MANILA, Philippines - Every morning, Policarpio Isla (64 years old) comes out of his garage wearing his red shirt and driving his white Toyota Avanza to test his luck for the day. He is just another taxi driver trying to make a living in Metro Manila by fighting the crazy traffic, and taking commuters from point A to point B.
However, Isla is not a regular driver. On average, he is able to find more passengers and make more money than most taxi drivers in Manila. But, what is his secret?
Isla uses a mobile application called Easy Taxi, which allows him to find passengers nearby by using the location/GPS system of his Android smartphone.
Isla said that through this new mobile technology (now available for all taxi drivers in Manila and Cebu), there are days that he can actually make twice as much money than any “regular driver,†or even up to P2000 in profit. “Dumagdag ang kita ko saka naging famous ako na driver. Naging famous ako bilang taxi driver. Nakilala ako, na-acknowledge ang aking skill at yung kakayahan,†Isla said.
In a recent visit to the Philippines, Easy Taxi co-founder Gustavo Vaz said the mobile application aims to empower and make taxi drivers more economically productive. “We want to empower drivers, make them more productive during the day, and that’s exactly what the Easy Taxi app does for drivers such as Policarpio. It offers them instant benefits such as less gas consumption, less travel distance, and an additional channel of income, which at the end of the day allows them to pay their car rent, and take a little extra home,†Vaz said.
“Taxi drivers will keep being Easy Taxi’s main focus and we offer them full support. We understand that they are already having a hard time meeting their daily quota, and paying their rent. As of now, we can only assure them that we will do our best to keep sending them as many jobs as possible, so they stay busy, and can feed themselves and their families,†Easy Taxi Regional CEO Mario Berta said.
But the benefits of the service don’t really end there. Apart from offering more passengers, Easy Taxi offers drivers daily incentives and even exclusive Easy Taxi Lanes (only Easy Taxi drivers are allowed to enter) at specific locations across the city.
“We want to make sure we offer more than just money to our drivers, and we use our creativity to offer things that have a more long term value for them; accident insurance for him and his family it’s a good example,†Vaz said.
â€The rewarding system is a method we use to encourage ‘good actions’ among drivers, actions such as good customer service, charging the fair amount, and offering a safe ride to all our passengers. It is just part of the education program that we provide to our drivers, and the way we will really make a good impact in the transportation system,†he added.
Easy Taxi is the largest mobile app in the world, offered in three continents, 30 countries, and over 160 cities around the globe, and as they say, they still manage to have a local focus in every market.
“Every market is different, every city has its own challenges, and every driver and passenger their own expectations. This is why we put a local team in every country and city in the world where we offer our services, to make sure we assist those unique needs and requests,†Berta said.
“Policarpio and Easy Taxi’s relationship is just a window to the future, where we can clearly see how we can use new technology to improve our daily life, and even improve services that haven’t been modified in the past 10 or 20 years, which in this specific case is the transportation system,’’ he added.