Competition heats up

The Herald reports:

Uber has announced a 10 per cent drop in all its fares as local companies put out their own apps to try to reclaim ground in the taxi market.

Auckland Uber fares will be cut by a tenth today and the company says this will make its fares up to 40 per cent cheaper than taxi rides.

At the same time, a taxi driver with almost 50 years’ experience is launching an app aiming to provide customers with a cheaper ride than Uber and bring back more rides for taxi drivers.

Excellent. That’s what we want – both price competition and service improvement. Taxi firms developing their own apps is the logical response to Uber.

Eric Sercombe has been in the driving industry for 47 years and works for Dial-a-Cab and VIP Taxis.

He is also the operations manager for Ezygo, a new app that people can use to order a taxi that will be cheaper than Uber.

Every element of the fare with Ezygo, from the mileage rate to the meter rate, was 5c cheaper than Uber, Mr Sercombe said. The drivers would also make more money per ride.

“Our fee for the driver is only 10 per cent. Uber’s is 20 per cent. So a $25 ride on Uber, the driver takes home $20, but a $25 ride with us, the driver takes home $22.50.”

Great – good luck to them.