NEW YORK — Ride-sharing app Uber announced a new partnership that will have all of New York City’s yellow cabs appear on the app.
The deal, first announced by The Wall Street Journal, promises to help both a shortage of drivers that has hampered Uber’s operations while steering more business toward traditional taxis, whose drivers have struggled since the onset of ride-sharing apps.
In a news release, Uber announced it was partnering with Curb, a ride-hailing app for licensed taxis already in use in New York City. The two apps will now be integrated in such a way that riders will be able to book both Uber rides and taxi rides from the Uber app.
The new partnership is launching in New York City, but the two companies plan to expand to other cities where Curb already exists.
“We are excited to kickstart our partnership with Curb and allow Uber users to have immediate access to Curb’s taxi-hailing network, which will add tens of thousands of vehicles to the Uber platform in New York City and beyond,” said Guy Peterson, Uber’s director of business development, in a statement.
Passengers will pay approximately the same fare for a taxi ride as they would for an UberX ride, The Wall Street Journal reported. Taxi drivers will be paid according to ride-hail wage standards, which are set by the City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, and are on average higher than metered rates, Reuters reported.
Uber has its sights set well beyond New York City, with the company’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi telling CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin in an interview, “I will tell you we wanna get every single taxi in the world onto our platform by 2025.”
Uber has already integrated taxis into its app in Spain, Germany, Austria, Turkey, South Korea, Hong Kong and Colombia, Reuters reported.