What do customers want from the new taxi-hailing service?

Julie: Have you found yourself wandering around town late at night desperately looking for a taxi? Well, that could be a thing of the past. At least in London a taxi-hailing service is putting passengers in direct contact with available cabs in the city via their mobile phones. Julie has the details.
    The service developed by Mangonese Bronze is provided by Zingo. Zingo’s managing director is Mark Fawcett. Mark, what is the ration now behind Zingo?
    Mark: For centuries now in London whenever you point to a black cab, you have to go out through the street to hail one. And the advances in communication technology over the last two decades have meant that you don’t need to do that anymore.
    Julie: It works like this. Your mobile phone company tells Zingo which antenna you’re making the call through so Zingo knows where you are to within a few tens of meters. It then locates its nearest taxi by GPS satellite technology, and automatically puts you through to the driver. Taking the risk out of hailing a cab, say, late at night.
    But not everyone is a fan. Cabbies are a way of life around London. And some see technology as a threat.
    Of the 24,000 cabs in London, so far only about 500 of them have signed up to the Zingo system. But that’s not stopping the company having big, international expansion plans.
    Mark: We’ve had people contacting us to ask us how we could fit in to their country. Now, each city has a different taxi using culture. So we have to adapt customer service to their side. And we ’also have to adapt the technology as well.
    Julie: ￡2.50 more in fact. Money straight to Zingo. The cabbies also pay the company ￡25 a week for the extra business. But with 13 million dollars invested to date, it could be years before Zingo makes a profit.