Need a Taxi Cab? Hail a Transportation App Instead!

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By: Aprel Phelps Downey

Picture a city where taxi cabs are plentiful, quietly waiting to whisk passengers from their plush executive offices to the glitzy social event of the evening. There is no pushing or shoving, yelling or fighting. Just peaceful taxi cab service where everyone waits their turn. This is a mere figment of the imagination.

Real taxi cabs are nowhere to be found when needed. People trade their cramped office cubicles for crowded city sidewalks with honking horns, screaming street vendors, and traffic congestion as far as the eye can see. Everyone soon becomes obsessed with finding a quiet ride home courtesy of a taxi cab. Fights soon break out and chaos ensues as people elbow one another or step on a foot just to secure that coveted seat in a taxi cab that suddenly appears. What a nightmare!

Transportation frustration and frazzle is a thing of the past. There is now an app for that!

Companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Side Car offer a transportation app for smartphone users in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City. Interested passengers can order up car service at a price that won’t break the bank. The process is fairly simple. A potential passenger downloads one of the apps from these companies to receive car service to the office, to a glitzy evening event, or simply home at the end of a long day. The transportation services utilize the GPS location setting in passenger phones to pinpoint a pick-up location. Within minutes, a real-time connection is made and the passenger is soon on the way without a fuss or taking an elbow to the face.

Traditional taxi cab services are loudly voicing distaste for this new technology infringing on their territory. They accuse these Internet-based transportation services of operating without paying city fees or holding city permits and licenses. Hearing the complaints, the California Public Utilities Commission has begun revising current public transportation policies to include regulation of Internet-based transportation service companies.

Transportation service companies are fighting back by pointing out that they are not traditional car services. Lyft and Side Car insist they merely bring a driver and passenger heading in the same direction together in order to share a ride. Drivers utilize their personal vehicles and insurance while the companies do maintain up to one million dollars of additional insurance coverage. After each trip, drivers and passengers complete a survey. Those consistently earning low scores are dropped from the service. Payment consists of a donation the passenger deems fair for similar trips. Uber charges a flat rate time and distance fare to passenger credit cards.

Personal cars are scarce in a big city, yet virtually everyone has a smartphone. That’s the beauty of this new app! It eases traffic congestion, reduces pollution, and eliminates headaches from the daily commute, making life in the city something to sing about!

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About the Author

Aprel Phelps Downey is a writing/marketing professional who holds more than seven years marketing experience, including all aspects of promotional and informational campaigns and website development. To learn more about Aprel please visit her website at www.aprelphelpsdowney.com or follow her on twitter: @aphelpsdowney.

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