JOE says fare play iCabbi MD’s unique approach to taxi booking

Endless waiting for cabs and misplacing your belongings could soon become relics of history with the introduction of entrepeneur Gavan Walsh's unique iCabbi service.

By Emmet Purcell

Taxi’s – the bane of JOE’s life. If we’re not sitting patiently by the window and watching the clock like a hawk as we await pickup, we’re sticking our thumb out at any moving object in the wee hours of Sunday morning. The brainchild of founder and MD Gavan Walsh, the recently-launched iCabbi (launched this week, in fact) is promising to revolutionise taxi booking by using real-time, one-touch booking from mobile phones or over the internet.

Launching in Dublin and Cork earlier this week, iCabbi allows people to get the closest taxi to them at the touch of a mobile phone button and to track even its progress in real time. There’s no need to speak to anyone (helpful for non-natives or those with hearing or speech difficulties), get ripped off by premium directory numbers for the nearest cab and in time, the company is looking to introduce cash-free transactions where users can set up an account with their credit card, be given a PIN number and simply charge the cost of the journey to their account through their PIN.

It all sounds too good to be true, but you’d be surprised – the company has been through a thorough gestation and boasts an average rating of five stars Apple’s App Store as of this writing. According to iCabbi's aforementioned founder Gavan, the company was no overnight project:

“We’ve been a long time working on this. We’ve had three main stages in development. One was building the product, software for Nokias, iPhones and Blackberrys and then we worked on the driver side. We’ve built the software in their (the drivers) Nokia 5230s, where they can push ‘Available’ or ‘Not Available’ and set their proximity settings. The moment they push ‘Available’, they’re available on any iCabbi map, basically. And don’t forget that since your journey is recorded through the service (to your phone, emailed to two email addresses if you wish), it shouldn’t be any hassle to recoup any missing belongings.

The second stage then was getting the drivers, which took six months. Trying to sell a concept to the drivers was very difficult but we’re at a stage now where drivers come to us. We’re now in stage 3, which is getting customers.”

The inception of iCabby began in June 2009, when Gavan was holidaying with his-then heavily pregnant girlfriend. Needing a taxi as soon as possible but unable to speak Portuguese, Gavan eventually used the Google Maps application on his iPhone to point him in the right direction. Emboldened and inspired by the experience, he now says that eventual goal is iCabbi is that “You can go anywhere in Ireland, push a button on your phone and a taxi will come to you”.

Positive outlook

With healthy reviews, happy customers and 250 drivers using iCabbi in Cork and Dublin, Gavan can afford to feel confident about his company’s future, though he believes the Irish media needs to adopt a different stance to encourage and inspire budding entrepenuers to run with their ideas:

“The country needs a positive outlook and if you have a good idea then you just have to go with it” he told me, adding “You have to remain focused. A lot of people come up with ideas and don’t tell people, I do the opposite because you can get good feedback. Don’t just tell people that are friends of yours and are going to give you a favourable response. I’m always coming up with ideas and I find out if they’re good by talking to people. After a while if an idea if emerging but people are negative then you have to bin it."

Sound advice, we’re sure you’ll agree. We’ll be road-testing the iCabbi app in our Tech section in the weeks to come but for now we’re delighted that missing iPhones and absentee taxi drivers may finally become a thing of the past.

If you’re looking for more information on the iCabbi service you can visit the official site by clicking here.