and security are major selling features. Being able to see where your taxi is, and in the knowledge that the little icon is moving closer to you will take away a lot of the frustation as well.


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    #37
    iCabbi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 23 ✭iCabbi


    A lot of good points made & this is why we don't believe for a minute that we are going to replace the way people take taxis. Just give people an additional method.

    Our primary market is indeed women, those with hearing/speech difficulties (10,000 registered deaf people in Dublin alone), those who use taxis from work (can book from desktop, carry on working and watch as it approaches), those who work late at night and use taxis, those who want to use a taxi without the need for cash or credit card, those in house parties that can't be bothered ringing several dispatch companies to be told each time that there are no taxis available etc. There are masses of large niche groups that this is going to suit and appeal to. Will the average guy boozing in town use it with a taxi rank down the road? Initially probably not, but if it is lashing rain he may well do.

    We think the idea that you can book a taxi without breaking conversation and without hassle is great, as one poster said press the book button when your coffee is arriving, enjoy it and walk out the door to your icabbi.

    We have met with Enterprise Ireland and we will be going to UK and US with this asap.


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    #38
    JonJoeDali
    Closed Accounts Posts: 537 ✭✭✭JonJoeDali


    iCabbi wrote: »
    A lot of good points made & this is why we don't believe for a minute that we are going to replace the way people take taxis. Just give people an additional method.

    Our primary market is indeed women, those with hearing/speech difficulties (10,000 registered deaf people in Dublin alone), those who use taxis from work (can book from desktop, carry on working and watch as it approaches), those who work late at night and use taxis, those who want to use a taxi without the need for cash or credit card, those in house parties that can't be bothered ringing several dispatch companies to be told each time that there are no taxis available etc. There are masses of large niche groups that this is going to suit and appeal to. Will the average guy boozing in town use it with a taxi rank down the road? Initially probably not, but if it is lashing rain he may well do.

    We think the idea that you can book a taxi without breaking conversation and without hassle is great, as one poster said press the book button when your coffee is arriving, enjoy it and walk out the door to your icabbi.

    We have met with Enterprise Ireland and we will be going to UK and US with this asap.

    Have you seen taximagic.com?


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    #39
    bigneacy
    Registered Users Posts: 1,222 ✭✭✭bigneacy


    JonJoeDali wrote: »
    Have you seen taximagic.com?

    in light of this I would say - get it patented if you can and haven't already and get into the UK asap immediately.


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    #40
    baaaa
    Closed Accounts Posts: 606 ✭✭✭baaaa


    If you stuck in some sort of fare-share feature it might be handy and get more people using it.
    There's lots of people that would happily share a cab after a night out(costs me 28 yoyo to get home) instead of the nitelink.


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    #41
    JonJoeDali
    Closed Accounts Posts: 537 ✭✭✭JonJoeDali


    bigneacy wrote: »
    in light of this I would say - get it patented if you can and haven't already and get into the UK asap immediately.

    You do realise how much a global patent costs?

    And besides, you can't patent software. It may be possible in America, but it's a grey area. An area where plenty of patent lawyers are only too willing to "help" you in. Apparently taximagic.com is "patent pending". Whatever that means...

    Also, your patent is only as strong as your war chest.

    taximagic.com are backed by institutional investors and are already a multi-million dollar company.


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    #42
    Bluetonic
    Registered Users Posts: 7,588 ✭✭✭Bluetonic


    iCabbi wrote: »
    can book from desktop, carry on working and watch as it approaches
    This sounds very unproductive to me as a boss.

    I would much prefer employees to book by phone and have the taxi ring when it arrives.

    Of your primary market what current percentage of these are tech savy and book a taxi in advance against overall taxi journeys?

    How many journeys a week are you projecting in a years time will be booked by this service?

    In theory it wouldn't seem like the routing software etc.., is too difficult to write. It could be easily outsourced and developed for next to nothing. Whats to stop someone else doing exactly the same as you? An already established booking office could run it at break-even to eliminate you from the market?

    Again it's a novel idea but certainly not a stand alone business in my opinion.


