Jay Bregman Leaves Hailo!

by | Oct 14, 2014 | World News

 

Jay Bregman. Hailo

The taxi app wars have claimed a victim.

Hailo, a London-based startup, has pulled out of North America in the face of intense and entrenched competition from companies such as Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc. and GetTaxi Inc., the company said Tuesday.

In a surprise move, founder Jay Bregman has left the company. He was expected to speak later this week at a tech conference in London. Mr. Bregman didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

Hailo was founded in London in 2011. It became one of several popular apps used to hail black cabs and recently planned to expand the service to private-hire vehicles, or the equivalent of livery cabs in New York City. The company recently said it would expand to Singapore.

CEO Tom Barr said the decision to pull out of North America was because of the “astronomical marketing” costs “required to compete.” In an e-mailed statement, he said that “profitability for any one player is almost impossible.”

Mr. Barr said: “We are very sorry for the impact on our colleagues who will leave the company and are doing everything we can to help them with their future careers.”

A spokesman for the company said that about 40 people would be laid off.

Mr. Barr said that Mr. Bregman “by his own admissions has taken the business to the level he can.”

In a 2013 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Bregman, referring to Uber, said  there was “plenty of room for more than one in the market.”

Meanwhile, Israel-based competitor GetTaxi Inc. said it was growing.

“We definitely understand Hailo’s decision to pull out of the U.S. market, it’s a competitive space,” said Rich Pleeth, GetTaxi’s chief marketing officer. “However we’re currently experiencing 3000% growth in New York.”

Taxi App Hailo to Shut Down North American Operations, Including DC Office

by | Oct 14, 2014 | World News

The company says it can’t compete with the likes of Uber and Lyft anymore.

So long. Photograph by Flickr user BeyondDC.

Hailo, a cab-hailing mobile app that counted itself among the DC taxi industry’s few digital allies, is pulling out of North America, saying it has become too difficult and expensive to compete. The company, which bases its local operations out of a mustard-yellow building on Florida Avenue, Northwest, does not name the competition that is driving it away, but the victors are obvious: Uber and Lyft.

Unlike those apps, which dispatch private drivers outside the traditional, heavily regulated taxi industry, Hailo connects professional cab drivers with customers who would rather hail with their phones than flail their arms on a street corner. The London-based company set up in DC in 2012, with its executives promising to take a softer, more collaborative approach with local taxi officials than the anti-regulatory strategies Uber and Lyft are famous for. Instead, Hailo says it will now focus on Europe and Asia.

“In the next phase of our growth, we have decided to put all of our energy and resources into these areas,” Hailo CEO Tom Barr says in a company statement. “We have therefore decided to end our operations in North America, where the astronomical marketing spend required to compete is making profitability for any one player almost impossible.”

Hailo charged users $1.50 for its electronic hailing service; after that, customers paid the regular, city-mandated taxi fares. That put Hailo at a disadvantage against Uber and Lyft, which promise rates as low as half the regulated fare schedule.

A Hailo representiative says the pullout is “fluid,” but does not say how many taxi drivers are affected. (Like its less-sanctioned bretheren, Hailo refuses to provide specific figures.) But the company’s impending departure is a big win for Uber and Lyft, and a big loss for the DC Taxicab Commission, which held up Hailo as one of the five—now four—digital apps approved by city bureaucrats for calling hired drivers.

Traditional taxi rides are dropping sharply to cut-rate services like Uber and Lyft, with some traditional cab companies saying their revenues have declined as much as 30 percent since the largely unregulated apps entered the market. The DC Council is about togive official clearance to the newer apps over protestations from cab drivers and DC taxi czar Ron Linton.

Perhaps Hailo’s exit is well-timed, though. Last week, Linton announced plans to roll out a city-issued taxi-hailing app.

Middlesbrough taxi driver urges Government to change laws regarding drivers following grooming report

by | Oct 12, 2014 | UK News

Rasub Afzal and Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald want to make minibus drivers undergo the same criminal checks as taxi drivers

Middlesbrough Taxi driver Mr Rasub Afzal (front) is running a petition urging the government to change it’s laws so that minibus drivers, like taxi drivers, have CRB checks

A taxi driver who set up a petition for tighter controls of minibus drivers has renewed calls for more checks following the revelation that children as young as 11 are being groomed in Middlesbrough.

Rasub Afzal, from Middlesbrough, has spent months urging the Government to change its legislation so that minibus drivers – like taxi drivers – have DBS (formerly CRB) checks before they are given their licence.

The 46-year-old dad enlisted the help of Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald to help with his battle to pass on his petition to Parliament.

The Labour MP confirmed he was working with Mr Afzal and had written to then Transport Minister Norman Baker but had not received a favourable response.

