Cebu startup team out to outflank giants
FINALLY, Cebuano commuters can now get a taxi anytime and anywhere around Metro Cebu hassle-free as MiCab launched its cab-hailing smartphone app on September 23, 2013 in this Philippines Queen City of the South.
With the Micab app, the Cebuano riding public will never have to wait in queues on taxi stands or even have to outsmart and outrun each other on the streets as they can simply hail a cab to their location by just tapping on their mobile phones.
“We are commuters ourselves and we wanted a remedy for this problem,” the MiCab developers said. “So, we pooled our talents together and came up with an app that works as a taxi-dispatching service.”
The people behind MiCab are Kenneth Baylosis, Keith Levi Lumanog, and Eddie Ybanez who got the full backing of award-winning ICT company, Next IX, in their startup venture.
(Click this to read an update on MiCab)
Easy to use
Next IX chief executive officer and founder Bobby Suson said he offered to support the young trio of developers as he has seen the potential in the MiCab startup.
“This kind of app is already in Manila, it is but timely to have this in Cebu,” Suson said. “Since the use of new technology in almost everything is inevitable, common sense only dictates that we should also be able to use our mobile phones to hail a taxi.”
The app is just easy as ABC to use, according to MiCab. They said people only need to download the app, key in some basic personal information and their self-description for recognition purposes.
(Click this to find MiCab on Facebook)
With MiCab, a user can request for a taxi by just tapping on the app, which will then send a signal to available cabs within a 2-kilometer radius.
Taxi drivers are also equipped with smartphones which they can use to either accept or decline the request for pick-up. MiCab is charging the drivers P30 a day for the smartphones and data load credits.
For using the app, the passenger will only pay a minimal P5.00 charge on top of the taxi fare.
Ken Taxi
MiCab decided to team up with Ken Taxi which now has 60 of its cabs equipped with smartphones for this pilot program. MiCab aims to have at least 200 taxi units under its fleet.
The MiCab app is only available for Android devices at the moment, but the three young developers said it will soon be available for iOS and Windows devices come October this year.
Related stories
Taxi dispatching app for mobile (Webgeek.ph)
App simplifies hiring cab in Cebu (Sun.Star Cebu)
5 Cebu start-ups among Ideaspace finalists (Sun.Star Cebu)
MiCab – Paving the way for intelligent transport systems (PRnewsmedia.org)
