iCABBi ANNOUNCEMENT iCABBi SECURES MAJOR TECH WIN TO LEVEL
PLAYING FIELD WITH GLOBAL RIDEHAIL COMPANIES
Last month, iCabbi announced a landmark move to integrate with
Google. Fleets are heralding this as a ‘game- changer’. Indeed, the impact it will make has been likened to the level of transformation iCabbi brought back in the early 2010s when it disrupted the market with the first-ever fully based taxi dispatch solution and, with that, a SaaS model.
But what exactly does integration with Google mean for taxi and private hire firms in the UK, and could this really be a new chapter for taxi innovation? That’s what we are keen to find out in this interview with iCabbi founder and Taxi Alliance CEO Bob Nixon.
What is the Google Mobility Platform? The most sophisticated development toolkit out there to build any kind of transport scenario.
Why is the iCabbi-Google integration such a big deal? It’s going to give drivers and passengers the kind of features that until now have only been available to users of global ridehail apps. Things like precision ETAs, real-time updates based on live traffic feeds, rerouting, passenger pick-up location tracking, and so on. So, an app experience like any of the ridehail giants. Google fleet engine is the technology on which they have
built their
platforms. We now have access to the exact same tech stack and data feeds, so essentially the playing field has been levelled.
From the dispatch side, from the operator’s perspective, it’s like getting a brain transplant. iCabbi is already a very powerful custom system for taxis. Now, its performance is going to be bolstered by the Google Fleet engine capabilities. Customers will benefit from the enhanced intelligence provided by the live data feeds and from a host of
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new features that will use fleet analytics and learning to effectively manage demand and supply. More automation, more optimisation, and more benefits for fleets in terms of real business outcomes. Drivers can earn more. Fleets can service more bookings. Good news all around.
It certainly sounds exciting. What’s the mood in iCabbi at the moment? Buzzy, if that’s a word. It feels like we have taken a big leap forward and backward at the same time. Forward because we’re delivering taxi innovation at the very frontier. No one else has done what we are doing now and that feels great. We’re leading the field and the response we’re getting from customers is invigorating. And I say backward really just in the sense that the momentum we have feels like the early days of iCabbi when things happened fast and had an impact fast. When we first launched iCabbi it transformed how people were running taxi companies and this tech move is really bringing something very new to the industry. It’s a great time to be working at iCabbi and exciting for old-timers like me to be part of another wave of innovation.
How soon will customers see this integration working within their products? Right now. The first move has been to get Turn-By- Turn Google nav into the Driver App. That’s already available now on iOS and out on Android in January. So, it has been very quick. It’s a necessary foundation to get the products talking to each other through Google connections. But that’s really just the foundation for the rest of the stuff to come. Customers will see new features at the beginning of next year, things such as precision ETAs and passenger live location tracking.... but again that is just the beginning. Google will be part of our roadmap for all of 2024 and beyond.
Are you charging your customers for this? No. We are absorbing this cost on behalf of our customers.
DECEMBER 2023 PHTM
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