Hailo

Hailo was a British technology platform [2] that matched taxi drivers and passengers through its mobile phone application.[3][4][5][6][7] Founded in London in 2011, the Hailo taxi service was available in 16 cities (as of December 2013).

Free Now

Industry	Taxi management
Fate	Acquired
Successor	myTaxi
Founded	2011 (2011) in London, United Kingdom
Founders	Russel Hall Gary Jackson Terry Runham Jay Bregman Caspar Woolley Ron Zeghibe [1]
Headquarters	London New York City
Products	Taxi e-hailing marketplace, mobile commerce network
Website	hailoapp.com

By May 2013, Hailo had enabled more than three million rides for passengers from over 30,000 registered taxi drivers.[8]

The Hailo Passenger App was available as a free download from the App Store and Google Play for both iOS and Android devices.[3][4][8][9]

In late 2016 Hailo was absorbed by myTaxi, a German e-hailing company belonging to Daimler Financial Services, to form the largest e-hailing operator. The resulting company, branded mytaxi, is based in Hamburg.[10]

By July 1, 2019 mytaxi was rebranded to Free Now serving over 100 European cities including Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, Paris and London. Free Now customer care and support teams operate from Dublin, Hamburg, Madrid, Warsaw among other European countries.

History

Hailo can in London

Hailo began in late 2010, after a meeting between three London taxi drivers and three technology entrepreneurs, including co-founders Jay Bregman, CEO,[8][9][11][12][13][14] Ron Zeghibe, Executive Chairman, Caspar Woolley, Chief Operations Officer, and Russell Hall, Gary Jackson, and Terry Runham, Driver Community Leaders.

On November 1, 2011 Hailo officially launched to passengers in London.[3][4] By the end of 2012, Hailo had launched in Dublin, Boston, Toronto, and Chicago,[8][13][15] but by late 2014 had discontinued services in North America.[16]

Funding

To date, Hailo has raised approximately $125.1 million in funding. Hailo received $3.0 million in two tranches of Seed round funding in 2011. In March 2012, Hailo received $17m in Series A round funding led by Accel Partners.[11][17][18][19] The round also included contributions from both Atomico and Wellington Partners.[19][20] A $30.6m Series B investment round was secured in December 2012, led by Union Square Ventures.[9][21] Contributions were also made by Japanese mobile telecoms group KDDI and business magnate Sir Richard Branson.[9][17]

Cities

Location	Launch	Slogan	Fare	Fee	Payment	Notes	Link
London	November 2011	The Black Cab App	£10+	None	Cash or card	5 min free waiting time
New York City[22]	2013	The Taxi Magnet	$3.00+^1	$1.99 peak $0.99 off-peak	Card (automatic)	Services Discontinued^6
Barcelona	2013	La app para taxis en Barcelona^2	None	None	Cash or card	5 min free waiting time
Boston	2012	The Boston Taxi App	$5.00+	$1.99 peak $0.99 off-peak	Card (automatic)	Services Discontinued^6
Chicago	2012	The Chicago Taxi App	$5.00+	$1.50	Card (automatic)	Services Discontinued^6
Cork	2013	The Taxi Magnet	None	None	Cash or card	5 min free waiting time
Dublin	2012	The Taxi Magnet	None	None	Cash or card	5 min free waiting time
Montreal^3	September 2013	L'application pour taxis de Montréal The Montreal Taxi App	None	None	Card (automatic)	Services Discontinued^6
Osaka	May 2013	The Osaka Taxi App	None	None	Cash or card	5 min free waiting time
Madrid	May 2013	La app para taxis en Madrid^4	None	None	Cash or card	5 min free waiting time
Washington, DC	May 2013	The DC Taxi App	$3.25+	$1.50	Card (automatic)	Services Discontinued^6
Toronto	2012	The Toronto Taxi App	$4.25+	None	Card (automatic)	Services Discontinued^6
Limerick	2013	The Taxi Magnet	None	None	Cash or card	5 min free waiting time
Galway	2013	The Taxi Magnet	None	None	Cash or card	5 min free waiting time
Atlanta	N/A^6	The Atlanta Taxi App
Tokyo[8][9]	Coming soon^5	The Tokyo Taxi App
Remainder of Ireland	March 2014[23]	The Taxi Magnet

Notes

1. Includes $0.50 mandatory state surcharge
2. Translates to The App for Taxis in Barcelona
3. Marketed in both English and French
4. Translates to The App for Taxis in Madrid
5. Atlanta, Tokyo, and the remainder of Ireland are currently locations that Hailo plans on serving in the future.
6. Hailo shuttered its North American operations in late 2014 in Canada and the US citing low profits and increased competition from Uber and Lyft - http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/hailo-taxi-app-to-close-up-shop-in-toronto-and-montreal-1.2798283

Mobile application and e-hailing

A survey conducted by Hailo found that cab drivers spend an average of 40-60 percent of their time looking for fares.[8][24]

