For some time now, Uber had dominated the market for car transportation services in New York City. Its efficiency for the commuters with an available app for smartphone, a cab ride is just one click away. But this innovation has had a big hit on the taxi industry of New York. Even with the 20,000 taxis of the city wasn't able to compete with the consumer that Uber had taken by storm. The coveted and prized Taxi Medallion has lost its value with the market; it seems that Uber had taken the taxi industry's lifeline of commuters.
But now, a new app that took 18 months to complete will be launched in just a few weeks. Arro, a taxi hailing app, will be tested initially with 7,000 taxis that would roam the New York City. It would be an app that would redeem the NYC taxi industry. It offers a variety of services much like of Uber, but it promised efficiency, reliability and at a much cheaper price. The services cater to commuters which would like to avail the services of green and yellow cabs around the city.
Director of product management Mike Eply said that they thought there was a void on the taxi industry, in New York and other big cities. They want to fill the demand of both the passenger and the driver side. Thanks to the partnership with the Creative Mobile Technologies from Long Island, they would be able to compete with Uber, something that a lot of other apps have failed to.
Arro's service would be centralized using CMT's data terminals which directly connect to the driver instead of the smartphones that the Uber app uses. The app would directly send the passenger's details to the driver such the name, and the pickup address and the passenger in return would get the cab driver's info like the name and the ID number. Credit card information would be saved on the app to pay a fixed metered rate and tip automatically. Arro also promised no price surging especially during rush hours or periods of high demand.
Their goal is to be the universal e-hail app for all the green and yellow taxis, said Eply. They are now gearing up for the beta-test in New York and hopefully expand to San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Washington D.C., aiming for a smooth ride. And as Mike Eply says, "We're jogging. We're not sprinting yet, but we'll be sprinting shortly.