The City of Rio de Janeiro signed a cooperation agreement on Thursday (19/05) to implement the Taxi.Rio Cidades app in the city of Niterói, in the state's metropolitan region. Developed by the Rio Municipal Information Technology Company (IPLANRIO), the app can be downloaded to users' cell phones and allows passengers to request a taxi with up to a 40% discount on the ride.
Taxi.Rio Cidades has 1,2 million registered passengers and carries out an average of 1 million trips per month in the capital alone. Without charging any service fee to taxi drivers, the tool works as an important lever for the category in the face of competition from transportation apps, which impose a cost of around 40% of the value of the trips on drivers.
The ceremony was attended by the deputy mayor of Niterói, Paulo Bagueira; federal deputy Pedro Paulo Carvalho, former Secretary of Finance and Planning of Rio; and the president of Iplan, Cláudio Fonseca. The mayor of Niterói, Axel Grael, participated remotely.
Over the past three years, the flow of passengers on the municipal app has increased substantially. The number of users transported in 2019 (2 million), pre-pandemic period, increased by 26% compared to 2021 (2,6 million). More recent data confirms this upward trend. In the first three months of 2022, the number of passengers transported (751 thousand) increased by 27% compared to the same period last year (589 thousand).
– With the app, we will be able to make taxi use more competitive in relation to these platforms, which contribute little to the city. I am sure that with Taxi.Rio Cidades we will have much better working conditions for taxi drivers in Niterói – said Axel Grael.
Under Pedro Paulo's command between January 2021 and March 2022, the Rio Municipal Finance and Planning Department, through Iplan, began the process of expanding the Taxi.Rio app to other cities. In addition to Niterói, seven other municipalities imported the platform.
For Cláudio Fonseca, president of Iplan, the improvements made the system more agile. Among the changes are the inclusion of payment to the driver using PIX and greater accuracy of the map. After these improvements, Iplan observed a gradual increase in demand for the application.
Data from the first quarter of 1 shows that the number of rides carried out increased by 2022% compared to the same period in 89 (2019 million vs. 2,46 million). At the same time, ride acceptance time fell by 1,3% and boarding time by 38%.
