Riding in taxis is something of a luxury for most tour guides (me
included) but when I was contacted by
GetTaxi a new way of booking taxis via
an App on your phone and they offered me £50 credit to try out and review their
service plus a £3 credit to every reader of my blog (see below for the code) I
realised I had nothing to lose.
Basically the App pinpoints exactly where you are on the map
using GPS. If you want you can tap in more details such as what you’re wearing or where
you’re standing to make yourself easy to identify in a busy street.
When your nearest taxi is identified you are
given the driver's name, a photo, their mobile number and their estimated arrival
time. You can then watch in real time as a picture of a taxi moves across the map towards
you which always makes me think of Harry Potter’s
Marauder’s Map! There is no
charge for using this service – you pay as if you’ve picked up the taxi on the
street.
It’s like having your own personal chauffeur! You can wait inside until the taxi is outside
your door; there’s no need to stand around in the cold.
The App is free to download from their
website and works on iPhone, Blackberry
and Android.
For your £3
credit off your first ride tap in this code - 1d5fa3752 after downloading
the App.
The only problem now is I have got rather addicted to using
taxis and need to wean myself off and back onto public transport and shanks'
pony.
The author of this blog (Joanna
Moncrieff) is a qualified and insured City of Westminster Tour Guide who
specialises in food and drink themed walks in the West End.
Details of all her bookable private walks are listed here and upcoming public walks are here.
Labels: Apps, Harry Potter, taxi