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    #43
    JonJoeDali
    Closed Accounts Posts: 537 ✭✭✭JonJoeDali


    Bluetonic wrote: »
    In theory it wouldn't seem like the routing software etc.., is too difficult to write. It could be easily outsourced and developed for next to nothing. Whats to stop someone else doing exactly the same as you?

    There are lots of Facebook clones out there.


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    #44
    Bluetonic
    Registered Users Posts: 7,588 ✭✭✭Bluetonic


    JonJoeDali wrote: »
    There are lots of Facebook clones out there.
    Sorry to get off topic but there are a lot of social media sites which try and offer some of the features which Facebook do, I can't think of one which offer the same features as Facebook or offer them and better features.

    If there are lots what are they? Twitter, QQ, Badiu etc.., would be the nearest direct comparison social media sites yet they are not Facebook clones, they cater for different markets and habits.

    The thing about this business is that it's quite easy to replicate and improve. They have no market share at the moment so competitors can move in quite quickly should they get the software developed quickly which is possible. Again I say it's a good idea and a side offering from an existing transport/taxi company not a stand alone business.

    It would perhaps make more money using a licencing model.


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    #45
    baaaa
    Closed Accounts Posts: 606 ✭✭✭baaaa


    Bluetonic wrote: »
    This sounds very unproductive to me as a boss.

    I would much prefer employees to book by phone and have the taxi ring when it arrives.

    Of your primary market what current percentage of these are tech savy and book a taxi in advance against overall taxi journeys?

    How many journeys a week are you projecting in a years time will be booked by this service?
    C'mon, it has to be of benefit to know where your taxi is as opposed to it arriving randomly within a 20 min window.
    And even if only a tiny percentage of people are tech savy enough to use it now I'm sure that figure is growing exponentially by the second.
    Unless we start going back in time apps like this are where it's at.


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    #46
    Bluetonic
    Registered Users Posts: 7,588 ✭✭✭Bluetonic


    baaaa wrote: »
    C'mon, it has to be of benefit to know where your taxi is as opposed to it arriving randomly within a 20 min window.
    And even if only a tiny percentage of people are tech savy enough to use it now I'm sure that figure is growing exponentially by the second.
    Unless we start going back in time apps like this are where it's at.
    It's beneficial of course but my point is that it's not a business in my opinion.

    I don't think it's possible to build a business around this service.

    With regards to the service regardless of how little coverage Andorid had last year (projections had it to grow massively), it's a massive oversight to develop this app after others. By the end of the year I believe it will be the largest used platform in Ireland in smartphones from what I've read. Also no mention of Samsung (bada), the largest handset market share in the world and growing massive in the Smartphone market. You really want to have all your apps launched from the start so as to reduce any chance competitors have of getting market share should they launch a similar product. You can get these apps developed quickly and for small costs when you outsource.

    Again these are just my ideas and I wish the iCabbi guys good luck.


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    #47
    JonJoeDali
    Closed Accounts Posts: 537 ✭✭✭JonJoeDali


    Bluetonic wrote: »
    I don't think it's possible to build a business around this service.

    I disagree.

    taximagic.com have proved it.


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    #48
    Bluetonic
    Registered Users Posts: 7,588 ✭✭✭Bluetonic


    JonJoeDali wrote: »
    I disagree.

    taximagic.com have proved it.
    What sort of market have Taximagic.com the potential to deal with and what sort of market have iCabbi the potenial to deal with?

    Taximagic work with taxi companies, iCabbi compete with taxi companies, theres a big difference there. Taxi companies will just come up with a rival to iCabbi if it's a threat to business thats why I believe licencing works better for iCabbi.

    re: Facebook clones?


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    #49
    baaaa
    Closed Accounts Posts: 606 ✭✭✭baaaa


    To me it seems to replace the base station with a pretty functional app that seems to service the customers needs more than the base station.
    I could see it making the base stations redundant and then it'll make a few quid surely?


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    #50
    Bluetonic
    Registered Users Posts: 7,588 ✭✭✭Bluetonic


    baaaa wrote: »
    To me it seems to replace the base station with a pretty functional app that seems to service the customers needs more than the base station.
    I could see it making the base stations redundant and then it'll make a few quid surely?
    You'd probably still need the base station to some degree for the foreseeable future until smartphone and mobile web becomes more widespread.

