Click A Taxi has launched its redesigned mobile apps today and expanded its coverage to 50 countries in total – up from nine before – to clinch the record for the app with the largest global network of taxi drivers.
It’s quite a claim, and should help the app to differentiate itself from regional competitors such as Uber in New York and Hailo in the UK. The company, founded in Denmark, says that the free app should now allow more than one billion people to order a taxi “almost anywhere” – including not only cities but also parts of the countryside.
Søren Halskov Nissen, CEO of Click A Taxi said: “We all have great free apps that work anywhere we travel: e.g. Google Maps, Airbnb and Yelp are essential tools and we expect them to work wherever we are. Click A Taxi is the first taxi app built on the same principles. We will help get you a taxi wherever you are.”
Click A Taxi says they’ve spent the last nine months mapping as many cities as possible in the 50 countries. To mark the achievement, they’ve also redesigned the app from the ground up for a release in all app-stores worldwide today. The new version is still in beta, but covers more than 5,000 cities and a fleet of 300,000 taxis.
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It’s still a very simple interface, that takes advantage of Google Maps to show you where you are and where you want to travel to. Based on your current destination, it then will display a suggested taxi company with a corresponding star rating. Users can also move the marker by sliding across the map, or hit the address bar at the bottom to search for a new location where they would like to be picked up from.
Click ‘Book’, and the app automatically contacts the preselected taxi company. A quick confirmation window can then be used to select when the driver should arrive – now, today, or tomorrow – along with a specific time in case you want to book ahead. You can even specify the type of car and number of seats, as well as add additional comments for the driver.
In our tests it all worked without an issue. The design isn’t drastically different to the previous iteration, but it looks clean and is very simple to use, which is perfect if you’re looking to book a taxi after a few pints at the local bar. The fact that it can also send you updates on the booking via push notifications, keeping you in the loop for the driver’s estimated arrival time, is a nice touch in particular.
Of course, Click A Taxi has a long way to go to build the sort of presence and brand recognition enjoyed by Hailo and Uber. But with a truly global rollout, it’s got a good chance of becoming the universal, go-to taxi ordering app.
➤ Click A Taxi | iOS | Android | Windows Phone
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Image Credit: John Moore/Getty Images
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