Rideshare apps are gathering pace in London.
JumpIn, now owned by Addison Lee has launched to book London minicabs and London taxis. It is already available in other cities. It is a social taxi booking and sharing app aimed at students. Maaxi backed by Nat Rothschild has launched for London taxi drivers. UberPool needs no introduction and will join the party before Christmas.
The potential savings for ridesharers are huge. A £21 black taxi trip with UberPool could cost as little as £6, using the services of Uber’s existing minicab drivers but allowing them to combine trips with parts of journeys common between at least two passengers.
Uber is currently adding 1,000 new drivers per month in London, but will require 100,000 more to fully provide the “liquidity” needed and it is clear that this is a new market which will grow the private hire industry significantly in London.
Even if UberPool doesn’t find a perfect match for a customer, then they’ll simply give customers a discount on their ride.
UberPool opens up the prospect of “the perpetual trip” in which mainly UberX drivers always have at least one passenger on board, and the consequent chance to further reduce costs. At these price points, Uber really is cost-competitive with owning a car, which is a game-changer for consumers and will lead to consolidation of Uber’s position of growing strength in London’s private hire industry.
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, let’s look at Jumpin. Even though Jumpin is now part of the Addison Lee family it is being made available to other private hire operators and taxi drivers nationally. This is because Jumpin is not a licensed private hire operator and so bookings cannot be passed directly to private hire drivers.
Because Jumpin is an app only and not a licensed private hire operator they have an ambitious plan to provide other private hire operators and taxi drivers nationally with bookings during hours where they may not be busy. Jumpin has a pay-as-you-go payment structure meaning companies and local taxi drivers only pay when Jumpin refer a job to them.
Jumpin is actively seeking partners in London, Bristol, Manchester, Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Plymouth, Reading, Cambridge, Southampton, Warwick, Preston and Swansea.
ComCab has already partnered with JumpIn in Birmingham and Liverpool and will use the ComCab radio circuits to fulfil trip requests in both locations getting ready to roll out nationwide.
JumpIn is already operating in Leeds, Nottingham and Newcastle, where it has partnered with private hire vehicle operators. The venture into Birmingham and Liverpool will be the startup’s first partnership with hackney carriage vehicles. London will be next.
This is the first time ComCab has lent it’s support to a third party application in this way and this is the start of a growing strategic alliance with Addison Lee.
Maaxi opened registrations at the garage in Great Suffolk Street along the road from Hailo who have yet to announce a rideshare app.
Maaxi appears to have got off to a great start with mainly drivers who are ex Hailo and feel they were sold down the river when HailoExec was launched.
The founders of Maaxi have created an App that can only legally operate with black cabs and they intend to protect their personal wealth invested in the app from private hire operators. It is claimed that the terms & conditions will provide reassurance to taxi drivers that this is not a booked car service app.
Many believe that Maaxi will put the London black cab back at the forefront of public travel, change the way in which the public uses taxis and bring longevity to their trade.
It is claimed that Maaxi’s technology is more sophisticated than Uber’s. It uses the rideshare legislation created years ago to incorporate hackney carriages into local transport. Journey rates will be increased at a percentage above the meter depending on the number of people sharing.
So, let’s consider the options available from a customer’s perspective.
Addison Lee’s Jumpin is targeting a small niche and may prove to be the app of choice for students. The more customers that share on a Maaxi booking the greater the total fare and you’ll only get a London taxi which is expensive anyway. Then we have UberPool which will, in the main, be provided by UberX drivers.
UberX has a minimum fare of £5, a mileage rate of £1.50 or a time based charge of 28 pence per minute if travelling at less than 11MPH. Even at a treble surge price of £4.50 per mile on UberX which hasn’t happened for months UberX is still considerably cheaper than a London taxi.
London taxi drivers again seem to feel that they are entitled to something for nothing. They are embracing the Maaxi app which uses specific London taxi legislation created many years ago for customers to share taxis which adds a premium based on the number of people sharing. A percentage above the metered fare is allowed to be added and the calculation is done in the Maaxi app.
The premium legally allowed to be added to the meter for London taxis is a marketing nightmare for Maaxi. UberPool, if they chose to, could kill Maaxi at birth. Which would be a shame. Londoners deserve more choice. But who in their right mind would pay for a London taxi rideshare at a rate that most of the time would be more than 3 times the rate from Uber? And then, to add insult to injury, the total London taxi fare would be marked up at a premium above the normal fare. It just sounds like a rip off, doesn’t it?
London’s tube trains are set to operate a 24-hour service at weekends from September 12 2015. This allows a terrific rideshare opportunity for suburban London taxi and London private hire drivers. People will be spat out at tube stations all around the capital. Unless Maaxi drops the plan to add a premium to an already inflated meter price the majority of the travelling public will use UberPool. Will London taxi drivers lobby Maaxi to not allow a premium to be added to each metered fare? I think it’s unlikely. The more enlightened voices will be drowned by the majority who feel it is right that they should charge more because of their knowledge. There is a case for this. The market will decide. Ultimately the people of London will decide on UberPool or Maaxi. I know who my money is on.