    The problem is that it's easy to replicate in my opinion, competitors are fierce.


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    #51
    baaaa
    Closed Accounts Posts: 606 ✭✭✭baaaa


    Bluetonic wrote: »
    You'd probably still need the base station to some degree for the foreseeable future until smartphone and mobile web becomes more widespread.

    The problem is that it's easy to replicate in my opinion, competitors are fierce.
    What?I thought you said the problem was that people weren't tech savy and that it wasn't a business.
    Booking a taxi on your ph and watching it's progress is the logical culmination of technology right now,why would anyone use a base station when they had this app?It's lies Vs truth isn't it?What the internets does.


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    #52
    Bluetonic
    Registered Users Posts: 7,588 ✭✭✭Bluetonic


    baaaa wrote: »
    What?I thought you said the problem was that people weren't tech savy and that it wasn't a business.
    I didn't say there was one problem only, there are a number of issue I would have as having this as a stand alone business.

    As I said in an earlier post I'd love to see the financials.
    baaaa wrote: »
    why would anyone use a base station when they had this app?
    iCabbi don't see it this way.
    iCabbi wrote:
    We don't envisage that this will put dispatch companies out of business

    Source


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    #53
    stepbar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,123 ✭✭✭stepbar


    stepbar wrote: »

    In terms of driver notification, how does this work? Obviously there's an issue if drivers have to check emails / text messages or take calls whilst driving.

    I would have thought that this is a fairly important issue.... how is this being addressed? You can't just say a taxi driver will pull over each and every time a job comes though because he / she just won't.


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    #54
    iMax
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,489 ✭✭✭iMax


    Competitor on itunes already don't know if it does Ireland, but it was one of the featured applications in my itunes (Irish store) this morning


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    #55
    iCabbi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 23 ✭iCabbi


    iMax - thanks for the heads up, but the app you refer to is more like a directory for cab companies and we saw it first about a year ago I think, it isn't Irish but there is a similar Irish version where you can look up dispatch companies in each area/county. The one you refer to is a little more complex with some GPS functionality & tools but nothing like what we are doing.

    IP Protection / Patent - can't be done, we investigated already

    Copying the idea - believe you and me it wouldn't be easy, it would take a lot of time and money and then getting the business off the ground costs a lot. Of course there are ideas like this out there because it makes sense (USA & Germany that we know for certain) but doing it is far from easy

    Is it going to work or not? Who knows, it's a new business, but one thing we know is that most people who look at it also like it. Many say they would use it, I guess we just have to keep the head down and do all we can to make it succeed. The bill paying functionality and the scheduled bookings will be great when they come in soon (if I had a 17 year old daughter out on the town I could just tell her to use my account, at least I'd know she could get home easily if she was stuck somewhere).

    Dispatch Companies - we haven't excluded them, to date they haven't shown a great deal of interest in joining us. We have/are contacting them in the hope that they will see we aren't a threat but an opportunity. They can give us great geographic coverage in one fell swoop and we can offer them customers from outside their normal geographic constraints. Until any bite we will carry on with the independent drivers.

    StepBar all jobs are offered in a similar way to a text ie they get a beep and have to press one button to confirm they are interested. Their phone will be on a holder on their dash so its easily done. They then get another notification if the job has been awarded to them and they can stop and check the details.

    Dispatch companies do so much more than just provide taxis to random punters, many focus on accounts or niche groups like business people. We don't claim to be the be all and end all for the taxi industry, just another cog.

    BlueTonic from your posts we presume you are in the industry and may view us as competition. Copying anything in relation to the internet industry is relatively straight forward. I could start a new Daft.ie easily, but making it a success is a totally different matter. We have plans in this respect and believe that we will make our brand relatively quickly and that it will be difficult for anyone else to get there, but as per Daft example we are also sure a MyHome.ie will come out at some point


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    #56
    iCabbi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 23 ✭iCabbi


    One other thing BlueTonic, the forum thread you posted a link to was initiated on April 14th, we have undergone huge changes since then as has our business plan. We developed our plans with the assistance of the Dublin Business Innnovation Centre, one of the things they told us at the start was that we'd be amazed how different our first business plan would be to the one we have by the time we went live and they were right...and it is still changing!


