Real-time taxi price comparison helps users avoid surge

Urbanhail is a taxi service aggregator that lets users view all available ride providers and locate the cheapest, most convenient ride.

For urbanites, surge pricing has been a necessary evil of the on-demand taxi industry, with most apps such as Lyft and Uber charging more when demand is higher. Now, Urbanhail is a service aggregator that enables users to view all available ride providers at any given time, in order to locate the cheapest, most convenient taxi at that moment.

To begin, riders download the free app and enter their current location and destination. Then, Urbanhail will show all the pick-up times and fares for each of the operators’ services. The app tells the user whether any of the providers are currently surging and even provides an approximate taxi fare for comparison. Once the user has reviewed their options, they can order their taxi with one click. Offering a similar service is Indian startup Scoot , but Urbanhail has the advantage of not requiring users to download each of the individual taxi apps.

Urbanhail is currently only available in Boston but is expected to expand to other cities soon. Could any other gig economy services be aggregated in this way?