Uber has reached an agreement to list New York City"s iconic yellow taxi cabs on its app. The cab market in NYC has always been a battlefield between the yellow cabs and Uber. However, the expanding business relationship between Creative Mobile Technologies (CMT) and Uber paved way for an integrated taxi industry and to rethink their rivalry and instead, focus on shared goals for New Yorkers.
Guy Peterson, Director of Business Development for Uber, says:
“This is a real win for drivers – no longer do they have to worry about finding a fare during off-peak times or getting a street hail back to Manhattan when in the outer boroughs. And this is a real win for riders who will now have access to thousands of yellow taxis in the Uber app.”
The partnership is the first citywide partnership of its kind. As part of the deal, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission"s licensed technology partners will integrate their taxi-hailing app"s software with that of Uber"s. The apps are run by CMT and Curb Mobility and are used by around 14,000 taxi cabs across the city. These two companies are also responsible for enabling credit card payments and running the screens that display the weather, news, and ads to riders.
The yellow cab"s fare would be roughly the same as that of UberX according to the company. The service will start in beta this spring and roll out to the general public this summer. Anyone with the Uber app will have access to thousands of yellow taxis that operate on the CMT platform.
Source: The Wall Street Journal (paywall)