If You Can’t Beat Uber, Get Your Own App
The departure of Uber, the app-based car service, following a blitz of tickets given its drivers for lacking the required town taxi licenses, has two East End taxi company owners jumping into the breach.
Via two new smartphone apps, Hamptons Taxi and Gata Hub, prospective fares can now summon licensed cabs from local companies.
Uber shut down its East Hampton service after Memorial Day. A town regulation that took effect this year requiring cab companies to have a local office and their taxis to be licensed to that address is impossible for the company to meet, Uber said.
So, separately, both Mark Ripolone of Ditch Plains Taxi in Montauk and Bryan DaParma of Hometown Taxi in East Hampton and Southampton took the steering wheel, so to speak, and launched localized apps.
“I decided to create an app to try to combat Uber,” said Mr. DaParma, who was recently appointed to a two-year term on the Suffolk County Taxi and Limousine Commission. “They’ve got a great business plan; they’re just not doing it the legal way,” he said — not here, anyway.
Mr. DaParma partnered with New Frontier Payments, a Pennsylvania and New York company, to create the Hamptons Taxi app, which can be downloaded through Google Play or Apple’s app store.
“Ride Local, Not Rogue,” it says when launched.
Similar to Uber, the app depicts a map on which riders may select pickup and dropoff points. Fares are then provided. Users of both the taxi apps will be able to charge fares to credit cards kept on file or pay with cash or a credit card in the taxi.
Mr. Ripolone of Ditch Plains Taxi signed a two-year contract with Gata Hub — Gata stands for get a taxi anywhere, he said — and pays a monthly fee to the company. When Uber pulled out of town, “I realized people are used to ordering everything on their phone; just in general using their phone for everything,” said Mr. Ripolone, who is a member of a taxi committee that advises the East Hampton Town Board.
He has become a spokesman of sorts for local cab companies. In the furor here over the loss of Uber — fomented by an email from the company to its users urging them to complain about the town licensing law, which it said was “banning” the service — the local cabs were painted as overly expensive and unreliable. Unfair and untrue, Mr. Ripolone said.
He invited the owners of several other Montauk companies to participate, and Moko Taxi and The End signed on, making a total of 17 Montauk-based cars available. Taxi One of East Hampton is also a participant.
Customers using Gata Hub may choose which company to summon. “I found a great opportunity, and I realized if it was just me, I couldn’t cater to all of Montauk,” Mr. Ripolone said.
With Hamptons Taxi, users may summon one of Hometown Taxi’s 85 vehicles, or taxis from other companies that might sign with the service.
“I’m inviting any and all drivers who want to be a part of this to come down. So, hopefully, if the local companies come together, Uber will not have a chance,” Mr. DaParma said. Before signing cabs onto the app system, he said he would make sure they were properly licensed. “That way we can provide excellent service out there.”
“First and foremost,” said Mr. DaParma, a native of the South Fork who has run his business in Southampton and East Hampton Towns for 18 years, “I want to keep the money local. A lot of people come out here, and they spend a lot of money. It’s not fair that companies come out here” and capitalize on the busy summer season, he said.
While drivers from other taxi businesses can sign up at the moment for free with Hamptons Taxi, Mr. DaParma said he might collect a small fee in future to cover credit card payment processing and other administrative costs. After a “soft launch” last weekend, Hamptons Taxi “had a lot of good feedback,” he said.
A website is being developed, so that hotel concierges, for example, can go online to summon cars for guests. Plans to supply kiosks with dedicated computers at locations such as bars and restaurants are in the works as well.
“My ultimate goal is to have them in every front desk from Southampton to Montauk,” Mr. DaParma said.
Mr. Ripolone said he would “absolutely” be willing to coordinate services by participating in a regional Hamptons “Uber,” depending on his business agreement with Gata Hub. “Everything is going to be over the Internet,” he said. “Everything is going to be Uber-like. It’s a good thing.”