iCabbi Launches New Jointly Owned Venture: The Taxi Alliance
Following the CMA’s clearance of Uber’s acquisition of despatch provider Autocab, taxi firms across the UK have been concerned about what’s next for the industry. Responses to the acquisition have generally been critical, with fears that Uber could monopolise the industry. The majority of independent taxi or private hire firms don’t have the resources to be able to compete head-on with the ride-hailing giants. Enter iCabbi and the Taxi Alliance.
iCabbi, one of the world's leading providers of dispatch technology, has announced this month a new business model hoping to bring security to a rapidly changing industry. The newly launched Taxi Alliance is a joint venture between iCabbi and its customers across the UK and Ireland. Created to ensure the independence of their customers, whilst providing them with the resources to survive and thrive under pressure from tech giants, like Uber.
Marketed as the ‘future of taxi’, the Taxi Alliance aims to align the interests of the dispatch technology provider with that of their customers. iCabbi states six fundamental areas that will define the new venture:
Security – Commitment to the market securing the interests, data, and future of all involved.
Say – Board representation from taxi companies
Stake – A shareholding in the business
Strength – United together allows can defend and grow the market
Sustainability – Building a better model together to safeguard the future of the industry.
Single Focus – A ring-fenced company with a dedicated team focused on the UK/IE Taxi & Private Hire market
A new dedicated team has been brought on board to deliver the Taxi Alliance to customers. Headed up by Mark English and Odhran Ginnity, both experienced driving the rapid growth for a range of technology firms, the Alliance also aims to have board representation from their customers.
Gavan Walsh, the current CEO of iCabbi, will be moving over to become Chair of The Taxi Alliance board. Discussing the need for the new venture at a recent industry conference, Walsh said:
“The market is changing rapidly and therefore something radical is needed to ensure the independent model has a future. The Taxi Alliance is the infrastructure for us to work together and create a stronger shared future. Fleets will have board representation, input into product development and veto powers on certain key areas. In addition, we are evolving our technology to enable fleets to work together as a regional and national network”
The new venture is also backed by Renault Group’s, Mobilize. Mobilize is a new division of the Renault Group aiming to tackle the new wave of problems facing the transport and automotive industries. One of their key aims is to ensure sustainability by working alongside key industry partners. This would strongly suggest that Renault are looking to support the Taxi Alliance with sustainable technology such as electric taxis and charging points.
The Taxi Alliance is open to all UK and Irish independent taxi, hackney, and private hire firms and is set to launch properly in January 2022. You can check out the interview with iCabbi CEO Gavan Walsh here for more info.
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