ZINGO announced by MBH?

Manganese Bronze Holdings, the manufacturer of London taxis, today announced that it is developing a new system for street-hailing taxis, which will allow any passenger with a mobile phone to talk directly to the nearest available driver. It will be the first mobile phone-led hailing system to put passengers directly in contact with drivers.

Called ZINGO, the new 24-hour service is due to be launched in London next year, and will eventually be rolled out nation-wide. It completely automates the hailing process using GPS (Global Positioning System) equipped taxis, and matching this with mobile phone technology to match passengers with the nearest taxi.

Supported by a promotional passenger and taxi-trade advertising campaign, ZINGO will ultimately be accessible to passengers on all mobile phone networks that offer caller-location data.

Jamie Borwick, Chairman of Manganese Bronze, said, ‘This new way to hail a taxi is a fantastic development that will be simple for passengers to use, and it will have many benefits for drivers. Firstly, it will reduce drivers’ down-time between fares. Secondly, it will increase revenue for drivers by matching passengers who need a taxi right now with the closest available cab.And thirdly, it will remove the stress and uncertainty that passengers experience during street-hailing. We are confident that combining these three factors will make ZINGO a winning service.’

ZINGO has been developed using tried-and-tested technology, in conjunction with the major mobile phone networks. It will be attractively priced, and driverswill be supplied with a hands-free mobile phone kit which will be no more distracting than using a standard radio.

ZINGO differs from radio circuits - which it is designed io complement rather than replace - in that it is exclusively for street-hails and does not, allow pre­bookings. Passengers, on the other hand, will not need an account. One of its significant benefits is that it will complement radio circuit account work by guaranteeing more fares from street-hailing passengers when the radio is quiet.

Negotiations are, nevertheless, underway with the major radio circuits in London ta find ways of developing synergies which will optimise a combined ZINGO and radio circuit service to the advantage of all concerned. Also under discussion are ways of integrating ZINGO technology with the mobile data terminals and GPS systems already installed in radio circuit cabs to avoid needless duplication of equipment.

Radio circuit drivers will naturally not wish to sacrifice good quality account work and replace it exclusively with ZINGO.The system takes this into account by allowing the driver to ‘sign off’ ZINGO by removing a card from the unit when doing radio circuit work. Independent research has found that drivers and consumers are likely to value the ZINGO service. Drivers who were interviewed for the survey were, predictably, looking for ways to reduce down-time between journeys and to increase income. Passengers, on the other hand, needed to have an easier way of finding taxis for their unplanned ‘impulse’ journeys, and were therefore keen on improving the current hailing method.

It is reported that 76 per cent of taxi-drivers surveyed indicated that they thought ZINGO would revolutionise and simplify street-hails. 74 per cent of Londoners own mobile phones.The same research has apparently determined that more than 50 per cent of all black cab usage involves spontaneous or ‘impulse’ journeys, and that for the present awkward street-hailing methodology to fulfil the demand, a minimum of 45 per cent of London’s total cab pooi needs to be available and plying for hire at any one time.,

When a passenger phones the national ZINGO number, using a mobile or land-line telephone, their location will be routed by GPS to the nearest available ZINGO driver. This is achieved by integrating in-cab systems with passenger location data. Once the system has located the nearest ZINGO taxi, a brief conversation between driver and passenger follows, giving an accurate satellite ‘fix’ on the passenger’s location and allowing the driver to speedily locate and pick up the waiting passenger.

ZINGO equipment will be rented, not sold.The monthly subscription, although as yet undetermined, will be competitively priced. In addition to the dashboard-mounted ZINGO terminal,.the driver will receive a mobile phone and hands-free kit, which can be used for private purposes in the normal way when not installed in the cab.

A sophisticated adaptation of the credit-card swipe terminals found in shops and other retail outlets, the ZINGO terminal will allow drivers to accept and process credit and debit card transactions in addition to taking cash through the window.

It is anticipated that installations in London will begin late in January; and that these initial installations will be followed by a full-scale consumer launch about six months later. For the sake of speed and convenience, parameters built into ZINGO will limit the distance that a taxi may be from the originating telephone, so that only taxis inside this radius will be targeted by the system.

ZINGO will be restricted to licensed London taxis, since other vehicles are not permitted to ply for hire. It will be available on all mobile phones, and will feature a dedicated national telephone number.

Given the potential of the system’s concept, and assuming that the negotiations presently under way between ZINGO developers and the radio circuits ‘pan out’ into a composite that is good for everyone - not least of all the harassed passenger - it seems sure that ZINGO will explode onto the London scene in no uncertain terms when it is launched in 2002.