Good News From Flag

[Rat Catcher]

Whistle is still trading, it hasn't failed.

Don't forget Flag has access to some of Hail0's expertise. Whatever about Dave's relationship with drivers, he will be well aware of how much Hail0 spent - it attracted investment totalling c.US$100,000,000 and hadn't a pot to piss in when it was rescued by Daimler/mytaxi - and, crucially, the effectiveness of various items of expenditure relative to both strategic and tactical objectives.

[john m]

Whistle is still trading, it hasn't failed.

Don't forget Flag has access to some of Hail0's expertise. Whatever about Dave's relationship with drivers, he will be well aware of how much Hail0 spent - it attracted investment totalling c.US$100,000,000 and hadn't a pot to piss in when it was rescued by Daimler/mytaxi - and, crucially, the effectiveness of various items of expenditure relative to both strategic and tactical objectives.

Thats sort of what I said, but I said it in a different way .Very little chance of success without Billions to trow away .When you refer to Trading I know from your experience you are not confusing trading with making a brass farthing which is sort of the idea behind business .

[U Wha]

It's not up to drivers to promote anything, that's the app providers' area of expertise. As a professional driver you are going to promote the app that gave you the job on a job by job basis. Given a choice, drivers might prefer that apps didn't exist and all customers walked out onto a main road to hail taxis.

As alluded to by Hal, the "race to the bottom" is merely a propagandists term for the price elasticity of supply and demand. In the current economic climate supply and demand are as close to being in equilibrium as is reasonably possible at a price point which equates to the maximum permissible fare as determined by the National Transport Authority giving due consideration to taxi cost indexation. Ask yourself why Whistle had to (try to) withdraw it's recent discounted fare offer despite charging drivers zero commission.

Hey rats I actually understood most of that economic jargon. Had economics module Last semester. Hard to remember all that supply and demand and price elasticity.

[Belker]

Whistle is still trading, it hasn't failed.

Don't forget Flag has access to some of Hail0's expertise. Whatever about Dave's relationship with drivers, he will be well aware of how much Hail0 spent - it attracted investment totalling c.US$100,000,000 and hadn't a pot to piss in when it was rescued by Daimler/mytaxi - and, crucially, the effectiveness of various items of expenditure relative to both strategic and tactical objectives.

Thats sort of what I said, but I said it in a different way .Very little chance of success without Billions to trow away .When you refer to Trading I know from your experience you are not confusing trading with making a brass farthing which is sort of the idea behind business .

Rumour would have it from reading on this forum that MyTaxi/Daimler and Uber have little interest in turning a profit but are much more interested in collecting driver data to be used at a future date fer autonoumous vechicles.
You, Me, Whistle and Flag are in a different boat, we all need a few quid coming in every week to pay the rent and lecky.

[Rat Catcher]

Not necessarily, Ken. The value of these firms is derived more from market penetration than the profit and loss account. If Flag, for example, becomes as big as mytaxi (globally) it would undoubtedly become a takeover target with the potential to set Richie up for life and maybe even get Dave a restaurant somewhere.

[Rat Catcher]

Thats sort of what I said, but I said it in a different way .Very little chance of success without Billions to trow away .When you refer to Trading I know from your experience you are not confusing trading with making a brass farthing which is sort of the idea behind business .

US$100 million isn't billions. You seem to be working on the assumption that Flag doesn't have access to (or won't attract) the kind of investment that Hail0 attracted. To date, it has built some pretty impressive alliances so I wouldn't rule that out at all. It already gets more bang for it's buck than Hail0 ever did and that can only improve with Dave's in-depth knowledge of contrasting results between Hail0 and mytaxi investment successes and failures.

[john m]

Rodent what does Flag offer that Mytaxi does not and do drivers actually want it .Whistle offered cheaper commission and driver ownership, drivers didn't want it .Dont think Whistle or Uwha considered that drivers do not want to own any part of an app to much fuckology and time wasted attending AGM ,EGM or being sued by drivers who are excluded or removed from the register just to much bother for little or no return .

