We’ve all experienced the difficulty of finding reliable, locally owned taxi transportation on Nantucket. Doug Kruse, a seasonal island resident, was dining with friends in ‘Sconset one night during the summer of 2016. After a their meal, the group tried to find a taxi to get back home to their kids. Three or four phone calls later and still no luck, he thought, “There has to be a better way to find a local taxi!”
Uber and Lyft were fast becoming global successes, and had recently made their debut on Nantucket. Kruse started thinking about a mobile app for Nantucket taxis. Rideshare companies have grown substantially over the since and have certainly filled a need, but not without drawbacks. As Kruse recalls thinking at the time, “It was troubling to watch these large corporations come to Nantucket and really hurt these local businesses, owned by year-round residents, who have been running these businesses for years. Plus, visitors to Nantucket are often paying ridiculous prices using these companies.” He personally knows drivers who, at the time, said they were losing their livelihood because they couldn’t compete with the technology.
Kruse set-out to create a level playing field.
He founded tACKzee, an app used exclusively with Nantucket’s taxi services. long-term objectives would be to transition the existing taxi system onto the new and modern platform. Doing so will help the taxi community take back market share and sustain their local businesses. It will also provide convenience and affordability to individuals on Nantucket, while encouraging the support of local island businesses.
According to Liam Bruno, COO at tACKzee, “We believe that a large part of the reason rideshare companies have been able to take away so much business from the Nantucket taxi companies is because of the convenience offered by mobile technology. We set out to bring this same level of convenience to the Nantucket taxi companies by creating a mobile app exclusively for the Nantucket taxi community.”
tACKzee has many benefits to all parties involved. Riders experience low fares during “surge” periods as TACKZee uses the taxi rates created by the Town of Nantucket, not the ever changing fares used by rideshares. Drivers and owners get the same payout using the technology as they do now and they will never have to pay to use the app. Riders simply incur a small app fee to cover operational expenses of the platform. The app also offers similar tap-to-ride features as other apps but connects exclusively to licensed drivers on the island. Best of all, the app is promoting local business owners who are a part of the Nantucket community. This, after all, is the place they live and pay taxes. Download the app at tackzee.com.