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https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/how-mytaxi-killed-irish-taxis-and-now-owns-the-future-1.3892979?mode=amp
Poor article, badly researched, lazy journalist.
Hailo arrived on our shores in 2012. It was billed as a simple app that allowed you to book a taxi using your smartphone and pay using your bank card. It was convenient for passengers and attractive to taxi drivers because it brought them more fares.
It caught on quickly and by
2014 it was boasting a nationwide presence and claiming that Ireland was the first country in which it had reached this milestone. The following year it expanded its reach in Ireland even further by signing up Hackney cab drivers outside of Dublin.
The following year (
2015) it
merged (H'mm !, Rescued would be a better phrase) with its rival, Mytaxi
(INCORRECT, IT WAS IN 2017) – owned by German car giant Daimler – to become “Europe’s largest e-hailing company with 100,000 divers in 50 cities in nine countries.”
By 2017, one-fifth of the Irish population had its app installed on their phones and Mytaxi could be safely said to own the taxi market in Ireland.
Then in September that year came a
(NTA approved) €2 booking fee which did not go down well and and last week saw the introduction of a €5 cancellation fee,
(Mainly because of the Drunks cancelling during peak times at the weekend).So, in a few short years we have gone from a position where taxis in Ireland were free to book
(Still are !) (it was called standing on the street with your hand out) and free to cancel (it was called walking away)
(Still is on a Street hail or a local dispatch job) to a situation where we have one dominant player that is in a position to charge customers for both these functions.
It’s worth noting that taxi fares – which are regulated and, in theory at least, reflect the vicissitudes of the business – have not come down. Drivers also continue to pay Mytaxi a commission on every fare.
Nothing comes down in price these days, just like the journalists wages, I doubt he will get a reduction in pay fer such shoddy work !