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THERE ARE FEW companies that have built up as much goodwill as Hailo. Since it arrived on the scene back in 2012, it has been quickly adopted by the country and has expanded to almost all of Ireland.
But while its focus has been mainly on individuals, the taxi company now setting its sights on both businesses and the hospitality industry.
For the latter, the company is currently testing out a new service called Hailo Hub, a web service designed for the hospitality industry. It allows these services to book taxis for their guests, who provide their name and number and receive notifications through SMS making it accessible for non-smartphone users.
Currently, Hailo is trialing the service with a number of businesses in Dublin, but this new focus doesn’t mean it’s neglecting either individual consumers or businesses, according to the company’s general manager for Ireland, Tim Arnold.
Rather than moving away [from individuals], we’re broadening our focus to include businesses and the hospitality industry. We’ve got a business product for companies who want to give Hailo access to all their employees than separately, we’ve got this solution [Hailo Hub] for the hospitality industry and of course, our regular retail customers. We’re still targeting them as well.”
In recent times, the company has been busy adding new features to its service. Alongside Hailo Hub, it incorporated iBeacon, Apple’s Bluetooth-powered location service which allows later iPhones and Android devices to recognise if you’re in a Hailo taxi, to allow those with the app to jump into a taxi and still pay through the app, as well as a redesign of the core apps.
The other areas it’s improved is its business offerings, mainly providing one central account for companies for employees traveling for work purposes, as well as giving the app a cleaner design.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing though. It recently did hit a setback when it announced it was pulling out of North America recently (and its co-founder and co-CEO Jay Bregman left to focus his attention on drones) but its focus is on Europe and Asia as according to Arnold, “they’re the markets where our model is working” (it recently launched in Singapore).
Scaling in Ireland hasn’t been as difficult, it being the first service of its kind to arrive here certainly helped matters, but its quick expansion meant it became the first country to see almost nationwide coverage which gave it a major advantage.
What’s interesting is in Ireland, it’s easy to expand as there’s one taxi regulator so all of the regulations, they’re all the same and [usually] it’s a challenge for our driver team to build up those drivers in each market that we go into… now that we’ve got coverage all over the country, and we’ve users all over the country, you find that if you use Hailo in Dublin and you go elsewhere, the first thing you’re going to do is to try Hailo. It encourages more taxi use which is great for taxi drivers across Ireland.
While it’s widespread, Arnold puts their success here down to the overall service it provides. By taking care of the drivers, that feel good factor filters down to customers and keeps everyone happy.
“Our model is the most efficient and economical way for drivers to find customers,” says Arnold. “And when you’ve got happy drivers who provide a great service, you have happy customers.”
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Is Charlie Flanagan still TD Ah here I give up
This government has managed to get the lifetime of their own government out of the Commission on the Defence Forces. It was lauded in the beginning as a template for change. That was in 2019. The public and others were invited to make submissions in 2020, With the report due for release that December. December came and went, and the report was finally released in february, the Govt sat on it until making the obvious decision to accept the recommendations of LOA2 in July, but with an implementation group who would report back in 6 months. We’ll not go to LOA2 right away though, we’ll do it in phases, increasing defence spending in increments equal to the cost of One military aircraft per year.Here we are now almost June 2023, with nothing substantial achieved apart from a few more high paid civil service posts filled.
Tanagan would have us fighting under the Union Flag if he could. Does anybody really care what he says in this day and age?
Ireland should be a respected neutral country with an army capable of defending the country. Personally I would like weapons that could kill lots of people, this would deter even the worlds biggest countries from invading us.
@Brian Boru:
Nukes…
Maybe he should get the black and Tans to help out
I’m surprised at Cathal Berry. He should know the one person that will slow this process down to a crawl on that committee. Waiting to appoint a Head of Transformation (there must be a civil servant due retirement)someone who will then appoint someone and hey presto it will be election time. The Sec of the Department was put there for a reason. To make sure Defence is treated at a snails pace. Give nothing to the Military at all costs. I have never seen a Secretary of the Department do or introduce anything constructive EVER. Thats why they are kept.
So the chairperson in charge of a committee for implementing modernisation after meeting 6 times says that a head of transformation is due to be appointed but that other measures are delayed because of the IRG group publication which delayed the development of an implement implementation plan, and that the establishment of an (enquiry) and development of the terms of reference for it and potential interface on both of those and ensuring that the implementation plan is comprehensive also delayed. Please read that back and realise why so much goes at the snails pace mentioned in the article
We should arm and uniform our new Irish brothers, that would be great for everyone.
So the notoriously thin-skinned Flanagan, who was rightly demoted after the last general election, is mouthing off again…
Yawn!
I have a copy of the Epstein Flight log…
go to http://www.realchiefpolice.com or
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/truther
@Real Chieflice Trump MAGA 2024:
Tosspot
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