"I had to use a taxi in St Louis, MO last summer. In order to do this I had to call the taxi company. No app, no website, nothing. It took 45 minutes to show up, period. The driver couldn't find me when he got near."
This is almost all true and ride-sharing has totally changed the game in St. Louis. One nitpick: the area's biggest cab company has had an app for a few years [0]. It's not a perfect app, but I used it a lot before Uber started operating.
Yes. You need to figure out your address or cross streets instead of having your phone give your position with three meters of accuracy, you have to wait if the operator is busy with something else, you have no record of your request if they forget about you, the ETAs are often completely made up, you have no way to track your car and know when it's about to arrive, and get no identifying information about the car or driver that's picking you up.
Posibly the taxi companies need to invest in some basic sms/gps tech.
How it works for me is:
ring ring "hi can I have a cab to location I am at location y"
Dispatcher asks my name and "says that will be 10 min" I get an sms when the cab has been dispatched and another when it arives that says ita a silver priaus licene plate no xxxxx.
Yes, taxi companies could definitely improve. Many American taxi companies have become completely complacent about any new technology. In DC, they're still struggling to implement credit card payments!
While I don't know about this particular app, some taxi apps track the unit by GPS and show you where it's currently located, which lets you know wether the wait was warranted or not.
This is almost all true and ride-sharing has totally changed the game in St. Louis. One nitpick: the area's biggest cab company has had an app for a few years [0]. It's not a perfect app, but I used it a lot before Uber started operating.
[0] STLtaxi by Laclede Cab https://appsto.re/us/OF-TL.i