EveryTaxi

Many years ago, long before the troubled  behemoth Uber, I bought a web domain:

www.everytaxi.com

I bought it because of a idea I had to set up a go between the customer and the taxi firms/drivers.  It was a time when I was developing ideas with a friend for potential digital business ideas. There were many and this did not make the grade. I found my notes on this recently and thought it is worth revisiting.

As you can see it was prior to iPhones and mobile web and was a txt based system.

Was thinking of how taxi cab companies juggle the customer/ location problem. I expect all use a basic manual system with GPS data thrown in to help the controller assign fares. But drivers can cheat these and other problems.

So, what about a one stop shop for a taxi - anywhere in the uk. everytaxi.com

You txt your location and destination and time you need the car to a single text number - same no mater which part of UK you are in. The job is posted on a site where cab companies can bid for the job. The more they pay the more likely they are to get the job. So a short job will cost them a few pence and a long one might cost more. The auction is only open for a short time - say 5 min.

Once a cab company has won the auction you get a txt message back giving the company details and when you will be picked up. If no one has bid in the auction then the customer is invited to place their job on the auction again. Users would have a free txt back service where they could register a complaint if their cab was late etc.

The aution site would be categorised by location and a company log in would track the location of won journeys so it would ensure the search location was dynamic and keep up with moving taxis etc.


It would not be a replacement for the standard company controller but a source of other taxi jobs.

Revenue from the txt by the customer and the bids for the journeys. Large up front marketing cost to both taxi companies and to general public.

This was first published in http://ideazfactory.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/txt-me-cab.html