Harry Katsiabanis – one of Melbourne’s most influential taxi operators – announced his latest venture Cab It this week, in a move to improve customer service and get more Melburnians using cabs.
Cab It – a collaboration between three Greek Australian owned taxi operators Taxi Link, Ambassador and Cabways, and fourth partner Kensington Taxis – will vie for passengers alongside the two major networks, Silver Top and 13 Cabs.
With around 500 cabs and 1,500 drivers servicing Melbourne and its outer suburbs, Cab It will offer inducements such as a smartphone booking app and free rides if a booked cab fails to turn up.
Cab It’s arrival comes just months after the Victorian government announced controversial changes to the state’s taxi industry – aimed at improving standards for passengers and wresting control from the two major booking networks.
Mr Katsiabanis told Neos Kosmos that while planning for the new network first began three years ago, the government’s new legislation had been the catalyst for Cab It to begin operating.
“The government left me no choice,” said Mr Katsiabanis.
“How else am I going to survive in an environment that has no margin if I don’t take control of the entire value chain?”
Katsiabanis, who is also managing director of Taxi Link, stressed that Cab It had not been created to poach passengers from the established networks.
“It’s not about taking them on. What we’re doing is we’re growing the existing pie,” said the Taxi Link boss.
“It’s creating more customers by giving the customer the confidence in knowing that he can get a service – one that will deliver value that will bring him back to the industry. It’s all about customer service.”
A phone booking app will allow Cab It passengers to see where their taxi is on a map and call the driver before he or she arrives.
“We are putting the power with passengers and allowing them to deal directly with the driver,” says Mr Katsiabanis.
Highly critical of the reforms implemented by the Napthine government following the Allan Fels Taxi Inquiry, Mr Katsiabanis told reporters this week that whilst the reforms had “crippled us financially … sometimes with devastation comes innovation.”
Cab It’s founder described the new network as a game-changer. “If you want to compete you have to provide a better service,” he said.
In 2012 Mr Katsiabanis pushed for the chronic shortage of Melbourne taxi drivers to be solved by recruiting cabbies from Greece. He also established the Australian Taxi Academy in an effort to improve training standards in the industry.
Cab It drivers will receive training in customer service, advanced geography and using the new app, and will be disciplined if they do not meet Cab It standards – with a three-strikes and out policy before being stripped of their right to drive.
