Feature: "Easy Taxi", safer, faster transport in Egypt's ever-crowded Cairo

"Easy Taxi is a nice experience. When I am stuck somewhere and I request it, it comes in about 10 minutes and the driver never says no to any destination unlike usual taxis," said Sally Saied, a radio anchor in her 20's, at a crowded spot near iconic Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo.

Easy Taxi is based on a mobile application that connects passengers with specific taxis carrying its logo, providing numerous advantages for both sides. It appeals much to females due to its safety and well-mannered drivers in the male-dominant most populous Arab country that suffers a high rate of sexual harassment.

"I see it is surely safe for women and girls as it provides data about the taxi and the driver once the request is approved," the female radio presenter told Xinhua.

The application to access the time-saving taxi can be downloaded and installed on smart-phones with GPS. Once signed in, a customer can easily request an Easy Taxi and the one nearest to their location will be there in a few minutes.

The modern means of transport represents a win-win situation for both passengers and taxi drivers, as it provides passengers with safer and faster taxis and saves the time of taxi drivers looking randomly for customers.

At busy Sudan Street near Mohandseen district in Giza, Hesham Hamdy, a 30-year-old Easy Taxi driver, was getting his fare from a passenger who has just gotten off the car before heading to pick up another as he approved by his smart-phone.

"The Easy Taxi is paid according to the fare meter, nothing more nothing less. It's safer for ladies as a woman knows all data about an Easy Taxi driver beforehand like the taxi plate number, license number, driver's name and mobile number, etc," Hamdy told Xinhua, noting the application saves his time and energy finding customers especially in quiet places.

He noted that more Egyptians started to be acquainted with such a modern means of transport as he noticed from the increasing number of requests he gets day by day.

"The company still doesn't want to advertise Easy Taxi until it has a network of taxis covering all Cairo, as some remote areas send requests but not responded to because there are not enough Easy Taxis around," the driver pointed out.

As for Mostafa Taha, 36, he said that as an Easy Taxi driver he started to know good and classy customers thanks to the technology-based means of communication between taxi drivers and passengers.

"Technology is amazing," Taha told Xinhua at Corniche el-Nil Street in Cairo's district of Maadi, while riding his white car with an Easy Taxi logo on the windshield and at the back of the front seat. "Those using online applications to request taxis are mostly highly educated people."

"It only takes me five minutes to reach the target customer," he added, noting such an easy way of communication saves the time for both passengers and taxi drivers.

Egyptians have always been suffering taxis with talkative drivers, ones who drive under drugs or those who ask for more money than read in the taximeter, yet the Easy Taxi application started to spare them the headache of bargaining or engaging in an unnecessary talk.

"The good thing about the new Easy Taxis is that their drivers are respectful, well-dressed and they never talk with passengers unless the passengers talk to them," Mohamed Abdel-Wahhab, a 26-year-old passenger told Xinhua after a short Taxi ride.

Egypt also has newly-introduced "white taxis" that replaced old and disqualified black-and-white ones, which used to spread in the capital Cairo. Although the new white taxis look neat and in good shape and condition, their drivers still mess with the taximeter or stop it completely to get higher fares, unlike the case of Easy Taxi.

Although Kholoud Abdel-Aziz, a woman in her mid-20's, hailed Easy Taxi for its safety, good shape and sticking to the fare meter, she complained that some Easy Taxi drivers recently started to reject the destination after they already approved the request, unlike the case when Easy Taxi first appeared a couple of years ago.

"Also, in the beginning, East Taxi drivers used to insist to return the change, but now they keep the change without I even tell them, which is impolite," the young lady added.

She noted the good thing is that there is supervision on Easy Taxis and she could send a complaint. "I am just a little lazy, but I will do it one day if dissatisfied," she told Xinhua.

Easy Taxi is a worldwide corporation operating in some 420 cities in 30 countries according to the company's official website, which claims it has about 20 million users around the globe.

"I call on our customers to send complains or call our customer service if they face any misbehavior from Easy Taxi drivers so that we can improve the level of our service," Nada Abdel-Hady, the public relations official of Easy Taxi Egypt, told Xinhua.

She noted Easy Taxi started to operate in Egypt in September 2013 and that each Easy Taxi is carefully selected by a specialized and well-trained team based on the condition of the car and the manners of the driver.

"We are currently operating in the capital Cairo but maybe by the end of 2015 we will get to some more provinces," Abdel-Hady told Xinhua, boasting that Easy Taxi users in Egypt are on the rise. Endit