Entrepreneur Richie Commins. Image: Flag
No cash? Your phone is dead? You want to get home safely? No fear – there’s an app for that.
An student entrepreneur has just created an app called Flag, which will give many Christmas revellers across Ireland peace of mind during the party season.
NUI Galway student Richie Commins (23) developed the idea for Flag, which been endorsed by the Irish Taxi Drivers Federation alongside Enterprise Ireland, Nissan, AIB and An Garda Síochána through the Campus Watch initiative.
‘Not only does it work well, it will allow drivers pick up passengers that may have found themselves in an unfortunate situation’
– JAMES MAGUIRE
Known in the various app stores as Flag – The Taxi App, it enables users to hail or flag a taxi.
How the Flag app works
During registration, users add an ID photo to their profile and create a four-digit PIN to secure their account.
If their phone’s battery is dead, they simply flag a taxi off the street, tell the driver their name and enter their four-digit PIN on the driver’s version of the app. Their photo then appears on the driver’s phone to confirm their identity before being taken safely to their destination as the payment is processed from the user’s pre-registered card as normal.
Commins worked on the project in his final year in NUI Galway and put a team in place to develop a taxi-hailing app that has pinpoint accuracy with location and time of arrival as well as extra safety features.
“It’s an honour to partner with the Irish Taxi Drivers Federation from this early stage. This means we can keep taxi drivers at the very core of all future development on the app to ensure it suit their needs. We hope that working closely with a large network of drivers will make the passengers’ experience even better,” said Commins.
The pink ‘Flag’ sticker on taxis lets passengers know the driver has enhanced their service to cater for the safety of all passengers.
“We were incredibly impressed with the app. Not only does it work well, it will allow drivers pick up passengers that may have found themselves in an unfortunate situation,” said James Maguire of the Irish Taxi Drivers Federation.
“It’s fantastic to be able to give that kind of support to both drivers and passengers, and we are proud to support the app.”
