Cabify promises to “revolutionize the urban mobility system” and starts operating in Portugal today. For now, the service is only available in the city of Lisbon.
Known as the main competitor of the controversial transport services company Uber, Cabify is a platform founded five years ago in Spain, which already operates in 18 cities in five countries – Spain, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Chile – and which it now intends to expand the business to our country from today (May 11), according to an announcement made through the facebook page.Lisbon will be the first city to use the service, but Cabify intends to enter other Portuguese cities, where they want to be seen as “one of the most useful solutions on the market”.
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In practice, Cabify is similar to the service that already exists in Portugal, provided by Uber. Through an application, the customer can call a vehicle and in the end make the payment via credit card or PayPal.
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– Calculation of trip value: it is based on the kilometers traveled and not on time. In case of traffic, the customer is not lost. In Lisbon, the service costs €1.12 per km and each journey has a minimum cost of €3.5 (3 km).– There is only one type of service available: Lite, equivalent to UberX. According to Cabify, a VW Passat or similar with capacity for 4 people + driver is guaranteed.
– Customization: through your profile you can specify which radio you want to listen to, whether the air conditioning should be on or not and whether you want the driver to open the door for you – you can even define whether you want the door to be opened at source, destination or at both.
– Reservation System: with this feature you can schedule the vehicle's arrival and define the pick-up location.
Taxi drivers promise to fight
Speaking to Razão Automóvel and after more information about Cabify was disclosed, the president of the FPT, Carlos Ramos, has no doubts: “it's a smaller Uber” and, therefore, it will “operate illegally”. The Federation's spokesman also revealed that "the FPT expects the intervention of the Government or the Parliament, but also a response from the Justice". Carlos Ramos does not ignore that there are some problems in the service provided by taxis, but that they are not “illegal platforms” that will solve them.
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Carlos Ramos also considers that "it is necessary to readjust the supply of transport services to demand" and that "the trend towards liberalization in the sector will harm those who are already operating, so that others can enter with less restrictions".Image: cabify