Taiwan Taxi enhances mobile experience with Google
At a Glance What they wanted to do • Allow passengers to book taxis more quickly and easily through smartphones What they did • Built mobile apps powered by Google Maps APIs • Integrated their entire system with Google Maps What they accomplished • Boosted efficiency of bookings with visual tracking and assignment of taxis • Grew app-based bookings from 30% to 72% • Provided real-time visibility of routes, reducing the likelihood of disputes
Background Taiwan Taxi is a leading cab service in Taiwan well-known for being the firstto-market with new services, looking after its drivers well, and some of the most comfortable rides in the province. Over 350,000 passengers prefer to ride in Taiwan Taxi cabs every day, and the Taiwan Taxi fleet now consists of 15,000 taxis – Taiwan’s largest taxi fleet. Challenges Traditionally, hailing a taxi outside of major cities in Taiwan is challenging. Taxis in smaller cities queue outside the train and bus stations, but are few and far between otherwise. Passengers had to make a voice call and state their pickup location to book a taxi if they needed one. Even with automated options such as pre-registered locations, passengers incur call charges to complete a booking. Riding on the increasing popularity of mobile apps, Taiwan Taxi decided to be the first taxi company in Taiwan to offer passengers a more convenient way to book taxis. While Taiwan Taxi has an existing 24-hour satellite tracking system for call bookings, the proprietary Taiwanese GPS interface system they used does not work with smartphone platforms. The company decided to switch to an open mapping technology that supports mobile devices. Working with Google partner KingwayTek, Taiwan Taxi chose Google Maps APIs as it supports the popular iOS and Android mobile device platforms and would allow its taxi booking apps to be launched well before the competition. “Among all the mapping solutions in the market, Google Maps APIs is the most intuitive and easiest to code with. It supports cross-platform development and pinpoints locations in under five seconds. It is also highly reliable and the maps are always current,” explains Len Nan, Senior Manager, Business Support Department, Taiwan Taxi. Results Taiwan Taxi made history with Taiwan’s first taxi-booking mobile and has integrated its entire booking system with the help of Google Maps APIs. “Google now powers our company’s motto 人在坐,天在看. It means that passengers can be assured of their safety when they travel with us. Google Maps allows us to track their locations no matter where they are,” says Nan. While Taiwan Taxi still tracks its fleet with the existing GPS devices installed in each taxi, it now visualises both vehicle locations and passenger pickup venues through Google Maps. “With Google Maps we can match passengers with the taxis closest to them at a glance. We’ve cut idle times for our drivers and wait times for passengers too,” adds Nan. Passengers clearly like the mobile apps, with the proportion of bookings coming through the app increasing from 30% to 72% since 2012. “The apps have made booking a taxi safe, convenient, fast and cost-effective,” says Joanna Lee, General Manager, Taiwan Taxi. As mobile data plans offer unlimited usage of data in Taiwan, passengers can save on call charges when
About Google Maps APIs
Google Maps APIs provides a range of “application programming interfaces”, which allow developers to build with relative ease: • location-based applications • mobile apps that work on multiple mobile devices • applications that enable users to bring data to life by visualising and interacting with geospatial data • customised maps, incorporating and highlighting data and imagery specific to their organization’s needs Google Maps APIs provides developers with a platform that has the flexibility and power to leverage maps and geospatial data in new and truly innovative ways. For more information visit www.google.com/work/maps
they make an app-based booking. Passengers using the mobile apps do not have to input a pickup location when they book a taxi, which is extremely helpful when they are in unfamiliar neighbourhoods. They can also add landmarks to their mobile bookings so the drivers know exactly where they are. Once a taxi has been assigned, passengers can also estimate arrival times and their taxi’s location on a Google map. The Google-based booking system has led to fewer disputes as all routes taken are now recorded. “During the rare times when a passenger complains that a taxi driver took a longer route to earn a higher fare, we can easily resolve the dispute by retrieving the route and displaying it on Google Maps for the passenger. While routes were also recorded on the previous system, the passengers had to visit our customer centre in person in order to view the route. Now, passengers can view the routes in real-time on their smartphones throughout their journey. With this feature, drivers have proof that they are taking the best routes as there’s always a record in the system,” adds Lee. Today, Taiwan Taxi is one of the most popular taxi companies in Taiwan with about 16% market share. It fields some 100,000 bookings a day, nearly three-quarters of which are fulfilled through the mobile apps powered by Google Maps APIs. According to Nan, Taiwan Taxi hopes to add route planning and prioritisation features to the booking apps with Google Maps APIs, and is mulling the creation of apps for its drivers as well. “We must continue modernising to keep our drivers and passengers happy while growing our business. We want our drivers to make use of Taiwan Taxi’s platform to earn more and passengers to enjoy better experiences. We hope to work with Google further to introduce more convenient services for them both,” concludes Lee.
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