The Hailo mobile e-hail application uses mobile and GPS technology to match taxi drivers with passengers based on both availability and proximity.[4][8][25][26] Hailo passengers make two taps on the Hailo smartphone app in order to request and confirm their e-hail.[4][8] Once a driver has electronically accepted a passenger, the waiting passenger is sent an updated time of arrival based on route information and real-time traffic information.[4][25]

Customers also have the ability to specify if they require a wheelchair-accessible vehicle or a fixed price fare to designated location such as an airport terminal, where permitted.[25] The Hailo driver app includes social networking features, which allows drivers to alert each other of locations with high street fare demand, traffic conditions, speed traps and road construction obstacles.[8][20]

Both the Hailo passenger and driver apps are compatible with both iOS and Android mobile devices.[8][17]

Mobile commerce

Hailo enables its registered passengers to e-hail, pay and tip for taxi journeys using the credit or debit card details they have stored within Hailo's secure cloud wallet.[3][12][25]

In some city locations, taxi drivers can also use Hailo to process credit and debit card payments for street hail fares by manually entering passenger card details when they reach their destination.

Instant trip receipts are sent to passengers by email and contain journey and payment information along with instructions to help retrieve any property lost or forgotten in the taxi.[8]

Legal proceedings

In February 2013, Black Car Assistance Corporation and Livery Roundtable filed a lawsuit against the taxi and limousine commission to prevent e-hailing companies from expanding to New York City.[7][9][19][27][28] In April 2013, a judge dismissed the lawsuit and Hailo won the right to begin an e-hail beta trial. The decision was subsequently appealed.[29][27] After a second temporary restraining order was issued against the pilot program, Hailo became the only taxi-hailing app-maker to join the lawsuit in support of the city.[19]

References

1. Hailo on Crunchbase, Crunchbase, retrieved June 21, 2013
2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-01-04. Retrieved 2014-06-19.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. Warman, Matt (January 26, 2012), "Hailo Android app review", The Telegraph, London, retrieved June 21, 2013
4. "Your friendly neighbourhood app", The Economist, October 27, 2012, retrieved June 21, 2013
5. New York May Let People Hail Cabs With Smartphones, ABC News, retrieved June 21, 2013
6. Brustein, Joshua (May 11, 2012), "The Push to Make Cab Rides Smarter", The New York Times, retrieved June 21, 2013
7. In New York, Taxi Apps Raise Objections From Competitors, NPR, retrieved June 21, 2013
8. A Mobile App That Makes Hailing a Taxi Easier and More Efficient, Entrepreneur, retrieved June 21, 2013
9. On-Demand Taxi Startup Hailo Raises $30M From USV And Others, Including Strategic Funding From KDDI To Launch In Tokyo, TechCrunch, retrieved June 21, 2013
10. mytaxi and Hailo join forces to create Europe’s largest taxi e-hailing company, retrieved 2017-02-09
11. Startups of the week #19.1, UXB London, retrieved June 21, 2013
12. Hailo Taxi June 2011 (PDF), Hailo, archived from the original (PDF) on October 13, 2011, retrieved June 21, 2013
13. "Let New Yorkers hail cabs and livery cars from their smartphones", Daily News, retrieved June 21, 2013
14. "The cab conductor: reading Hailo's success story", Wired.co.uk, retrieved June 21, 2013
15. Hailo taxi app to launch e-hailing, Crain's New York Business, retrieved June 21, 2013
16. "Taxi app company Hailo to pull out of North America", Financial Times, retrieved June 7, 2017
17. Hailo confirms its $30M round from Richard Branson, Union Square Ventures, VentureBeat, retrieved June 21, 2013
18. "On-Demand Car Services Driving Off With Venture Funding", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved June 21, 2013
19. "Taxi-Hailing Battle Heats Up in New York", Inc., retrieved June 21, 2013
20. Put your hand down! Hailo, yet another cab app, gets $17M from Accel Partners, VentureBeat, retrieved June 21, 2013
21. "Hailing Hailo", New York Post, retrieved June 21, 2013
22. WSJ"Taxi! Taxi! Oh, Never Mind. I'll Use My Smartphone.", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved June 21, 2013
23. "Hailo Nation". March 3, 2014. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014.
24. Taxi race: can Uber and Hailo deliver a real-time revolution?, The Verge, retrieved June 21, 2013
25. An entrepreneur pitches an app solutions to New York's accessible-taxi problem, TechCrunch, retrieved June 21, 2013
26. Underlying technologies of taxi apps
27. Here Come the Yellow Cab Apps: New York Judge Dismisses E-Hail Lawsuit, BETABEAT, retrieved June 21, 2013
28. "Race On for Taxi Apps", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved June 21, 2013
29. Hailo Launches Taxi App Beta Test; Uber Approved for TLC Pilot Program, BETABEAT, retrieved June 21, 2013

How much does it cost to develop a Taxi booking app