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    #57
    Bluetonic
    Registered Users Posts: 7,588 ✭✭✭Bluetonic


    iCabbi wrote: »
    BlueTonic from your posts we presume you are in the industry and may view us as competition.
    Not involved in the industry to any degree. Everything I said is valid and it might be better for you to think about it rather than just presume I am involved in the industry, to me that's not a good business mind to just presume I am involved in the industry and have it in for you.
    iCabbi wrote: »
    I could start a new Daft.ie easily, but making it a success is a totally different matter. We have plans in this respect and believe that we will make our brand relatively quickly and that it will be difficult for anyone else to get there, but as per Daft example we are also sure a MyHome.ie will come out at some point
    I'm glad you brought up Daft and MyHome, they are good models as they work with the existing Estate Agents, Solicitors etc.., as well as offering direct sales as they realise it's to the benefit of the business and the benefit of the customer having choice. You are not going to work with existing taxi companies, is that correct? Thats a big flaw in my eyes.

    You can't build a profitable business around this service in my opinion. Not working with the existing operators and licencing the software to them as well as offering a direct service is a little strange to me.

    Also having the taxi driver having to press only one button to apply for the job is of course illegal when in control of the taxi. I can't see that being a long term solution. Surely you could configure the application to accept automatically and then when a job has been allocated to work out the time when the driver is next available and can next accept jobs automatically again? I can't imagine the taxi regulator/Garda/media/RSA being too receptive to your solution.

    As I said already, best of luck but I can't see it being a business.


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    #58
    tricky D
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,700 ✭✭✭tricky D


    Bluetonic wrote: »
    I'm glad you brought up Daft and MyHome, they are good models as they work with the existing Estate Agents, Solicitors etc.., as well as offering direct sales as they realise it's to the benefit of the business and the benefit of the customer having choice.
    The point about Daft is more about Daft being First to Market which is usually a good thing.
    Bluetonic wrote: »
    You are not going to work with existing taxi companies, is that correct? Thats a big flaw in my eyes.

    You can't build a profitable business around this service in my opinion. Not working with the existing operators and licencing the software to them as well as offering a direct service is a little strange to me.
    First steps first. This might just be the next one after proof of concept. As for profitability, I'm sure they've done the numbers, but like any business that's where the big unknowns are. The entrepreneurial spirit says if the analysis looks good enough, take the risk.
    Bluetonic wrote: »
    Also having the taxi driver having to press only one button to apply for the job is of course illegal when in control of the taxi. I can't see that being a long term solution. Surely you could configure the application to accept automatically and then when a job has been allocated to work out the time when the driver is next available and can next accept jobs automatically again? I can't imagine the taxi regulator/Garda/media/RSA being too receptive to your solution.
    Firstly, the driver is likely to unoccupied if they're interested in taking the callout so can pull over easily and besides that how do drivers currently communicate.

    Imho I feel you're nitpicking a bit too much. (not necessarily a bad thing)


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    #59
    Bluetonic
    Registered Users Posts: 7,588 ✭✭✭Bluetonic


    tricky D wrote: »
    Imho I feel you're nitpicking a bit too much. (not necessarily a bad thing)
    The thing is when you've had an idea in your head for so long and been absorbed in it's development you tend to over look a lot. All I'm trying to do is play devil advocate.

    I wish them all the luck in the world.


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    #60
    byrne0f56789
    Closed Accounts Posts: 201 ✭✭byrne0f56789


    People won't copy you unless you are a success. Then if you have built a client base they will more likely make you an offer to buy you out than going to the costs and hassle of starting from scratch.

    Get it working here then get some investment and take it to cities across the world. Once you get your first bit of traction the sky is the limit.

    A Facebook app would be great for this as well. Imagine one that fits into a Facebook event and you just click it to book a cab to the event. Cool huh?

    Just get it out there and start making money.


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    #61
    iCabbi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 23 ✭iCabbi


    Thanks everyone for your assistance and input, we do of course take it all on board positive or negative. Our new look home page will be live over the next couple of days & we just got news that our app has been accepted by iTunes so it will be live in the next day or so, we will let you know when it is


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