‘Taxi!’

M artin Heikel ’81 BS is giving New York Citycab drivers a new set of eyes on city streets. Hecreated the smart phone application, ZabKab,

which better connects taxi drivers and passengers.“There was a problem that existed in NYC that could

be solved with new technology: Taxi drivers who are cruisingaround empty 30 to 40 percent of the time without a pas-senger. So you have these two parties that are searching forone another with an inefficient system,” says Heikel, whohas a marketing management degree. “We gave some

thought to that and thought geez, there’s got to be a betterway, and that’s how the idea got started.”

The ZabKab app was designed to improve upon a sys-tem that has worked for generations. Heikel acknowledgesthat there isn’t much simpler than just putting one’s armup to hail a cab, but he said problems arise when peoplearen’t on main streets where cabs typically run. The appwill help drivers see people on sidestreets, and passengerswill no longer have to walk to busy thoroughfares in orderto find a cab.

22 H O R I Z O N S

By Lucy Hough ’12 BA

“If the cab only knew where youstood in the sidestreet, then they’d bemore than willing to make the attemptto go pick you up,” Heikel says.

Building on the tradition of sim-plicity, the ZabKab app is straightfor-ward in its design. Though Heikel saysit involves complicated programming,the goal was to make the interface easyto use.

“We wanted to make sure thatwhen you open the app, whether you’rethe consumer or the driver, it’s clean,intuitive and doesn’t take a lot of study.We’re trying to make getting a cab easier, simpler and save someonetime.”

When downloading the appfor a smart phone or tablet, userschoose whether they are a passen-ger or a driver.

The app is free for passen-gers, who simply press a button tonotify drivers of their location (the number of pressesindicates the number of passengers). Drivers, after a 60-day free trial, pay between $10 and $15 per month forthe service, which allows them to see the exactlocation of passengerswithin a fewblocks. Both thedriver and pas-senger are anony-mous on the app.

Passengersaren’t required towait for a ZabKab-hailed taxi if anothercab comes alongsooner. Drivers arenot obligated to pickup a ZabKab fare ifthey see another pas-senger first.

Since the betalaunch in August 2012,the app has seen a lot ofmedia and user success.Within 10 days, 2,000drivers downloaded the

app. And within the first couple weeks,40,000 passengers downloaded it.

“I think it drew so much mediaattention because as a New Yorkerwhere there’s 8.5 million people,almost everybody has used a yellowcab on occasion so it’s something thateveryone could relate to,” Heikel says.“Because our app is relatively simple toexplain, and it’s a ‘wow, why didn’t Ithink of that’ concept, it made it high-ly intriguing for a lot of people.”

To make the app usable by bothdrivers and passengers, Heikel had tolearn a lot about the taxi industry,

including unions, various stake-holders, interest groups, regulato-ry issues, some New York Citypolitics and more. Heikel, whohas previously held positions asdirector of global account salesfor MCI, director of VerizonFinancial Network and executive

director of Verizon Enterprise Integration Services, saidthat continual learning is integral to his business success.

“What I learned in the marketing management pro-gram at Northern was a good business foundation—

understanding the basic principles of business andmarketing in particular. To

understand thelanguage, the ter-minology, it provid-ed a good baseline.”

Heikel and histeam plan to expandawareness for the appto other urban areasthroughout theworld. Technically, theapp will work in anylocation (and any lan-guage on a user’smobile device), but itssuccess depends on thenumber of drivers andpassengers who down-load it. For now, they arefocusing primarily onNew York City. ■

An example of the passenger app screen is shown on the left; a driver’sscreen on the right. The ZabKab site explains that “when passengerstouch the screen’s ‘hail’ button, nearby cabs hear a ping to notifythem that a potential fare is nearby.” For safety, drivers can only viewthe location of the potential passenger when their vehicle is stopped.

Inventor Martin Heikel, cofounder ofFlatiron Apps Company

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It’s a ‘wow, whydidn’t I think ofthat’ concept.