Hailo taxi app celebrates 1st anniversary in Toronto

Hailo has played central role in transformational year for local taxi industry, benefitting drivers and passengers alike

TORONTO, Sept. 26, 2013 /CNW/ - Hailo, the taxi application that helps city dwellers get a taxi with two taps on their smartphone celebrates its first full year of operation in the city of Toronto today.

In just 12 months, the Hailo app has facilitated hundreds of thousands of trips, allowing Torontonians to order and seamlessly pay (with their credit card) for a safe, licensed taxi. Combined, Hailo drivers and passengers have travelled enough kilometers in Toronto to cross Canada almost 11 times.

Justin Raymond, President, Hailo Canada said; "We've been overwhelmed by the support for Hailo shown by Toronto's passengers and taxi drivers in our first year. As a startup that is offering something so new, we could not have asked for a better response. We're thrilled by the feedback we receive, with so many Torontonians telling us we have revolutionized the way they use taxis in the city."

The Hailo Taxi Experience
Hailo Toronto has improved the Toronto taxi experience in a number of ways:

• The average pickup time with a Hailo taxi is now under 4 minutes, which represents an improvement of over 300% compared to traditional phone dispatch systems.
• The average time to complete payment (via the customer's on-file credit card) at the end of a trip with Hailo is 8 seconds, compared to between 2 and 5 minutes for traditional taxi payment methods.
• Over 92% of all taxi trips are completed when using the Hailo app compared to less than 60% by traditional phone based taxi brokerages - meaning the driver and passenger find each other quickly and easily and get on their way.

Raymond continued, "Our goal is to become Toronto's preferred way to get and pay for licensed taxis. We're committed to expanding and enhancing our service both here in Toronto and in other major Canadian cities."

Hailo Birthday Sweepstakes
To celebrate with Torontonians, Hailo will be running a social media sweepstakes, offering one lucky winner a Grand Prize of $250 in Hailo taxi credits and 50 additional prizes of $15 taxi credits.

To enter, Hailo fans can share a birthday wish on Twitter, including @HailoToronto in the tweet, or by liking, commenting on or sharing the company's birthday post on Facebook. Entries must be received before 11:59pm on Sunday, September 29. Winners will be drawn on the morning of Monday, September 30.

About Hailo
Hailo is the evolution of the hail a free smartphone app which puts people just two taps away from a licensed taxi, and lets cabbies get more passengers when they want them.

A Hailo hail is accepted around the world every four seconds from Hailo's global network of tens of thousands of drivers and hundreds of thousands of passengers. Launched in November 2011, Hailo is available in London, New York, Dublin, Toronto, Chicago, Boston, Madrid, Barcelona, Washington DC and Osaka. Hailo has carried seven and a half million passengers and grown to annualized sales of well over $100M.

Founded by three taxi drivers and three Internet entrepreneurs, Hailo has raised over $50M from the best investors anywhere, including Union Square Ventures, Accel Partners, Wellington Partners, Atomico Ventures and Sir Richard Branson.

Hailo is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store and Google Play. Simply search on "Hailo". Hailo can be followed on Twitter at @HailoToronto.

SOURCE: Hailo Network Canada

Amanda Gun-Munro
Veritas Communications
[email protected] / 647-588-6817