Hailing A Taxi With A Click
Business travelers have been going online for a decade to book airline tickets, hotel rooms and rental cars. But until recently they still had to hail a cab the old-fashioned way
Now, 34-year-old New York cab driver and entrepreneur Jason Diaz is trying to change that. Six months ago, he launched 1-800-cab-ride.com in hope of using the Internet to create a national brand and sales organization for the highly decentralized taxicab business.
“I want to do for the taxi business what 1-800-flowers.com did for the flower delivery business,” Diaz says.
Americans spend more than $12 billion a year on taxi rides, Diaz says, which makes the taxi business about as large as the ice cream industry.
Travelers can schedule a cab ride with as little as 10 minutes advance notice, though the company guarantees only that a cab will be available within three hours of booking. Travel agents can also book cab rides online for their clients at the same time they book airline tickets and hotel rooms.
Backed by private investors — he won’t say who, or how much they’ve invested — Diaz created 1-800-cab-ride.com by enlisting locally owned cab companies from around the USA into a network that extends to about 40 major markets. He’s adding about five markets a month.
Photo by 1800cabride.
FranchiseBrief.com on April 18th, 2007 2:35 pm
Looks like it could be a very successful franchise business!
JTreiber on April 19th, 2007 2:49 pm
Great idea. A friend of mine came up with idea for Cab Beepers. Something similar to this idea, except that it runs off GPS and a little key-chain clicker that you could sell to heavy cab users. They click it wherever they are in NYC for example, and the closest taxicab equipped with the homing device could pick the person up. Pretty techie I know, and a long shot…
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