Taxi Company gets new technology

ride- sharing company withdraws from markets where it considers regulation too onerous … one taxi cab company owner in the sun city has decided to get more tech savvy in an attempt to better compete with uber. abc-7’s darren hunt has been following these uber developments all week. darren? rick and estela, let’s face it, in this day and age, if you can’t do something on your phone or through an app of some kind … many of us, especially younger people or millenials, are a lot less likely to use a service simply because it’s not convenient if it’s not right here at their fingertips. uber has made getting a ride somewhere extremely convenient with its app and the press of a few buttons … even allowing you to pay for that ride online. but getting a taxi is not only more expensive in most instances, but it has not been quite as easy to do in places like el paso. that’s why joe olivar, owner of border cab taxi and president of the taxi cab owners association of el paso, has purchased this new app for his company and is inviting other taxi companies to join him. the app is called “andale ride” and it works a l like uber, using screens to find the nearest driver to a customer and for them to be able to communicate directly to arrange a pickup. it will also tell customers how much a fare will cost before requesting that cab ride. “i’ve heard the people of e paso loud and clear, they’ve wanted better service … we are trying to meet that demand by providing this new technology … lets use the technology that’s available, to bring the taxi cab service up to the same level as uber.” “that’s one the things we thought about when we talked about competition, reducing the fees for taxis in particular, so that they could use that investment to put back into their companies to help them to be more competitive.” that’s dionne mack, chair of the city of el paso’s tranportation for hire committee, that is working to propose new recommendations to city council in wake of uber’s threat to leave the sun city. coming up at six, i’ll tell you which city’s transportation- for-hir e ordinance el paso is trying to mick, in hopes of keeping uber an option for el pasoans in the future. rick and estela. …to stormtrack weather now! if