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That Hailo app on your phone will stop hailing cabs this Sunday.
Hailo, the taxi e-hailing app, abruptly announced last week that it would shutter its entire North America operation due to competition. Last night, it announced in a “fare-well” email to customers that its last day of operation would be this Sunday, Oct. 26, at noon.
“Unfortunately, Hailo’s ideal to deliver on hassle-free for both drivers and city-dwellers required factors that were very much outside of our control.”
Hailo charges $1.50 to hail a cab on its app, and then regular cab fares kick in. To use Hailo, customers would have to pay slightly more than the typical cab fare at a time when D.C. cabs are struggling to compete with UberX and Lyft—services whose prices aren’t regulated by the D.C. Taxicab Commission and which can charge cheaper fares.
The company, which launched in London in 2011, has an office on Florida Avenue and Eighth Street NW that will also shutter. Hailo currently operates in 20 cities around the world and will continue its operations in Europe and Asia.
Uber is already making the best of Hailo’s closure and is offering $20 off customers’ first rides when they type in the promo code “uberHailoDeal.”
Screenshot via Googlemaps