How would you like a free cab ride home from the mall? Awesome, right?
Easy Taxi, a taxi booking app that calls itself “the best”, is offering Cebuanos cab rides with “Zero Booking Fee” from now until October 4, to encourage them to try out its e-taxi booking service. After that, you will have to pay a fee of Php30.00 (less than $1), which is still lower than the regular Php70.00 fee you would have to pay on top of the metered bill. The “Zero Booking Fee” promo originally ran from August 4 to September 4, but due to requests from users, Easy Taxi extended it for one more month. Yipee!
However, this promotion is only available if you’re shopping or malling at Ayala Center Cebu. If so, go on over to its concierge booth and book yourself a taxi ride home or wherever your next destination may be. For now, Easy Taxi only has a single mall partner. But it has revealed plans to expand its mall partnerships to include Robinson’s Cybergate, Parkmall and Banilad Town Center, according to SunStar.
Easy Taxi Goes ‘Full Throttle’ in Cebu City
Easy Taxi had a soft launch in Cebu early this year. But last week, it has decided to finally go full throttle in the Queen City of the South as it officially launched at Ayala Center Cebu.
“While Easy Taxi has begun penetrating Cebu earlier this year we are now shifting our gears full blast for aggressive expansion in the Queen City of the South,” said Daniel Torres, Easy Taxi CEO for the Philippines.
Passenger Safety First
“Book a taxi with one click” is Easy Taxi’s tag line. This means once you open the app, all you have to do is tap on the “Call a Taxi” button and that’s it. After that, you’ll just need to wait for your taxi to arrive. The app works by calling the taxi driver nearest your location. The taxi driver will locate you via GPS and conversely, you can track the cab’s movement via a maps feature.
The tracking feature is a new one, Easy Taxi’s Cebu City Manager Kristoffer Montebon told SunStar. Users can also share the details of their taxicab ride with their contacts through Waze, a community-based traffic and navigation app. These new features have been added to the app in an effort to put passenger safety first.
Easy Taxi has also partnered with Green Planet Taxi, Saregen Taxi, Airland Taxi, Mike Taxi, 6Sence Taxi, Michaela Taxi, VNM and Sun Taxi, among others. These taxi operators are “the leading and most trusted” in Cebu, according to CebuTechBlogger.
The selection of taxi drivers for Easy Taxi follows a “strict screening process,” Kristoffer Montebon told SunStar. By this, Montebon means the aspiring taxi driver must meet a minimum number of years as an operator and he must be proficient in English, among other languages. Of course, the taxi driver must also be able to understand how the Easy Taxi mobile app works. Once accepted, each cab driver will receive a smartphone with a SIM card, a manual and stickers for his taxicab, Montebon explains. The SIM card will be provided by Smart Communications, adds CebuTechBlogger.
Other features, such as fare estimate and cashless payment options, are also in the works, reveals Torres to SunStar.
The app is available for free download from Google Play, iTunes, Samsung Apps, Windows and even as a web app.
What About Rival GrabTaxi?
While this might be great news for Cebuanos, rival taxi booking app GrabTaxi had earlier in June launched its service ahead of Easy Taxi in Cebu. Similar to Easy Taxi, GrabTaxi waived all the booking fee for two weeks when it launched.
Looks like the competition is heating up with both companies trying to win the home screens of Filipinos.