Public administrations want to compete with applications like Uber, Cabify, and FreeNow. The Institut Metropolità del Taxi (Imet) and the Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB) have developed an application that will allow users to order a taxi via mobile phone, without having to wait in the street for one to pass by and raise their hand to hail it. It will cost 300,000 euros, largely financed by Next Generation funds.
This responds to one of the main demands of the city's taxi drivers, who have been asking to modernize for years, with the aim of being able to compete with the new companies that had burst into the field of urban mobility. "There is no other 100% public application like this in Spain," remarks Tito Álvarez, spokesperson for Élite Taxi, the most representative association in the sector. "Not even internationally is there a technological solution that contemplates such a specific case as digitally hailing a taxi on the street," says the technical director of AMB informació i Serveis, Ramon Pruneda.
The new application, which will be called Picmi Taxi, will be available after this summer and its operation will be similar to other taxi-hailing apps that operate in Barcelona, such as Taxi Ecològic, FreeNow, or Uber. To use this new service, users will have to download ---if they don't already use it--- the metropolitan mobile application AMB Mobilitat. Through it, they will be able to access the Picmi Taxi service.
The public app will function similarly to others available in Barcelona, such as Taxi Ecològic, FreeNow, or UberOnce inside, you will only have to order the taxi. The application will geolocate the user and inform them of the nearest taxi, as well as provide an estimated price for the journey.The option to order adapted or higher capacity taxis will be included. One of the shortcomings of the newapp public is that taxi reservations cannot be made for specific days or times, nor can payment be made through it. The latter would cause competition problems with the rest ofapps, taking into account that it would be a public institution that would assume the transaction.
Picmi Taxi will also inform users of the nearest taxi stands, indicating how many vehicles are available and how long it takes to get to them. Precisely, the development of the new service will be accompanied by the expansion of the city's taxi stand network. Currently, there are about 275 in Barcelona, a figure that rises to 376 in the entire metropolitan area. To all these, 200 micro-stands will be added, a little smaller than the current ones but offering the same service. In these new spaces, taxi drivers will be able to park while waiting to receive a Picmi Taxi order and will have priority for assignment.
A better service
The entire fleet, more than 10,000 vehicles, must register for this new service, expanding the digital offer for getting around Barcelona, considering that only half of the metropolitan taxis are affiliated with a radio station or app. For this reason, administrations and taxi drivers see Picmi Taxi as a way to gain efficiency in offering the service, reducing both the waiting time for users to find a taxi and the circulation of drivers looking for customers.
Picmi Taxi will allow expanding the digital offer for getting around Barcelona, considering that only half of the metropolitan taxis are affiliated with a radio station or app"Metropolitan taxis travel 660 million kilometers a year and almost half of them are empty," emphasizes the Vice President of Mobility of the AMB, Antoni Poveda. "It is a very important qualitative leap for the sector because 100% of vehicles will have this functionality and it will be much easier to find one more quickly," adds the president of Imet, Laia Bonet.
Álvarez from Élite Taxi, who thanks the impulse that the former Barcelona Mobility councilor Rosa Alarcón gave to this project, points out that, by joining the AMB Mobilitat application, taxi drivers will be available to its 175,000 active users, of which more than 45,000 use it daily. "This way we don't start from 0," he remarks. AMB Mobilitat integrates all public transport services in the Barcelona metropolis, such as bus, metro, Rodalies, Ferrocarrils or tram, as well as the metropolitan electric bike service e-Bicibox.
Add The New Barcelona Post as your preferred Google source for free
Stay informed with the latest news.
