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Dublin’s fare ladies

Wednesday, 30 January 2008

IT WAS an innocent conversation with his girlfriend that sparked off an idea in Gerard McCarthy’s mind for an innovative new business venture.
Gerard’s girlfriend mentioned that she had an uncomfortable experience at the hands of a male taxi driver while returning home from a night out in Dublin.
This made Gerard think that perhaps there was a gap in the taxi market that could be filled, and he set about researching the idea of a taxi firm with a fleet of female drivers.
“In order to do the research I complied a questionnaire in which I asked roughly 150 female employees of South Dublin firms to fill in,” said Gerard
“The research shows that one in four women would prefer a female driver. These women state that they would feel safer and more comfortable with a female driver who would better understand their needs.”

As a result Gerard decided to set up a new company called ‘Angel Cabs’ which he says will be Ireland’s first ever taxi service aimed predominantly at the female market.
The service aims to offer comfort and safety to both drivers and passengers.
Ann Murphy, a Dublin taxi driver who has signed up with Angel Cabs, feels there is a variety of reasons why people in general would prefer to be driven by a female taxi driver.
“I feel male taxi drivers can sometimes rabbit on with meaningless conversations that the customer doesn’t really want to engage in,” said Ann.
“When I get a taxi myself I can find it quite unnerving to have to engage in unsolicited small talk for the duration of the trip and I feel female drivers would be that bit more aware of this.
“I also feel that female drivers would be quite conscious of how their cab looks and make sure that it’s kept clean and tidy.”
According to Gerard, female taxi drivers currently tend to operate on their own at taxi ranks or are affiliated to taxi companies where drivers tend to be overwhelmingly male.
“Logistically, it is difficult for these companies to give a female driver a choice of customer or the customer a choice of driver,” he says.
“Although it is primarily aimed at the female market, Angel Cabs hopes to attract passengers from both genders.”
In order to get Angel Cabs up and running Gerard enlisted the help of a UK based company which already had a mobile phone network set up.
“This is an additional feature of Angel Cabs whereby customers will go directly through to the driver without operator intervention, and drivers can take or transfer a job to another driver should they so wish,” explained Gerard.
Angel Cabs is currently seeking drivers. Drivers need to be experienced, fully licensed with their own vehicle and carry a mobile phone (hands free of course).
More information and driver application forms can be attained on the company’s web site which is www.angelcabs.ie.

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