A group of Australian technology start-ups say they are the ‘legal and local’ solution to the troubled taxi industry.

For commuters tired of being disappointed by taxis, there are now more Aussie-owned ride-hailing options in the market.

The latest start-up taking on the industry – and the unregulated US-based competitor Uber – is Ticktoc, a smartphone application for booking taxi and hire cars.

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The Victorian Taxi Services Commission (VTSC) accredited the app on Tuesday, telling The New Daily that greater competition entering the market was “good news for commuters”.

Ticktoc is just one of several legal competitors to ride-booking service Uber, and joins two established key players in the Australian market – Ingogo and GoCatch.

To the dismay of the taxi industry, Uber is unregulated in most states, although it was legalised for Canberrans in October, with the NSW government considering doing the same.

Ingogo CEO and founder Hamish Petrie told The New Daily he welcomed greater competition and innovation within the market, while keeping money local.

“We’ve always focused on being on the right side of the regulator and we are doing things within the law – we’re paying GST, we pay taxes locally and don’t offshore our revenue to countries like the Netherlands – the money stays in Australia,” Mr Petrie said.

“I think that’s pretty important.”

Taxi industry floundering

The New Daily reported in September that passengers were migrating to alternative services because of concerns that taxis were “unsafe, unreliable and expensive”.

University of Canberra labour market researcher Professor Phil Lewis told The New Daily at the time, there was a “huge dissatisfaction” with taxi drivers and the industry.

“They are very overpriced, they overcharge with credit card facilities and people are adamant they don’t get very good service,” Professor Lewis said.

In an attempt to clean up its act, the taxi industry in November launched a social media campaign encouraging passengers “to share your stories”.

But, the strategy backfired when commuters slammed the industry for terrible “service, quality and lack of safety”.

Ticktoc, new kid on the block  

Ticktoc’s founder said the smartphone app was “the cure” to all the issues bubbling within the taxi industry.

The service kicked off on Tuesday after signing up more than 750 accredited taxi and hire car drivers.

“Ticktoc’s accreditation shows that the industry isn’t averse to innovation,” former taxi and Uber driver, and Ticktoc founder and CEO, John Sajadi told The New Daily.

“I know the industry’s ins and outs and I’ve seen all the problems.”

The app connects passengers with drivers,  both sets of details are exchanged and the payment system is cashless through a patented barcode system.

The fares are set by the VTSC and you can view the “metre” running via the app, which also emails you a receipt for the final cost of the journey.

“That instantly changes the behaviour of the driver, and the passenger, because our system leaves a trail,” Mr Sajadi said.

Ingogo created to ‘improve service’

Taxi booking and payment service Ingogo, which launched in 2011, is an accredited smartphone application which allows users to book from its network of about 6500 taxi drivers.

The service is popular with corporations and small to medium sized business, because it uses the largest expense management keeping system globally, Concur.

It uses a GPS system to pinpoint the passenger’s destination and locate a driver, and its fares are set by the VTSC.

The app is available on iPhone and Android.

CEO and founder Mr Petrie told The New Daily he created the business to improve the taxi industry, and the passenger and driver experience, after identifying his own “frustrating” problems.

“The whole reason why I started the business was, I was living out in Bondi, in Sydney, and I’d ring up [for a taxi] and didn’t turn up – it was an incredibly frustrating experience as a passenger,” Mr Petrie said.

“We wanted to solve that pain point for passengers, and as we started researching we realised the drivers were equally frustrated.”

GoCatch, another player in the mix

A similar taxi booking app, GoCatch, became a national competitor after launching the tech product in 2011.

It uses a GPS system to pinpoint the passenger’s destination and locate a driver and operates in most city and regional areas.

You can pay via your personal credit card, a business or corporate card or a PayPal account.

A tax invoice is then sent to your email address.

The app is available on iPhone, Android, Windows and Blackberry.

The Sydney-based tech start-up CEO and co-founder, Ned Moorfield, said he created the GoCatch to “shake up a stuffy industry”.

The business’ aim was to “transform the taxi industry and dramatically improve the passenger and driver experience” though tech and innovation.

The New Daily contacted Uber for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.