Android App Saves You Taxi Booking Fees

Android app just one of many developed by Temasek Polytechnic students. OO GIN LEE reports

-- PHOTOS: TEMASEK POLYTECHNIC

Five Temasek Polytechnic students have created a smartphone app that lets commuters get a cab without having to pay the usual booking fees.

Running on Android devices, this passenger-to-cab matching app lets users hunt for cabs in the vicinity and allows cabbies to find them as well.

Called Virtual Hailing, it overlays the location information of both caller and cab over Google Maps. Passengers and taxi drivers have slightly different versions of the app, which can be customised.

Passengers and cabbies looking for a match simply press an icon on the app to broadcast their respective locations on the shared Google Maps interface. Cab drivers can then view the exact locations of each passenger on Google Maps as an icon and vice versa. Either party can initiate a connection by simply tapping on an icon.

If the passenger initiates the link, then the cabbie has to tap to accept. Once accepted, both parties will see a line on the map which tracks the movement of the cab as it reaches the passenger. This way, a passenger gets a real-time view of the exact location of his hailed cab until it arrives.

There is also a feature in the app which tells cabbies which are the top five locations where the most passengers have initiated a virtual hail in the past week.

Group leader of the Virtual Hailing app team Benson Poh, 21, said: 'This helps cab drivers decide where to drive to if they want the best chance of getting passengers.' He added that there is a community rating system to blacklist the pranksters and errant cab drivers who do not show up.

Virtual Hailing is the final year project for Mr Poh and his friends, who are pursuing the Diploma in Business Information Technology full-time. Mr Poh said the idea for the app came about because his team mates were often late for group meetings.

'I would call them and they would always say they could not find a cab and they did not want to pay the booking fee,' he said.

'So we decided to solve the problem ourselves and get marks for it too.'

The students will be graduating later this year and hope to commercialise their app after that.

ginlee@sph.com.sg