Yes I know it’s a tired old cliche but there are some new developments that we’re quite excited about in Castletroy Cabs. We all know about the ‘revolutionary’ taxi apps that are available at the moment that promise to deliver a cab with a few clicks at a minute’s notice. The co-founder of Halo, the taxi app market leader, explained at the recent Web Summit in Dublin that its app is built around and driven by the taxi driver. Halo believes this provides the very best possible service for the customer but I’m not so sure.

I believe that any product that’s designed and built should always be built with the end user, that is, the paying customer is mind. There is no doubting the brilliance of the technology but there is one key element that I believe is missing. In my opinion the operator is key to ensuring that things run smoothly. If Halo cabbies all decide to take the night off – let’s say for example Christmas Day – Who’s around to make sure its customers have a taxi service?

There’s no comfort in getting a ‘No Taxi Available’ message or an update that Halo is ‘adding taxis to your area all the time’. Hearing that the service might be a little patchy is not the message you want to see when you’re stranded in the city centre or out in the countryside. But that’s where the buck stops with these ‘technology forward’ apps; my point being that there has to be some recourse for the regular taxi user.

Castletroy Cabs has teamed up with Bluechief Solutions, a local IT company based at the University of Limerick . We have collaborated to design and build a taxi booking system that makes the process of booking a taxi simpler whether you book it over the phone, via email or through your smartphone. Halo may have built its booking app around the driver. We have built ours around the customer. With a bit more time, and a lot more hard work, we believe we can deliver a customer driven interactive booking system with a much better service. I’ll keep you posted!