Summon a cab from your mobile

The Hailo app lets you summon a cab from your mobile

Free; Android and iOS

Kabbee and Hailo are both excellent new mobile apps that let you summon a taxi from your phone, and mini-cab firm Addison Lee also offer an good rival too.

The idea is simple: rather than stand on the street and wait for a passing taxi, summon one from a map showing how far away registered drivers are from you.

Of course, the best use is to ‘hail’ your cab before your actually standing on the street, because that means you’re not faced with the dilemma of waiting for the one you’ve hailed electronically or grab the one you can see in front of you as it happens to drive past.

The real genius of Hailo (and Kabbee) however, is that you can pay by card for all cab journeys, which means running to a cash point should be a thing of the past. Perhaps most surprisingly, however, the cabs you summon electronically really do turn up, presumably because driving to a guaranteed job is more attractive than crusing the streets of central London looking for business.

Unfortunately, not all cabs are registered with a single service, but that is something that’s likely to sort itself out in time. What will remain unanswered, however, is why more drivers weren't already taking card payments.

-Telegraph