The electronic platform le.taxi will facilitate the linking of taxi drivers with their customers through smartphone apps. In the future, its commissioning should be expanded in several French cities.
After three months of testing in Montpellier, the electronic platform le.taxi was officially launched on Tuesday in the capital Hérault. Developed by the state, this new tool provided in the Thévenoud Act of 1 October 2014 and presented in October 2015, will enable the linking of taxis with their customers through applications for smartphones. “We had already implemented this system in Montpellier before the state will join us with the platform to carry out field tests. [...] The idea was to get up to date. Everyone adapts very well today, “said the Le Figaro Serge Viguier, chairman of the FDT 34.
Same story on the side of Andre Garcia, President of the Federation of Taxi Operators of Herault (FETH), which fully satisfies this new device: “this is a very good thing. At our level, we can not invest in equipment to be innovative, which is why it is important that the state help us. We will be able to respond to a request appropriately. “
Every taxi driver will thus be free to register on the platform to be geolocated. For his part, the customer must, using his smartphone, download an approved application (Taxi Proxi, My App Taxi, Zaléou, Tedycab) by which it can hail a taxi that is closest to him. “The customer opens the application and see all available taxis around. He just needs to click on one of them and wait for the validation of the driver, “says Serge Viguier. For now, only the city of Montpellier offers this service but the state wants to extend it to other large cities like Lyon, Marseille, Lille and Rennes. In Paris, scheduled for launch in mid-April.
During the three months of testing, hundreds of races have been done using this new service. About 200 local drivers would have enrolled by representatives of the Ministries of Transport and Interior. At the national level, pending a widespread service of the tool, less than 2,000 drivers have registered a total of 60,000.
The platform le.taxi should answer to one of the major issues of contention between taxis and VTC: electronic marauding, often practiced by them, and that is to park or drive on public roads to find customers nearby. “Competition with VTC is still unfair because we do not have the same constraints but this system is already a way to federate and upgrade us to meet this competition, ‘says Serge Viguier.
The customer should also find his account since the new service does not allow access costs. In other words, the taxi driver agrees not to rotate the counter as he did not arrive at the place of the command. “This is a tremendous force compared to VTC. This will allow us to set rates even less expensive. Especially since, unlike them who are present only in large cities, we can respond to the territorial coverage, “says André Garcia.
Also, the customer will note the race from zero to five stars. A system already used by Uber, famous VTC platform widely decried by taxi, and one might think could frustrate some drivers who wish to register on the platform. Instead, Serge Viguier says this will “show a better image of taxi drivers than is usually paid to them.” André Garcia, this is a device that “should stimulate all the taxi companies and pull them up.”
However, le.taxi will not propose the payment by smartphone platforms instead of VTC. Cash and, in theory, bank cards, will therefore always appropriate to adjust its course.
In all, the development of the application will cost 250,000 euros. Each year, 500,000 euros will be added to this amount for operating expenses that include salaries of four staff assigned to the project according to AFP.
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