What’s App – Our review of Taxi Magic

When it comes to hailing a taxi in DC, it seems there are multiple options for riders and all from the convenience of a smartphone. Northern Virginia-based company, Taxi Magic, was one of the first adopters of the taxi-phone practice in 2007, when they created the mobile e-hailing technology. Taxi Magic allows you to arrange a pickup from a local cab company of your choice, unlike rival services Uber and Hailo, which use their own fleet of high end sedans and suvs.

We recently spoke with Sanders Partee, President and co-founder of Taxi Magic, who said that 70% of taxis in the U.S. already have Taxi Magic-compatible dispatch technology installed. And at the moment, this means Taxi Magic is up and running on 25,000 taxis in 60 cities across the U.S.

Ringing up a cab company is no guarantee that a car will arrive in a timely manner (or even at all). But, Taxi Magic provides estimated arrival times, so rather than wondering if your cab will ever come, you can track the progress of nearby vehicles. When your car is 10 minutes away, you’ll know.

One feature of Taxi Magic that Partee says he’s particularly fond of is the ability to schedule a pickup. “Not found in other apps but, certainly helpful when planning your early morning ride to the airport,” he added. Another option that differentiates Taxi Magic is tips at your discretion. Partee explained that riders are allowed to chose a percentage based on quality of service.

Unlike the service from an unnamed taxi driver that refused to turn on the air conditioning last night.

How does Taxi Magic fare with it’s competition?

	Taxi Magic [link]	UberTaxi [link]	HailO [link]
First ⅛ mile (drop fee)	$3.00	$3.00	$3.00
Additional ⅛ mile	$0.27	$0.31	$0.27
Wait Rate / Hour	$25.00	$25.00	$25.00
Luggage	.50 / piece	.50 / piece	.50 / piece
Booking Fee	$1.00	$2.00	$2.00 + $1.50 (their own fee)
Tip	Your discretion	20%	Preset 15, 20, 25%
Minimum	$0	$5	unknown

Taxi Magic has offered “Magic Credits” for the Cloture Club readers. If you create a new account you can use the promo code cloture2013 for a $10 off your first ride through the in-app payment. In order to enter Magic Credits, users should go to "settings" and enter the code in "Magic Credits".

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