(TAXI 2.0) Like a bad B movie: Taxi Industry is returning from the dead thanks to… Uber?
The fresh dirt over the Taxi Industry’s grave began to stir after Japan Taxi & Toyota decided on a partnership. After Toyota agreed to supply cars for Uber drivers, Japan Taxi screamed at Toyota like a jilted lover:
“How can you do this to us after all we’ve been through?”
Jilted lovers are a dime a dozen but Toyota is the main supplier for Japan Taxi’s 200,000 taxicabs.
So the “couple” sat down and tried to save their marraige. It was decided Toyota could keep it’s new lover, Uber. But Toyota would work directly with Japan Taxi as a partnership including:
Incorporating Self Driving Cars into the mix*
Logistics Logistics Logistics
- Taxi Companies have an established base where they can store, manage, and maintain self driving cars: It’s the EASY BUTTON of rapid driverless car adoption
- Initial road testing a self driving cars under the umbrella of a Taxi fleet won’t trigger regulator alarm bells as no one’s business model is getting stepped on
- Getting an autonomous car to market doesn’t mean squat unless you have a rapid adoption plan already in place
- Taxi Fleets already have live dispatchers in place to take orders for self driving cabs if you don’t have an app
- Taxi Dispatchers can troubleshoot when your self driving cab malfunctions, gets a flat, or shows up with a prior partiers puke all over the seats
- In early adoption phase riders can request a human cabbie in the self driving taxi. And who know’s? LOTS of taxi riders need help with bags or mobility assistance. Until cabbie robots come on the scene drivers will remain a necessity.
8/16 Uber and 3 Portland Taxi Fleets create partnership adding UBER TAXI option on app
Had the Taxi Industry not fought the original UberCab app… Had Uber not retaliated on the Taxi Industry by refusing to turn on the UberTaxi option everywhere… The chaos and courthouses of the last couple years never would have happened.
The Portland Uber Taxi deal is great news for Uber’s investors
- Also great news for TNC & Taxi drivers.
- Move signals the predatory price dumping phase is ending. Rates will stabilize as Uber & Taxi are on the same team. TNC & Cab drivers (not to mention local economies) will benefit. So will the revenue stream for Investors…
- Instant ADA compliance. Taxi fleets have WAV wheelchair access cabs. Taxi drivers don’t refuse blind people or service animals. Uber Taxi will stop the ADA lawsuits and protests at the regulatory level
- Uber Taxi to the rescue: Access to new cabs: Its difficult to get a loan when you tell the finance company you are using the brand new car as a cab. And as we know PERSONAL INSURANCE DOESNT COVER COMMERCIAL VEHICLES. And paying $500+ a week lease rates makes it a struggle to sock away a down payment. Uber’s partnership with the auto industry and access to financing is the magic pill. Uber Taxi alliance will add new WAV taxis on the road.
- Uber Taxi alliance will pave the logistical road for government subsidized paratransit contracts that actually work. And cabbies will have more access to work.
Expect to see Uber Taxi partnerships go rapid onset viral in the next year:
Lyft and GM may want to pay attention to the Self Driving Car powerhouses like Toyota and Uber that are forming platform alliances with Taxi Fleets right now
Take Mears Transportation in the YUGE Orlando for example. Right now Mears and Uber are mortal enemies. The Ubers Lyfts and Toyotas of the world should be courting the hell out of Taxi Fleets such as Mears. The player that puts an alliance ring on the finger of a company like Mears will have just scored autonomous vehicle domination in the Orlando market.
Alliances with car rental giants like Hertz and Enterprise are good but Taxi Fleet alliances are key to have your autonomous car hit the ground running when it finially rolls off the assembly line with a Dispatch/Storage/Maintenance and integration plan in place.
Where does TransDev and Ztrip fit into the emerging trend of partnering with Taxi Fleets?
TransDev was one of the first Taxi Companies in America. Not all Yellow Cabs are TransDev but some of the major Yellow Cab fleets are.
It’s a safe bet that TransDev was a major player behind all the regulatory capture that resulted in transportation ordinances written by the Taxi Industry big dogs to protect their interests. The riders are drivers left to fend for themselves.
TransDev had the power to create a unified taxi app platform that included any cab from any company and unify our industry.
But unity is not in Transdev / Yellow Cab’s corporate DNA. They stuck with their original failed biz model: Corner the market with Yellow Cab specific app and put all the other taxi companies out of business. Even though the public sent out a pretty clear message that a nationwide unified app platform such as Uber was what they supported.
TransDev took it a step furthur in the wrong direction by retiring all but 10 Yellow Cabs in Philly and replacing them with their own TNC brand of cars (silver with Ztrip app logo on the side). TransDev Yellow Cab operates in other major markets like Orlando and will do the same transition.
As you can imagine the rest of the Taxi Industry was not thrilled when TransDev joined Uber in pushing for TNC friendly regulation.
Like Uber, TransDev has their sights set on multi million dollar government subsidized ride contract programs like Paratransit.
Like Uber TransDev has their sights on transitioning to autonomous vehicles.
The Portland Uber Taxi alliance is relevant in projecting the future success of TransDev. In Portland Uber has partnered with the 3 smaller companies. Not (yet) the 2 larger companies that fought a regulatory battle with them.
What’s important here is Uber has the steroid amped strength to super size smaller taxi fleets. Uber’s GM in Portland already announced they would be adding 45 NEW cabs and WAV taxis to fleets Uber partnered with. So Uber doesn’t need the support of larger Taxi Companies or TransDevs to accomplish their mission. This would be a great time for Big Taxi to wake up and smell the coffee Uber is brewing. When the Uber train to the future stops in your town and your company chooses not to get onboard Uber can circumvent you and partner directly with your drivers. Or worse, your drivers will leave for cheaper leases at the smaller fleets who partner with Uber.
It won’t be TransDev Yellow Cab vs Uber anymore. It will be TransDev TNC vs Uber TNC partnered with all the smaller taxi companies nationwide.
And again there is nothing? to stop TransDev Ztrip drivers from joining the Uber platform. (Note: I understand Yellow Cab Houston makes drivers sign a contract banning them from working on any app except Yellow’s. I imagine Uber will simply partner with a smaller Houston Taxi Company and the Yellow Cab drivers will jump ship)
How will Uber Taxi effect the Verifone Arro Flywheel and Curbs out there?
Curb’s (formerly TAXI MAGIC) star was rising at the same time Uber was . Curb blew it by not partnering directly with cabbies. Instead they formed partnerships with one or two taxi companies in each market that believed they were going to corner the dispatch market and grow their fleet.
Verifone bought Curb, but they also are still not directly partnering with all the cabbies. And different companies use different payment processors so to proceed alliances are forming.
Again you have the TransDev Yellow Cab Ztrip app that so far is not partnering with Verifone’s Curb
How relevant these apps will be if/when the Uber App Taxi alliance goes viral nationwide…
Perhaps a better question is if I have an Uber App with a complete menu of vehicles including taxis’s why do I need another taxi app in my phone…
Plus Verifone’s Curb doesn’t seem too concerned with the smaller fleets as they make their money on high volume credit card processing fees. Penny wise and pound foolish? Perhaps. Once again this just makes it easier for Uber to stroll into any city and form alliances with smaller fleets. And partner directly with cabbies from the other fleets.
Current Self Driving Car land grab stats:
☆Toyota owns Japan
☆Daimler owns UK and Europe (Hailo My Taxi Blacklane)
☆Uber owns Portland Oregon and any city with an Uber Taxi partnership
*Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. I hope the race to the Big W works out for you☺
