Taxi Rank — a mobile website for calling taxis

Taxis in Cape Town, South Africa, just received their first mobile ordering service, in the form of Taxi Rank. 10and5.com reports that the website is available for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android.

The site is light, loads quickly and presents two very simple options for users. Enter the “Pick me up at…” point, then the “and take me to…” destination and click “find taxi”. Users then select a taxi from step 1.

Step 2 lets you confirm your booking and check the details of the trip. The estimated distance and cab fare is shown, the pickup and drop off points are established and you have the option to select a pickup time of “now”, or later, according to your schedule.

The final step, “get my taxi”, sees a text message being sent to the user to confirm the taxi ride. The mobile site is location aware, and uses the phone’s GPS to instantly determine the customer’s pickup location. The user can change the “taxi order” at any time during the taxi booking process.

Taxi Rank says that it only partners with “established and trusted taxi companies”. This includes SPORT, Unicab and Rikkis, some of Cape Town’s most popular taxi services. There are no service costs associated with the Taxi Rank mobile website and no additional charges are added to the taxi fare.

Image: 10and5.com