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The ‘ App ’ eal of Technology: Opportunities and Threats

Explore the opportunities and threats posed by taxi apps in the market, including regulatory, operator, and market responses. Discover the potential of disruptive technologies and the challenges they bring.

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The ‘ App ’ eal of Technology: Opportunities and Threats

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  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

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