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Taxi Times International - June 2015 - English

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NEWS GUEST COMMENTARY

NEWS GUEST COMMENTARY CHANGE AT ANTWERP-TAX: 35 HYBRIDS AND RESTYLING All change at Antwerp-Tax, Antwerp’s largest taxi company (101 cabs and 19 affiliated independents). In a remarkable and sudden change it switched back from silver grey to its ‘old’ company colour (black) with a yellow and black magnetic checker band and yellow and black roofsign. At the same time the company is adding Mercedes-Benz E300 BlueTEC HYBRID to its fleet. “Our family company used black from 1960 to 2000”, says CEO Koen Van Oorschot. “And then switched to silver-grey, which everyone here in town copied. When the city administration indicated it would like a more visible taxi identity, we came up with this. For limowork the magnetic stripes can easily be removed.” NEW APP TAKES UP THE FIGHT AGAINST CLUB QUEUES Antwerp-Tax’ first hybrids – taxis and vans – in front of Antwerp’s town-hall. “Since 2013 we have been looking for an environmentally-friendly vehicle, and found the solution in these E300-hybrids. The average usage of 3,8 litre per 100 km sounded interesting, as did the CO2-emission of 99 g/km. In practice these figures have proved to be sound. Now we hope that the local regulator will add extra taxi ranks for hybrid and electrical cabs.” wf DOES MAYOR JOHNSON HIT THE MINICAB AND UBER-BRAKES? MOVING BEYOND THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM “I love Airbnb, it is fantastic! What a great opportunity.” This was said with a lot of enthusiasm by one of the speakers at the TAXIintell conference. It was shocking to me to hear the same person state: “But come on, Uber is something completely different..” PIETER VAN DE GLIND Pieter van de Glind is co-founder of shareNL, author of SHARE, researcher, advisor to government and industry on collaborative (sharing) economy related issues. Taxi Stockholm’s Köspejarna-app helps fight the queues. Again Taxi Stockholm’s has dug deep in its trip and ideas database: the company which brought its customers the free incab psychologist and Taxitrails, the tourist hot-spots with tips from the locals, now takes up the fight against the number one enemy of a good night out – the club queue. With the help of live data from thousands of taxi rides, Stockholm’s clubbers get to know when it’s time to head for the venue. Stockholm’s club queues are perhaps the biggest enemy of a good night out in town. Taxi Stockholm has noticed that the more taxi rides there are to a place, the longer the queue is. Now they’ve decided to use this link to help Stockholm’s party people. Taxi Stockholm has developed the line scout app, called Köspejarna, which gathers live data from the 700 cabs on the road each night and gives taxi users the inside track on the queue, so they can arrive at the perfect time. “We have so many eyes on Stockholm and so much data, which we’re combining with modern technology to benefit locals and visitors alike. Last summer we set up the Taxitrails tourist guide, which reveals Stockholmers’ favourite spots off the usual tourist trail”, says Carina Herly, Marketing Manager at Taxi Stockholm. Köspejarna gives an estimate of how long the queue is at a club, based on live data from the thousands of taxi rides taken each evening. There is also the option to set an alert and even get a message when it’s time to order a taxi. wf Despite the fact that most of the 23.000 London cabbies vote Conservative, that party’s London mayor Boris Johnson is not exactly in the cabby’s good books. They think he is far too kind to the private hire sector and indirectly to Uber. For the technology group London is one of its most important cities. Apparently mayor Johnson is behind new laws which could put a cap on the number of private hire vehicles (‘minicabs’) and indirectly threaten the growth of Uber – estimated at 1.200 new drivers a month. With 14.000 drivers Uber is now the largest transportation provider in London. Last year, according to Transport for London, the local regulator, the number of private hire vehicle licences rose from 52,000 to 77,000. According to local insiders, the number of taxi drivers remains stagnant at 23.000. Uber is not happy with the mayor’s plans which it sees as ‘protectionism’ and is lobbying hard against a cap on private hire. It also states that a further growth in the numbers is needed, so that it can launch its UberPool shared-cab service in London. Interestingly enough: none of the earlier shared-cab services which were introduced in the British capital have ever worked. wf PHOTO: Antwerp-Tax, Taxi Stockholm PHOTO: Share NL An elephant has marched into the field of passenger transport shaking up the earth, the yield and how people have ploughed and harvested the field for a long time. The likes of Uber have replaced callcentres by algorithms, have revived trust through reputation systems and online payments and have effectively made several public efforts to improve the quality of personal transport irrelevant, although this has not yet been realized everywhere. Thus far I am telling you nothing new, it is clear that many of the existing players have failed to recognize the approaching elephant but now, app technology is adopted rapidly. What I am worried about is the deep focus on ‘the elephant in the room’ by the existing players, heavily emphasizing all the illegal activities of the elephant and failing to realize that the elephant is not unique to the world of passenger transport but part of a much broader shake up instead. Having co-founded shareNL, the Dutch network and knowledge organization for the collaborative economy and sharing economy, I have the privilege to work with companies from many different industries. It keeps surprising me to see how people can love the elephant in another conference room, and look at the elephant in their own market as completely different. I can assure you, there are similar elephants marching into banks, hospitals, universities, utilities, hotels and many more. Across sectors people are getting ‘the extra option:’ instead of buying a drill from a store they can borrow one from a neighbour, instead of staying at a hotel people can chose to stay at another individual’s place, instead of buying energy from a utility we can now choose to buy directly from a producer. I could continue this for a few more pages but you get the point. Consumers are rapidly becoming more independent from traditional institutions and more dependent on one another, enabled by technology and two-sided market places, safeguarded by trust mechanisms and made efficient by algorithms. As a consequence anyone can instantly become a hotelier, banker, caretaker, teacher, etc. and yes a personal driver to. »I would strongly recommend to turn off your legal/illegal pair of glasses« I would strongly recommend to turn off your legal/illegal pair of glasses, because professions defined and regulated in past centuries are fundamentally changing. Therefore the real value is in focusing on what passenger transport, or personal mobility, will look like five years from now and how your brand fits in the picture. Dare to think outside of the box, what else can a driver deliver except the driving? I learned at the TAXIintell conference how drivers can act as a city’s business card but also as psychologists. Dive deeply in consumer needs and do not forget one thing: You have been a two-sided marketplace for a very long time, and while you might be a bit behind on the consumer side when it comes to providing a service of constant quality, you are probably ahead on the provider (driver) side of the marketplace. This is crucial, as only those who take good care of both sides of the market will define how the field of passenger transport will be ploughed over in the next decades. Pieter van de Glind 24 TAXI JUNE / 2015 25

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