The ‘ App ’ eal of Technology: Opportunities and Threats

1. The ‘App’eal of Technology: Opportunities and Threats • James M Cooper, Taxi Research Partners, Edinburgh Napier University • Richard Darbéra, Director of the IVM (Cities on the Move) Taxi Research program 1

2. Yesterday and tomorrow • Technologies • Taxi apps • Market for apps • Market response to apps • Market opportunity of apps • Regulatory response • Operator response • Whither apps? • OUTLINE 2

3. Why do taxis have a rooftop light? • Why do taxis have a taximeter? • Standing on a sidewalk in Google City • … • No rooftop light, no taximeter. • No regulation? • TWO QUESTIONS AND A DREAM (or nightmare?) 3

4. Is the taxi app business a natural monopoly? • The rogue driver • The lost tourist • The airport mess • NO REGULATION? 4

5. The App as a ‘disruptive’ technology • The emergence of “Apps” has followed, and grown exponentially from the smartphone • Graphic user interface of immense potential and opportunity • Sophisticated device with significant sensor capabilities; compass, GPS location, mapping software and accelerometer • Move from a cult to a mainstream market • TECHNOLOGIES 5

6. Split by function: • Apps that provide Directory functionality • Apps that make bookings with dispatch companies • Apps that make bookings directly with a driver • This is not the end of the development! Smarter phones, increased lateral thinking, support and mainstream functions • Herein lie challenges, opportunities and threats! There are as many bad apps as good ones, probably more. Are apps going ‘rogue’?! • TAXI APPS 6

7. App with a directory listing; simple, relatively uncontroversial • Apps with additional functionality begin to question long standing assumptions • Issue of existing market segments • Hail or pre-booking function • App in reassuring passenger by measuring time and distance? • App as a meter replacement by measuring time and distance? • Calibration and accuracy of device; Irish analysis: App error = 1.6%; tolerance granted meters 4%. • Payment tool • MARKET FOR APPS 7

8. Confused and opposing reactions - a ‘normal’ response • Travelling public appear relatively positive • Taxi driver communities less opposed that at first appearance, with caution over certain elements including “rate my driver” • Regulator and industry operator, more opposition, especially where app changes the fundamental market dynamics. • MARKET RESPONSE TO APPS 8

9. As technologies develop, so do opportunities • Current smartphone standards; • Interactive voice control • Mapped locations, routing and times • Quality scoring, whether welcomed or not • Live time and departure boards • Technologies serve the market, if they do not, they will not survive. • MARKET OPPORTUNITY OF APPS 9

10. Apps offer source of information on market operation • Apps offer opportunity to enhance passenger experience; BUT • Changes in market need be considered with the long term view in mind • Moves to reject or outlaw “rogue” apps a short term solution • Support and protecting the consumer a prime responsibility of the regulator • REGULATORY RESPONSE 10

11. The app represents a very mixed blessing • Apps that do more than list companies need not accommodate traditional booking processes • Apps to dispatch maintain and support the status quo, including those that are given an agency booking function • Apps to driver sidestep traditional booking processes, but may deliver cheaper solutions that can include the dispatch company • Apps that don’t “understand” the taxi market, a significant challenge, but market will remain consumer led, regardless. • OPERATOR RESPONSE 11

12. Yes, the regulator has a responsibility to ensure the safety of the public, • Yes, the regulator must ensure apps are not illegal, • Yes, the operating company need remain involved in the market, but • No, public interest is not always best served by a knee-jerk reaction, • Nor does it require market protectionism or regulatory capture that is emerging, however understandable that reaction is. • WHITHER APPS? 12