taxipass, taximagic, cabulous, ubercab, joetaxi

There are some very cool and innovative companies that have sprung up to help deal with some of the issues facing the taxi world, namely: Taxipass, Taximagic, Cabulous, Ubercab, and Joe Taxi among others...

Here are the issues that these companies are helping the taxi industry with:

1. Dispatching: As a customer, are you sick of calling a rude dispatcher that gives you unreliable or false information and leaves you waiting for your cab for 45 minutes or more? This is a common problem in the taxi world. It is hard to manage a dispatching center and hard to get certain trips to certain drivers!

2. Credit Card Processing: As a customer, does it irk you that your driver claims that his credit card processing machine is not working? Or he gives somebody your credit card information over the phone? Or your driver flat-out rejects your trip because you are a business traveler that must pay using a credit card?

Enter some the tech-savvy and silicon-valley-hip....

Taxipass: Taxipass can dispatch a cab for you, and enables you to pay for said cab using a Taxi-Pass (a voucher that you give to the driver that displays your pre-payment). They also supply rear-seat technology options. They are located in airports and taxi markets. http://www.taxipass.com/

Taximagic: These guys are very tech-savvy and have a mobile app that can dispatch a cab to you. You can ever pay for your trip using your mobile phone. http://taximagic.com/

Cabulous: This Silicon Valley company networks you directly to your taxi driver and, using your mobile phone, you can see where your cab is located at any time, before - during - after the trip. You can see where a certain cab is a "hail" it using your phone. http://cabulous.com/
UberCab: Is actually a black car service, but enables you to make online or mobile reservations and pay using your mobile phone. They have standard low rates country-wide. http://www.uberapp.com/

Joe Taxi: This is a mobile app from kayak.com. It enables you to find a cab service, then once you are in the taxi, you can use your iphone accelerometer to create a profile on the driver. http://www.joetaxi.com/

As you can see, there's big stuff going on. Entrepreneurs are seeing the opportunity within the taxi world to "shake things up" to improve service. All these guys provide new solutions to your dispatching and credit card needs that cab companies have struggled with for so long.