“The Minister said that while he wasn’t saying that there wasn’t any risk at all, he felt the risk was low and that the current regime was adequate,” he said.

But Mr Afzal said although minibuses could carry more people “there are times when there is only the driver and the last drop off”.

Mr McDonald has also written to Mr Baker’s predecessor Baroness Susan Kramer.

“Sadly I received much the same response namely that the Government would not be changing its position on Enhanced CRB checks for PCV drivers,” he said.

“With the benefit of the excellent piece of work done by the council this week, I will raise this issue again in the House at the earliest opportunity.”

Singapore’s SMRT Steers £800m Addison Lee Bid

by | Oct 12, 2014 | London News

Taxi leaks ran a story back in September, that the owners of Addison Lee, the Carlyle Group, were putting the Private Hire operator up for sale. It has now been announced that one of Singapore’s largest transport groups is examining an £800m takeover bid for Addison Lee.

The SMRT Corporation, which is listed on the Asian city state’s stock exchange, is at the early stages of considering an offer.

Addison Lee’s owner, the private equity group Carlyle, has kicked off an auction of the company for which it paid £300m just 18 months ago.

Credit Suisse, the investment bank handling the sale, has asked bidders to lodge initial proposals next week.

SMRT, which runs bus, train and taxi services in Singapore, is expected to be joined in the bidding by up to half a dozen buyout firms, including BC Partners, Charterhouse and CVC Capital Partners.

Addison Lee, which was founded by former minicab driver John Griffin with a single car in 1975, now handles 10m passenger journeys annually, with more than 4,000 drivers on its books.

Its rapid ascent has not been without controversy, however.

The company’s boss enraged rivals when he suggested that its drivers should use bus lanes, and accused cyclists of causing many of the road accidents in London which have prompted concern among safety groups.

Addison Lee has dismissed suggestions that the emergence of new economy companies such as Uber will diminish its growth prospects, arguing that the two companies serve separate customer bases.

If SMRT does proceed with an offer, it would represent the second offer from a Singaporean entity for a Carlyle-owned motoring business in as many months.

In September, the private equity group sold a 50% stake in the RAC, Britain’s second-largest roadside recovery group, in a transaction valuing the company at more than £2bn.

Bidders for Addison Lee are likely to be attracted to the prospect of international expansion, although one private equity firm suggested there was some anxiety about the encroachment of so many technology-based start-ups.

News of SMRT’s interest in Addison Lee comes just a month after it announced a joint venture agreement with Hailo, the London-based taxi mobile application developer.

Carlyle declined to comment.

>Source: Sky News

Madrid starts fining users of Uber ‘taxi’ app

by | Oct 10, 2014 | World News

After Barcelona announced plans to impound the vehicles of people caught using the app-based chauffeur service Uber, Madrid’s regional government has launched a crackdown that will allow police to fine drivers and passengers up to €18,000 ($22,600).

 

The smartphone application Uber, which links passengers with drivers of private vehicles, has caused controversy since it came to Spain earlier this year.

After strikes and protests by taxi drivers, Barcelona banned the app in June and announced this weekend that it would modify the city’s laws to punish users. Those caught by police will face having their cars impounded for up to three months plus fines of around €4,000.

Police action against Uber users has already started in Madrid, where the app launched only last month.

As of Monday, Guardia Civil and local police officers will begin to inspect and fine Uber and its users if they are found carrying passengers without the necessary licences.

Fines will range from €4,000 to €6,000 and could rise to €18,000 plus seizure of the vehicle if there are repeat offences, according to Spanish daily 20 Minutos.

Taxi drivers in both cities are unhappy with what they describe as unfair competition from the app, which charges 70 cents ($0.90) per kilometre (0.6 miles) or 30 cents per minute.

They have gone on strike on a number of occasions, protesting that they must pay for taxes, licence and insurance, unlike Uber users.

Borja Carabante, vice-councillor of Transport, Infrastructure and Housing,  said after a meeting with representatives of taxi drivers’ groups that the city would “guarantee the safety of users, avoid unfair competition and work with the taxi sector to inspect and fine pirate vehicles that work at the airport, by telephone or through applications like Uber.’

“To offer a [commercial] transport service, the driver must have a qualification and, if he does not, it is an illegal activity,” he added.

The legal status of Uber has been hotly debated across Europe in recent months.

Taxi drivers in Paris and London have publically protested against the app but a court in Frankfurt recently overturned a German ban on the service.

European Vice President Nellie Kroes dismissed Spanish calls for a pan-European law to settle the matter, saying that countries needed to promote innovation.

Spain’s Economy Minister, Luis de Guindos, came down on the side of the app-makers and stated in June that taxi drivers would have to “adapt” to changing technology.

A spokesperson for Uber in Spain recently told The Local. “We believe that there’s room for everyone, and we’re improving transport options for both riders and drivers alike