LIC Company Targets Taxi Tech

By Joe Marvilli

Founded in 2005, Creative Mobile Technologies set forward to bring new equipment and software to the City’s aging taxi fleet. In the eight years since then, the company has revamped New York’s cabs and expanded its presence throughout the nation. 

Based in Long Island City, CMT got its start when the City issued a request for a proposal to bring technology to cabs, in order to keep up with the increase in credit card use. The organization responded by creating the CMT portal, a software tool that benefits both the cab drivers and their customers.  

In terms of helping customers, the portal made it easier than ever to pay cabbies with credit cards, offering their automated swipe machines in the passenger area of the taxi. The screens, now found embedded into the cab divider, offers passengers news and weather, though it is easy to turn off if they prefer to keep things quiet. 

For the taxi fleet itself, CMT has greatly improved record-keeping for the Taxi and Limousine Commission. Rather than going through thousands of hand-written fare records, the data is kept electronically, using a GPS to determine pick-up and drop-off points. 

“They know the average length of a trip,” Jason Poliner, CMT’s vice chairman and chief operating officer, said. “They can identify underserviced areas. They could develop plans that are really helpful to servicing the riding public.” 

According to Poliner, many drivers now get higher tips due to the automated and convenient tip choice system used with a credit card. 

Given the success of the CMT portal, it should come as no surprise that the company has been expanding ever since. It just purchased 80,000 square feet of developed space in L.I.C. and has plans to increase its work force from 60 employees to 80 once they move in to the new location. The business has also spread to over 60 U.S. cities. 

Reach Reporter Joe Marvilli at (718) 357-7400, Ext. 125, or at jmarvilli@queenstribune.com.