Need a taxi? Soon, there’ll be an app for that — and it might even let you PayPal the fare.
Yellow-taxi customers will be able to hail cabs by tapping a button on their smartphones under a 12-month pilot program OK’d yesterday by the Taxi & Limousine Commission.
Several companies have approached the TLC with proposals for E-Hail apps that would let passengers hail cabs electronically and pay via credit cards, PayPal or similar systems.
The TLC hopes to start trying out the companies’ proposals sometime after Feb. 15. The pilot program will last one year.
“There’ll always be the good old-fashioned stick-your-hand-up-in-the-air,” said TLC Chairman David Yassky.
“But as technology marches on, we want that technology to be fully available to passengers.”
Under the TLC’s plan, cabbies can respond to passengers’ electronic hails only below 59th Street if they’re less than a half-mile away and above 59th Street if they’re less than 1.5 miles away.
When a cabby decides to accept an E-Hail passenger, he’ll tap a button on an electronic device in his taxi. That will turn off the cab’s roof light, signaling the cab is unavailable.
At the end of the ride, the fare will be automatically entered into the E-Hail system, so drivers can be paid electronically.
E-Hails won’t indicate passengers’ destinations, so cabbies won’t be able to choose customers based on where they’re headed. E-Hail also won’t be allowed at the airports or anyplace with a taxi stand.
Waseem Iqbal, a cabby for nine years, said E-Hail will better connect drivers with customers.
“I hear complaints from the passengers that they’ve been looking for a cab for 20 or 30 minutes sometimes. I’m looking for a fare at about the same time,” said Iqbal, 28.
But another hack said cabs already have so much business that drivers will probably pass by several arm-waving passengers on their way to an E-Hail.
“They’re better off just catching ’em off the street,” said Ahmed Kaid, 52, a driver for four years. “Why would they pass by one customer to pick up another customer?”
A similar issue arose in the 1980s, when many yellow taxis took radio calls from cab companies’ dispatchers. Then-Mayor Ed Koch moved to end the radio calls because he believed they left too few taxis available for street hails.
The TLC doesn’t expect the E-Hail system to cause a similar problem, partly because 1,450 yellow taxis have been added to the streets since 1998.