It’s been a busy week for taxi apps with a new booking engine, Hailo, set to launch in Singapore.
UK startup Hailo has previously done well in the London taxi market, but recently pulled out of North America after tough competition from local apps Uber, Lyft and GetTaxi. The company seems confident that their approach will work in Singapore though, with their use of speedy cloud-based technology. What seems to make Hailo different is the seamless mobile payments via the app (so you don’t have to carry cash), email receipts sent after your trip and no additional booking fees.
Pre-booked Hailo taxi trips will also be offered to the nearest cab driver first (rather than the current fastest-finger-first approach which sometimes sees cabs accepting jobs out of their immediate vicinity and leading to considerable waiting times for passengers). Hailo is now available as a free download from the App Store and Google Play. If you fancy giving it a go, new customers can use the promo code “HELLOSING” to get a bonus $10 credit on their first ride this week.
Meanwhile, in other transport news, Uber saw some backlash over their “free rides” promo and local favorite GrabTaxi has just secured another round of funding. It remains to be seen who’ll win the battle of the taxi apps, but it’s all certainly better than the status quo of just two short years ago.
