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NOT CONTENT WITH challenging taxi giant Hailo on Irish shores, Lynk cabs are soon to try their hand at the UK market.
Founder of Lynk, tech entrepreneur Noel Ebbs, says the company will turn its focus to a British expansion by the end of the year once its Irish app has gone countrywide.
“I think there’s room for three or four apps in Dublin, so in London there is even greater scope,” he told TheJournal.ie.
It’s not an Irish thing though, that’s relevant here of course but not there.
Basically the opportunities are there and we have to take them. After putting the time and effort in that we have done we have to take every chance that comes our way.
We have partners in almost every British city so now is the time to do it.
Investors for the British expansion will come mostly from Ireland and the UK itself.
But Lynk’s foreign ambitions aren’t done there – the US is on their horizon as well.
“To be honest a launch in the US would be less problematic than one in the UK,” says Ebbs.
The modifications we’d have to make to the app for the British market don’t apply to the states at all.
We’ve already had strong interest in our app from Washington, so logically that’s where the next expansion will be.
But we can’t afford the false starts that other apps have had. We need to get it right first time.
The taxi app business has become an enormous one in recent times, and as such has become incredibly competitive also (as evidenced by Hailo pulling out of North America and pretty much every Uber story), making survival not for the faint-hearted.
It was this level of competition that gave birth to Lynk in the first place.
Ebbs says that his company aims to have 5,000 drivers signed up by the end of the year.
Lynk, originally launched last October and officially launched in February, already boasts roughly 2,800 Irish drivers on its roster.
The company employs about 175 people at its base in Newmarket, Dublin 8.
Its main selling points for the customer are the fact that it’s an Irish product and all the drivers are fully vetted; from the driver’s point of view, Lynk charges membership fees rather than commission making a driver’s income easier to manage in theory.
Features exclusive to its app include the ability to make bookings in advance of journeys and multiple bookings at the same time.
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Hailo raised it percentage take and lost taxi drivers.
When was that?just curious
Hailo charge 12% commisssion, that’s it. No €79.00 or €99.00 a week with Citycabs/Global/Lynk.
Still has over half the Dublin fleet at 7,000+
Hailo will lose more drivers if they keep uping the aunty with price and rules silly rules !
You can’t up an “Aunty”, well maybe you can. Upping the ante is another thing. lol
They do take credit card but yes you do have to sign up first
They lost me when they stooped the use of their credit card facilities for non bailout jobs/customers it was extremely handy
What is a non bailout job or customer
I think he misspelled it ……..its meant to read non hailo jobs as in you used to be able to take credit card jobs of the street now the customer has to download the app if they want to pay by card…….stupid idea from hailo…
Hailo have added the option to pre book now so that’s not a unique feature for lynk
Hailo had to add that feature because it was the next step …….and to keep up with other apps that have that feature before them ….e.g…cab:app
My husband left a cab company recently. The company sold the controlling share to the guy named above. They thought that they could sell the drivers rent as part of the business package, (Approx’ €5K per year),forgetting that the drivers hire the cab company to supply them with work, and they work for the driver. Not wanting any association withthe new owners, he fired them.
He wondered why, as he calls it “the Weakest Lynk”, chose the exact same colour branding as Hailo? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I suppose.
Lynk taxis. €25 free sign up. €5 per journey if you pay by card but wait there’s a €3 booking fee before you sit in the taxi. It is removed after you use your “free” €25. So, free €10 sign up.
They can’t charge €3 for booking ! €2 is max Hailo don’t charge for booking
They do. I got a taxi that usually costs less than €5 and cost me over €8. Minus the “five” free. When you contact them they say that is taken off when your €25 is up.
I always use the lynk app ( Irish owned company)
To be fair Hailo was set up by 3 guys one Irish
it was set up back 3 London black cab drivers
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