For the longest time, cabs were the dominant transport method to get around a city quickly. If you happened to live in a busy city, all you had to do was stand on the sidewalk and raise your hand. In less than a few minutes, you had a car waiting to take you to your destination.
However, the dominance wouldn’t last forever. With the rise of ridesharing apps, cab companies faced incredible competition. Some would argue that taxi companies had it coming. Decades of being the monopoly had made service less than stellar and frustrated riders.
Statistics show that by 2027, while rideshare services will see growth of $54.4 billion, cab companies will see a drop of $20.5 billion. If you own a cab company or are thinking of starting one, how do you compete? Is there even a chance? Surprisingly, yes! Let’s look at three ways below.
Be the Remedy to Unpredictability
There can be no doubt that rideshare services have made travel more convenient for the customer. However, it’s also not been a smooth sailing ship. Riders are slowly starting to have an ever-increasing list of grievances that ruin the convenience of ridesharing.
When a customer books a cab with Uber, Lyft, or similar services, it’s almost a die-roll now on what factors will affect your ride. These include surge prices during peak hours and bad weather, long wait times, followed by cancellations, or refusal to accept payment options other than cash.
This type of unpredictability offers you as a cab company a great angle to win back customers. You have the opportunity to be the antidote to unpredictability by offering a stable and dependable service that rideshare apps cannot provide. Charge a reasonable, stable fee, try to get to your customers as fast as you can, and go overboard with payment options. Even accept Bitcoin if you must!
Your goal is to help customers realize that switching back to taxis isn’t such a bad idea after all.
Offer Non-Emergency Medical Transport Services
When you’re working to win back customers, it’s important to go the extra mile and offer something unique. This means thinking creatively and being open to changing how you engage with your customers. Ridesharing apps have already nailed the quick, impersonal ride experience, so you need to stand out by offering something more personal and thoughtful.
There are many people, like the elderly or those who are sick, who need to get to the hospital but can’t drive themselves and don’t have anyone to assist them. For these individuals, getting help can be expensive and challenging. This is where you can step in by offering a specialized on-call medical transport service to fill this gap.
Ensure that customers can reserve a cab in advance or have the ability to schedule trips with you. You will find many takers who need regular treatments like chemotherapy and dialysis. Of course, when you start taking on such roles, you want to protect yourself.
You find a lot of owners seeking taxi insurance from OTTIS and similar insurers because you can never be too safe. Taking up the role of a non-emergency medical transport comes with unique risks, such as being held liable for negligence or failure to care for the passenger.
Partner with Public Transport Systems
This is something that a lot of cab companies are already trying with some success. Essentially, you are aiming to fill first last-mile connectivity gaps. Even here, you will find a lot of people choosing rideshare apps by default, but you want to prove that their experience with you is going to be seamless.
You’ll need to remember that potential customers who decide to give you a chance will be extra wary. If they feel like they are going to experience the old taxicab problems, such as hinting at cash payments being preferred or the like, it’s over. Cab companies have to acknowledge that they are in a very precarious position in the market right now.
Depending on your location, public transport systems might be more willing to collaborate with local cab companies, so take advantage of that. Similarly, if you can find a way to ensure your drivers have useful info about plane terminals or train platforms, that’s an added bonus.
Long story short, a comeback is very much possible for cab companies. Yes, there were a number of flaws with conventional cabs that contributed to the rise of Uber and Lyft. That said, things are changing. Rideshare services became popular because they used VC funds to undercut the competition so much that they became the dominant players.
Uber, for example, operated on a huge loss and only recently started to turn a profit. Typically, this is when charges will start to go up. Cab companies need to watch the situation closely because customers are soon going to feel betrayed and look for alternatives. Be ready to make a move!
