Another means of public transport that I want to look into is the taxi service in Northern Ireland. The reason I really want to include the taxi service in my idea is that I have personally experienced issues with transport past 12 am when there are no buses running. On weekends or student nights out, it can be into the early hours of the morning when you are in need of transport home.
Often in Northern Ireland, there is little chance of getting transport, especially on a weeknight. This can be a huge problem for people as they are then forced to either walk home or bother someone enough to get out of their bed and collect them.
The odd time, you can find a taxi driving down the street but usually, they are booked or may stop and charge you an extortionate amount. Surely we can solve this problem for people? Possibly show them on an app if a taxi driving down the street is booked? or regulate it so that taxi drivers aren’t allowed to charge serious amounts of money for a journey late at night. These reasons are why most people find the taxi service frustrating and turn to the more reliable competitor Uber.
With Uber, the driver has no control over how much the trip will cost, and so cannot overcharge customers. They are also unmarked and so you rely on their app to see availability, which in a way is a good thing.
There are a number of popular taxi services here in NI, all of which, run their own operation with individual apps. I’m going to look at some of these services and see what people are saying about them.
1.8 Star Rating
The first company that I am looking at is value cabs as I know they are one of the biggest. Here are what just a few people have to say about their online service.
<aside> 📅 Date of review Oct 16th 2022
</aside>
Waited 2.5 hours on taxi and during that time 6 different drivers phoned and hung up immediately. You can't get through to the depot unless you wait for 10 minutes on phone and then they don't know who you are. About a third of the time they never show and we have to use another company. I frequently use them as my workbooks but I have never seen a less reliable taxi company. Better off asking for the driver's personal number and booking a journey with them directly ~ 4 months ago
I booked the taxi and waited about an hour, it did not come and I had to hail a taxi from another company. When I got in that taxi, I tried to cancel my booking but it said it was 'active' and I couldn't figure out how to. I got two texts at 5 and 10 minutes late and then nothing. There was the information about the car so I continued to wait thinking It had been dispatched. ~ 5 months ago
I ordered a taxi on Saturday 17th September 2022 outside The Europa Hotel in Belfast approx at 12.15 pm. The driver who collected me at the time wasn't very friendly and was very annoyed when I asked to pay by card. On your website it says you can pay by card, but this driver wasn't very pleased about it and made it very obvious. I won't be using the services again if your drivers are okay with being rude to customers just for simply not having physical cash. ~ 3 weeks ago
Absolutely useless company, booking taxis in advance stands for nothing, no matter how much in advance you book a taxi this company is still more like you make a wish that you get a taxi and then you may or may not get one. I have lost money so many times because of this company by booking taxis in advance, sometimes a day or two in advance just for them to not send them. ~ 2 months ago
Have booked twice through the app. Both times, my booking was over 90 mins in advance of my booked time, and my booking was accepted by the app. Both times my taxi was late, today by over half an hour. Why accept my booking, made in advance, if you can't service it? ~ 31 July 2021
Disgraceful update... The app just says you're booking is in the system with no indication if a car is on the way or how long it might be. You then have to press cancel. They then charge you £1 cancellation fee, for cancelling something that you've no idea when or where you'll receive. Shambles. ~ 4 July 2021
If I could award zero stars I would. This app is an absolute disgrace - booked a taxi for 1 am and was sent a text to say it was busy and the taxi would be late, at 1.15 I phoned to enquire how long the taxi would be...ANOTHER 30 MINS. So I can expect my taxi 45 mins after I ordered the taxi (more than 12 hours in advance!). This is not the kind of service I expect from a pre-booking!!! ~ 27 June 2021
It seems like Value cabs’ biggest problem is their pre-booking service. There also seems to be a lot of frustration with late taxis and no transparency into where it is or when it will arrive.
From a quick download of the value cabs app, I have noticed a few flaws. My first biggest concern was the payment method, I would expect it to work just like Uber and require the input of my card details immediately before I can book a trip. Value cabs allowed me to book a trip without clarifying how I could pay. They also display a ‘basket’ icon right on the map which, when pressed, takes you to an external link to view their ‘partners’. this was highly annoying as it assumed I would use this app to order food as well. You can definitely see the desire they have to catch up to Uber but It just didn’t feel right placing a food delivery link on a “valuable cabs” app.
One thing I liked about the app though was its similarity to Uber. The UI seemed very similar, with the visualisation of taxis on the map. However, I would the feel of the app seemed very unpolished. Several UI issues made the app seem cheap such as huge skinny icons and font choice.