A new app allowing people in Ottawa to request taxis by smartphone launched on March 24.
The app, called eCab, is already available in Vancouver and Toronto. Ottawa is the third Canadian city to partner with the app.
Ottawa’s largest taxi operator, Coventry Connections—which manages Blueline and Capital Taxi—will be using eCab.
There are three service levels titled eCab, eCab plus, and eCab V.I.P., which allows customers to order different vehicles, including regular cabs and limousines. Passengers can pay with their credit card or cash.
Gilles Gomis, the head of eCab in North America, said more than 1,300 cab drivers are already connected to the app in Ottawa.
The app relies on existing Ottawa cab prices, which means Uber is likely still a cheaper alternative before surge pricing. A trip from Carleton University to the Rideau Centre would cost roughly $20 including tip with Blueline, according to their website, while the same trip with Uber would cost $14 or less.
Unlike Uber, however, there is no surge pricing during peak demand times.
Hanif Patni, the president of Coventry Connections, said eCab doesn’t feature surge pricing because the app makes use of the existing cab fleet, which does not permit what he called “gouging” of customers.
“Under consumer protection, the idea is that every single customer should be charged exactly the same rate,” Patni said. “Whether you’re a grandmother or whether you’re a student . . . or whether it’s a Saturday night or a Monday morning when it’s dead, you’re charged exactly the same.”
The app is also different from Uber in the fact it doesn’t allow taxi drivers to rate customers through the app.
The software also shares several similarities to Uber, however. It allows users to view active taxis on a map, book and pre-book cabs, and rate the driver.
Gilles LeVasseur, a University of Ottawa professor who has studied Uber, said eCab is essential for the taxi industry and expects more taxi companies to adopt digital media over time.
“If you’re going to stay competitive, you’ve got to have these types of things. If not, you’re going to die,” he said.
“[eCab will] allow the citizens to feel that they are able to have tools that allows them to be able to apply the new technologies to their reality,” LeVasseur said. “It gives you certain standards of what type of service you’re looking for, so it’s completing what we see in the industry.”
Cab companies have a history of taking issue with Uber. Last month, a crowd of nearly 300 taxi drivers protested on Parliament Hill demanding the city regulate Uber.
City staff are expected to release a report on March 31 recommending or not if Uber should be included in the Ottawa’s taxi bylaw, which would regulate the company the same or similarly to taxi companies.
UberAssist also launched last week in Ottawa, giving passengers who are disabled access to Uber drivers who can meet their needs. Drivers must have a rating of 4.6 and complete a course instructing the driver on things such as “accessibility awareness,” how to unfold and fold a wheelchair, and how to guide passengers with visual impairments.
