New Mobile App Books And Pays for Taxi Rides in 27 Metro Areas

RideCharge Inc., a software vendor specializing in the taxicab market, is getting more mileage on its booking and payment application as the popularity of mobile phones grows. The Alexandria, Va.-based firm most recently added the largest cab company in Boston, the 200-plus vehicle fleet of Boston Metro Cab, to its list of taxi firms that can be booked through BlackBerry or iPhone smartphones if the traveler has RideCharge's Taxi Magic application. Although Taxi Magic can be used through personal computers or any cell phone, its core user is the business traveler who carries a smartphone. RideCharge has developed so-called optimized versions of Taxi Magic for Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd.'s Blackberry. That makes privately held RideCharge yet another software company contributing to the huge wave of mobile applications, many of which offer online banking or payments, introduced since Apple opened its online App Store for the iPhone last year (Digital Transactions News, Dec. 24, 2008). Now RIM is out with its answer to the iPhone, the BlackBerry Storm, and its brand-new App World application site. Taxi Magic, which is free, debuted in December after a “soft launch” that started in 2007. The application currently can be used to book and pay for taxi rides in 27 metropolitan areas as well as a shuttle service and a limousine service that operate in multiple locales. A RideCharge spokesperson would not give specific transaction or download data for Taxi Magic, but says downloads have been running “in the tens of thousands” this year. In Chicago, where Taxi Magic launched Feb. 1, more than 7,000 passengers have used the application to book rides, the spokesperson says. RideCharge bookings currently are available on two Chicago-area fleets, one in the city and one in the suburbs, which collectively have 1,200 cabs. The Taxi Magic application enables the mobile-phone user to connect directly to a cab company's dispatching center and charge the fare to a credit card for $1.50 without needing to talk with the dispatcher. RideCharge has a gateway connection to merchant acquirer Wells Fargo & Co., which handles the processing and deposits fare receipts, less interchange, into an account from which RideCharge pays the cab companies, according to the spokesperson. After booking, the user gets confirmation that a cab has been dispatched, the cab's number and often the name of the driver, according to the spokesperson. Regular cell phones get the data via text message. Smartphone users can monitor the cab's distance from the pick-up point by refreshing their browsers. The software also sends electronic receipts to the user. Apple's App Store has several other applications that let iPhone users find cabs, but RideCharge is training its competitive guns mostly on the old-fashioned way of booking cab rides?by calling the dispatcher?and showing travelers how much time they can save. “North of 90% of taxi reservations” are booked by phone, the spokesperson says. “Our number-one competitor is the telephone,” he says. “People hate to be on hold.” New Mobile App Books And Pays for Taxi Rides in 27 Metro Areas. RideCharge Inc., a software vendor specializing in the taxicab market, is getting more mileage on its booking and payment application as the popularity of mobile phones grows. The Alexandria, Va.-based firm most recently added the largest cab company in Boston, the 200-plus vehicle fleet of Boston Metro Cab, to its list of taxi firms that can be booked through BlackBerry or iPhone smartphones if the traveler has RideCharge's Taxi Magic application. Although Taxi Magic can be used through personal computers or any cell phone, its core user is the business traveler who carries a smartphone. RideCharge has developed so-called optimized versions of Taxi Magic for Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd.'s Blackberry. That makes privately held RideCharge yet another software company contributing to the huge wave of mobile applications, many of which offer online banking or payments, introduced since Apple opened its online App Store for the iPhone last year (Digital Transactions News, Dec. 24, 2008). Now RIM is out with its answer to the iPhone, the BlackBerry Storm, and its brand-new App World application site. Taxi Magic, which is free, debuted in December after a “soft launch” that started in 2007. The application currently can be used to book and pay for taxi rides in 27 metropolitan areas as well as a shuttle service and a limousine service that operate in multiple locales. A RideCharge spokesperson would not give specific transaction or download data for Taxi Magic, but says downloads have been running “in the tens of thousands” this year. In Chicago, where Taxi Magic launched Feb. 1, more than 7,000 passengers have used the application to book rides, the spokesperson says. RideCharge bookings currently are available on two Chicago-area fleets, one in the city and one in the suburbs, which collectively have 1,200 cabs. The Taxi Magic application enables the mobile-phone user to connect directly to a cab company's dispatching center and charge the fare to a credit card for $1.50 without needing to talk with the dispatcher. RideCharge has a gateway connection to merchant acquirer Wells Fargo & Co., which handles the processing and deposits fare receipts, less interchange, into an account from which RideCharge pays the cab companies, according to the spokesperson. After booking, the user gets confirmation that a cab has been dispatched, the cab's number and often the name of the driver, according to the spokesperson. Regular cell phones get the data via text message. Smartphone users can monitor the cab's distance from the pick-up point by refreshing their browsers. The software also sends electronic receipts to the user. Apple's App Store has several other applications that let iPhone users find cabs, but RideCharge is training its competitive guns mostly on the old-fashioned way of booking cab rides?by calling the dispatcher?and showing travelers how much time they can save. “North of 90% of taxi reservations” are booked by phone, the spokesperson says. “Our number-one competitor is the telephone,” he says. “People hate to be on hold.”