Uber's main rival in Europe has to drop the word 'taxi' from its name to pave the way for a UK relaunch
- Uber's main rival in Europe, Taxify, has rebranded in the UK to try and ease its path to a relaunch in London.
- Taxify has rebranded as Hopp because it legally can't have the word 'taxi' in its name.
- Taxify launched in London last year but had to suspend its service because the local transport regulator had questions about its licence.
- Taxify said it was optimistic about winning back its licence.
Uber's main rival in Europe, Taxify, has rebranded to Hopp in a bid to appease London's transport regulator and win back its operating licence in the British capital.
Taxify is hoping the name change will ease its path to a relaunch in London after it was forced to suspend operations last September. Taxify notified drivers about the change in early December.
Part of the reason for the rebrand is a 20-year-old law in the UK which means only traditional black cabs or hackney carriages can call themselves taxis. Private hire vehicles, such as those you would hire through Uber or Taxify, can't call themselves taxis.
A Taxify spokesman confirmed the name change and told Business Insider: "[As] a requirement by [London regulator Transport for London], we've applied for a licence with the intention of trading under a different brand in the UK to avoid any confusion with traditional taxi services.
"We're working very closely with TfL at the moment and are optimistic about having good news for Londoners soon."
Transport for London did not respond to a request for comment.
Taxify was founded by 24-year-old Estonian Markus Villig and has raised funding from Daimler and Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing.
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It had a short-lived presence in the UK last year, launching on September 4, 2017 but suspending its service just four days later thanks to irregularities over its licence.
Cab firms like Uber and Taxify need operating licenses to do business in the UK, and Taxify had taken a shortcut to a licence by acquiring a small, local firm. Regulators, it turned out, disliked the arrangement.
Taxify appointed a new UK chief in November, ex-Gett CMO Rich Pleeth, and has been trying to win approval for a licence since.
Villig, Taxify's founder, told Business Insider in a November interview at Web Summit that the firm had prioritised adding safety features to its app in order to appease London's regulator.
"I've been working for around 13 months with TfL going through all sorts of procedures to show we're the best operator in terms of safety, operational quality, setting up a call centre, SOS patterns in the app... a tonne of different requirements to show we're really the best operator we can be," he said.
"I think now we see TfL is quite open to new operators...and we are quite hopeful we will receive a licence in the short term, but that's up to their discretion."
If Taxify does relaunch in London, it will be up against more competition. Uber lost its licence to operate in London but won a reprieve after a court battle, while local startup Citymapper operates an on-demand bus service, and ViaVan has been offering cheap rides in the UK capital since April.