I have said for some time that as physical money reduces in popularity that ATM/credit-cards won’t be the beneficiary, smart phones will. I was reminded of this when I got a taxi this week and spoke to the elderly driver about Hailo. It’s a taxi booking system that has a lot of great features built into it. You get the phone-app from Apple or Google and you can register a credit or debit card so that you pay electronically for your taxi (meaning you carry less cash!) and the nearest taxi will pick you up, there are 2,500 registered drivers so it is now the biggest taxi network in Ireland. I spoke to Rob Comiskey from Hailo to find out more, he told me that ‘When you book a taxi you get a picture of your driver and their taxi number’, apart being handy, it adds to safety, I know many women don’t like getting taxi’s on their own, but with Hailo at least you have the records of who drove you and their taxi number. It also has a feature for lost property so if you forget something in the cab you can easily get it back (godsend if like many of us you ever got drunk and forgot a coat or something else in a cab). Unlike ringing for a taxi, there is no ‘call out fee’ for a hailo booking and receipts are emailed afterwards which make it handy for those who need them for expenses! It was set up in London and is now in Dublin, Chicago, Toronto, and other cities are coming soon, oh, and the app works in any city, so you can use it anywhere Hailo exist!
(excerpt taken from the Sun on Sunday)
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