2020 TECH PREDICTIONS


Happy New Year to you all! In case you didn’t know, 2020 is the Year of the Rat in the Chinese Zodiac… whilst last year saw a lot of gnawing at our political pro- cesses, this year might be a bit calmer assuming there are no economic shocks. On the transport technology front, these are interesting times and here’s what my crystal ball is indicating for our cab sector in yet anoth- er transformative year.


RIDE HAILING ECONOMICS WILL FACE A REALITY CHECK


The stock market flotation of Uber and Lyft in the US last year has so far performed pretty underwhelmingly, with even Uber’s founder now selling down his stock. Given the expected economic slow- down globally, ‘growth at all costs’ is now replaced by ‘sustainable growth at managed costs’ and so the days of bottomless driver and rider subsidies are ending. That said, they are still a force to be reck- oned with, so the incumbent cab sector needs to keep raising its game.


AGGREGATORS WILL BECOME A NECESSARY CHANNEL TO AVOID GETTING LEFT BEHIND


Until last year, You-know-who had the ride hailing app market pret- ty much to itself. Now with the emergence of Ola, Kapten and Bolt apps, there will be even more competition to attract your drivers to their platforms. Aggregators, of which minicabit is Britain’s largest, will be a key channel to unlock more revenues for existing private hire operators as customers rapidly shift online. More revenues means more reasons for drivers to stick with your fleet. Indeed, some cab operators are switching to a pure aggregator model where they only pay for guaranteed work rather than speculatively spend on advertising their own website/app, with no certainty of gaining any work


DISPATCH SYSTEMS WILL BECOME A NECESSARY TOOL TO SERVICE A MODERN DAY CAB EXPERIENCE


Efficiently dispatching jobs via dispatch software to nearby drivers rather than using spreadsheets and texting them, enabling cus- tomers to see your car arriving at the pickup point – these are just some of the benefits that dispatch systems such as iCabbi and Autocab offer. The wider cab industry will need to adopt such tech- nology if it is to compete with a 21st century experience, in the way that takeaways have with online platforms like JustEat.


TIME TO GO ELECTRIC


With targets to reach net zero carbon emissions landing on UK cities and now airports, Ultra Low Emission Zones (ULEZ) and Clean Air Zones (CAZ) are now sprouting around the UK, with Heathrow announcing its ULEZ year after next. All major car manu- facturers are shifting towards Zero Emission vehicles and, looking at


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Amer Hasan CEO minicabit Britain’s largest cab comparison website


minicabit.com Sponsor of PHTM Expo


JANUARY 2020


the noticeable adoption by London’s black cabs, customers are showing their green side. Yes, there are still challenges with avail- ability of charging points and long range batteries, but the overall lower running costs of these cars should offset the initially higher purchase prices. Consumer action against climate change will only get louder this year and so the cab industry needs to respond accordingly. For instance, minicabit now showcases those fleets with Zero Emission cars and can help drive demand to these vehi- cles, to help them recover their investment faster.


MORE CAR MANUFACTURERS WILL JOIN UP FOR AN AUTONOMOUS FUTURE


Self-driving cars will continue to be a perhaps overhyped though inevitable feature on our roads, but meaningfully closer to 10 years’ time. However, car makers are restructuring significantly now to deal with new manufacturing and commercial models later. With previous arch rivals such as Peugeot and Fiat merging, Ford and Volkswagen sharing manufacturing platforms, and Mercedes and BMW combining their online mobility services, watch out for previ- ously unthinkable tie-ups this year. What’s driving this (pun intended)? Doing nothing could mean Silicon Valley disruptors like Google, Apple and Amazon running our transport modes and net- works in ten years’ time given data is literally becoming the new oil.


MOBILITY MASHUPS ARE COMING


Last year, it was great to see minicabit win ‘Business of the Year’ at the Transtech Awards, which celebrate key players in the new trans- port space. But it was interesting to see what two other major players won awards for – Ford won, not for their car technology, but for the launch of their courier service technology; and Uber won, not for their ride hailing product, but for their integration of rail ticketing. We’ll see more players aiming to leverage their tech/expertise/mar- ket reach to offer new services outside their core areas to either unlock extra revenues, retain their customers, or both…though a Rolls Royce-branded bike sharing service may be way off.


5G!


Ok this is a longer term factor beyond 2020 but as someone who worked for Vodafone and O2 during the transition from 2G to 4G (and way before that was a cab driver), I can see that 5G will be a gamechanger. All the mobile operators and soon mobile phones are gradually offering 5G where you can access online services at 100 times current speeds. Besides having a mega fast broadband expe- rience on our phones, the next decade will see cars, road sensors and the transport network in general all using 5G to interact with each other. If you were concerned about your kids spending too much time on Facebook, one day we might be worrying about our cars sharing too much data with nearby traffic lights!


Ultimately, despite all these changes, a few things will never change. Customers will always be searching for a cab to take them from A to B, and those cab operators and drivers who are superfocused on offering a delightful customer experience at a competitive price will thrive. Indeed, it’s minicabit’s mission to help them do so.


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