When it comes to taxi apps in this city, there are only 2 major competitors: Uber & Hailo. I have been aware of both apps since they launched, but Hailo has always been my app of choice and here is why.

When both apps first launched, I was immediately chased away by Uber’s pricing. While both companies charge the standard metered cab rates, Hailo allows you to tip based on service but Uber decided to force a 20% gratuity. This means you could have your worst cab experience ever, and still be forced to generously tip your driver.

While the pricing alone was reason enough not to try their app, I was often enticed by the free money Uber offered to attract people to use their service. Unfortunately taking one of these offers means you have to link your credit card to their service, something I am very selective about who I will do this with.

My opinion of Uber really took a turn for the worse after reading Zach Bussey’s blog post, “In the Battle Between Hailo and Uber, I’ve Picked My Side“. In the post Zach mentioned that “Uber isn’t a licensed taxi company in Toronto”, while Hailo IS licensed.

Finally during the huge storm on Monday, Uber put the nail in the coffin for why I will never use their app, they revealed their true colours. While the TTC was brought down in several areas and hundreds of thousands of Torontonians were desperately trying to get home Uber decided it would be a good time to jack up their rates. Uber called this “surge pricing” and claimed it was to get more taxis on the road. If you were using their app during this time, you would have been met with this message (as @kmore posted out on Twitter):

This meant that Uber was almost DOUBLING their prices for their black car service! In my opinion, this is nothing but pure GREED and taking advantage of people in a time of need. Since when do cab drivers need to be incentivized to DO THEIR JOB? If anything, drivers should want to come out on their own during these times due to all the potential money to be made.

This isn’t even the first time Uber has done this. They tried the same thing in New York City during Hurricane Sandy, a move that ended up costing them over $100,000 to clean up the mess it created for the company.

So what did Hailo do during this time? They simply tweeted this and continued to charge the same prices they always charge:

This is why I use Hailo, and will never use Uber.