Uber opens up a space for NYC taxi cabs on its app

Uber, which was hit by driver shortages during the pandemic, will list New York City taxi cabs on its app, a partnership that until recently would have been unthinkable with both camps fighting ferociously for the same customers.

The partnership will boost the number of rides available after a period in which wait times for Uber rides had grown longer, and it gives NYC cab drivers access to a massive pool of commuters who now have Uber and Lyft apps on their phones.

There had been hints tensions between Uber and taxi services had begun to thaw as Uber expanded aggressively into the very lucrative food delivery business and needed a growing supply of delivery drivers.

The agreement comes amid the back drop of cities moving to regulate the explosive growth of Uber and other app-based ride services, including New York City, which placed a temporary cap on new licenses for ride-hailing services in 2018.

Calls to the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission were not immediately returned early Thursday.

Uber Technologies Inc. has been incorporating taxi drivers around the world into its system for the past several years. In Spain, the company has integrated taxis Madrid, Málaga, Valencia and Barcelona. It’s teamed in Colombia with TaxExpress, which has more than 2,300 active drivers. Half of all Uber taxi trips in Latin America come from the TaxExpress partnership in Colombia. Uber also has relationships with taxi software and fleet operators in Austria, Germany, Turkey, South Korea and Hong Kong.

In New York City, Uber is teaming with tech platforms Creative Mobile Technologies and Curb to eventually have all New York City taxi cabs available on its app.

“Uber has a long history of partnering with the taxi industry to provide drivers with more ways to earn and riders with another transportation option. Our partnerships with taxis look different around the world, and we’re excited to team up with taxi software companies CMT and Curb, which will benefit taxi drivers and all New Yorkers,” Andrew Macdonald, senior vice president, Mobility and Business Operations, at Uber, said in a prepared statement.

Creative Mobile Technologies said Thursday that taxi drivers on its platform, which includes the taxi app Arro, will gain access to Uber’s customer base, giving them them the opportunity for a higher volume of trips and expanded revenue.

Creative Mobile said a beta version for taxis will be rolled out this spring and reach the general public this summer.

Anyone with the Uber app will have access to thousands of yellow taxis that operate on the CMT/Arro platform. Taxi drivers will see Uber-originated fares on their driver monitors which they already use to service e-hails from the Arro taxi app.

Curb, which offers a ride-hailing app for licensed taxi and for-hire rides in North America, said that its partnership with Uber will give more transportation options for riders and more trips for drivers. While their agreement will start in New York City, Curb said that the partnership will expand to its nationwide network over the coming months.

Drivers on the Curb platform will be able to receive and accept Uber trip offers through their existing in-vehicle systems, in addition to Curb app demand and traditional street hails.

“We’ve found great success in creating incremental trip demand and revenue for drivers by integrating with several aggregators over the past two years, and this partnership builds on that success by delivering even greater opportunities for cab drivers to have access to an ever-widening pool of riders,” Curb CEO Amos Tamam said.