 So Flag are offering cheaper or lower commission I use both terms as they are totally different .So two possibilities Flag take customers off our existing provider and then distribute the same amount of work over two apps not increasing the amount of work but increasing the amount of distributors in reality no benifit to drivers .Scenario number two they attract another or different client thus removing full fare commission free work from the streets costing us money .

 I have yet to see a coherent argument put forward as to why drivers would or should support another taxi hailing app .

[Rat Catcher]

Eggs and baskets.

[john m]

Eggs and baskets.

 Thats the strategy I support If all the eggs are in the one basket we control the basket carrier he has to much to lose if he dropps it or shakes it ..

[Rat Catcher]

Unfortunately not. We only have to recall how Marto Taximan was sacked by Hail0 and the support he got from his colleagues/competitors. Human nature being what it is there'll always be bullies to abuse dominant positions, in Hail0 we got three for the price of one. Furthermore, commission rates will only find the lowest level through competition. Currently we're paying 12%. Ignoring bonuses that means the app owner is getting a taxman's takings for every eight drivers he controls. Some of us remember paying hundreds of punts for an airline ticket to the mainland and thinking nothing of it, it was just the price. Next week I'm flying to Bristol for €30 return with Ryanair.

From a customers perspective, all firms are going to piss off riders on busy weekends, having two or three firms to choose from allows clients the satisfaction of vowing never to use that firm again until the other(s) let him down on the next busy weekend.

Healthy competitions is... well ... healthy.

[U Wha]

Pity to see it (Whistle) floundering. I went in at the start and told John that I had a similar idea and rather than compete, we could work together to create a genuine driver owned app and no contact after that.

I could have used that time and resources to develop eircab. Genuinely believe in a drivers app that is really owned by drivers but would have been mad to go head to head with whistle and deflect from either's success. Whistle was a few months ahead with their app development.

Maybe give Whistle another call and see if'n there interested in you as a consultant or a technician or whatever that pays a premium wage. They seem to be Floundering these days and could probably do with all the help they can get.
Flag is just an accident waiting to happen, Hailo burnt all their bridges with the drivers.

Was thinking of doing that depending on the vibe at the meeting next wednesday.

[Rat Catcher]

Rodent what does Flag offer that Mytaxi does not and do drivers actually want it .

 I have yet to see a coherent argument put forward as to why drivers would or should support another taxi hailing app .

Bloke on the Flag's Driver Pledge thread reckons it offers everything he ever wanted...  someone called john m.

[john m]

Rodent what does Flag offer that Mytaxi does not and do drivers actually want it .

 I have yet to see a coherent argument put forward as to why drivers would or should support another taxi hailing app .

Bloke on the Flag's Driver Pledge thread reckons it offers everything he ever wanted...  someone called john m.

I read that from that inteligent lad ,he also ended his post by saying {.Im still not a great fan of empowering apps to dispense our work but I like the no frills approach of flag so lets see how it works out .}

[Rat Catcher]

Indeed, not the sort of lad that'd interpret a bit of sales banter as a coherent argument.

As I was saying, I think you may have underestimated Flag.

[Belker]

Pity to see it (Whistle) floundering. I went in at the start and told John that I had a similar idea and rather than compete, we could work together to create a genuine driver owned app and no contact after that.

I could have used that time and resources to develop eircab. Genuinely believe in a drivers app that is really owned by drivers but would have been mad to go head to head with whistle and deflect from either's success. Whistle was a few months ahead with their app development.

Maybe give Whistle another call and see if'n there interested in you as a consultant or a technician or whatever that pays a premium wage. They seem to be Floundering these days and could probably do with all the help they can get.
Flag is just an accident waiting to happen, Hailo burnt all their bridges with the drivers.

Was thinking of doing that depending on the vibe at the meeting next wednesday.

If'n Whistle don't take you on, then try Flag, but be sure to get 'Cash on the Dash',
because IMO neither will be around by this time next year !
And you can be sure neither John nor Dave will be chasing around looking fer you
to pay you your redundancy money.