Amidst Taxi Battles, Bandwagon, the Ridesharing App, Partners With Hailo in New York; Makes Sharing Yellow Cabs a Snap

NEW YORK, Aug. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Bandwagon, a New York-based ridesharing app and logistics startup, is testing in-app integration with Hailo, one of the world's fastest growing e-hail apps. This test is the first alliance between a leading shared ride company and an e-hail provider, and makes sharing taxis and splitting fares—in the city, at a concert, or to and from the airport—easier than ever.

New Yorkers can now use the Bandwagon app to instantly connect to Hailo to dispatch a yellow cab or licensed private car for up to 65% off the cost of a normal ride. Shared rides reduce costs, congestion, and pollution, and give the city's swelling taxi fleet an eco-efficient upgrade. Drivers make more money from longer rides, and benefit from a greater pool of customers.

To rideshare with Bandwagon & Hailo, users drop their pins on their origin and destination. The app matches passengers who are heading in the same direction, allows them to split the fare digitally, and dispatch a ride instantly through Hailo.

"Transportation networks are in need of upgrades and private use of vehicles, especially in a place like New York City, is increasingly outmoded," says David Mahfouda, CEO and founder of Bandwagon. "If we can make better use of all those existing empty seats in vehicles that are designed for transportation, we can build a new instant kind of social transit network."

Partnerships with vehicle service providers like Hailo are part of Bandwagon's strategic growth plan. And as a network for connecting passengers to each other and to vehicles, Bandwagon works like a sharing "layer" that allows any taxi or e-hail passenger to find a ride partner, whether it be on the way home from work or curb-side at an airport. Bandwagon will continue to expand its services through a number of major additional partnerships.

"Partnerships like those between Hailo and Bandwagon are the beginning of a new deal to expand access to transportation and create more affordable and sustainable mobility options by using existing resources," says Mahfouda. "It's an exciting time for mobility—an era when vehicle transportation can be far smarter and cheaper, and when transit moves with you and the people around you."

About Bandwagon

An industry leader in the growing field of real-time ridesharing and dynamic route coordination, Bandwagon has developed a solution for matching passengers on city streets, within businesses, and on long taxi lines at airports, hubs, and events, reducing wait times and costs. In the past year, Bandwagon has grown its coverage of locations to include multiple New York Airport and event hubs.

Launched in 2013, Bandwagon is based at the Urban Future Lab, an innovative cleantech incubator in downtown Brooklyn powered by an unprecedented partnership between NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering and The City and State of New York. Bandwagon has received accolades from the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, New York City's BigApps, Ultralight Startup's Future Energy Competition, Verizon, Ford, and others.

Bandwagon is available for iOS and Android at http://bandwagon.io.

About Hailo

Hailo is the evolution of the hail - a free smartphone app which puts people just two taps away from a licensed vehicle, and lets drivers get more passengers when they want them.

Launched in November 2011, Hailo is available in more than 20 cities including London, Manchester, New York, all across Ireland, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Boston, Madrid, Barcelona, Washington DC, Montreal, Atlanta and Osaka.

Founded by three taxi drivers and three internet entrepreneurs, Hailo has raised $100M from investors including Union Square Ventures, Accel Partners, Wellington Partners, Atomico Ventures and Sir Richard Branson.

Hailo is available for iOS and Android at http://hailoapp.com.

SOURCE Bandwagon