App-Based Transportation Service Set to Debut July 1 in New Castle
A new app-based transportation service will begin operating in New Castle on July 1 in hopes of filling the void being left by the departure of Leros Point to Point’s Greeley Taxi.
The app, which will be called Chappacar, is the brainchild of two livery service veterans, Douglas Thornton, the owner of County Trip Service, which has a contract to operate out of Westchester County Airport, and Liam Tobin, who formerly worked as a dispatcher and chauffer manager before leaving for the technology sector.
Residents can buy the app at The App Store and the Google Play Store and download it onto their mobile device. Once the service is activated, customers can use it as an on-demand platform or book a reservation for a future time and date with pickup and drop-off information displayed, Tobin said.
If it’s an on-demand call, the technology picks up the customer’s geolocation and provides the customer with the closest available car.
“Everything is in place and we’re just waiting for (Leros) to vacate the premises and we’re going to turn it on July 1,” Tobin said.
New Castle is the first community that Chappacar will service, he said. Tobin and Thornton said they plan to phase in surrounding communities, including Pleasantville and Armonk, in the near future.
Although New Castle officials have stated that they have sent out more than 60 Requests for Proposals to taxi companies across Westchester, Tobin said it doesn’t matter if a contract is awarded to another entity.
“We would love to be involved in the conversation but if they go in a different direction it really wouldn’t affect us,” he said.
Roughly 35 drivers from County Trip Service, which is fully licensed with the county’s Taxi & Limousine Commission and whose drivers have been drug-tested and fingerprinted, will provide the rides, Thornton said. He said his drivers will not wait in one spot.
“No driver is sitting in any fixed location,” Thornton said.
New Castle Supervisor Robert Greenstein said last Friday that he and Town Administrator Jill Shapiro hope to sit down with Tobin and Thornton. Meanwhile, the town will continue to search for a conventional service but officials may have to consider contracting with multiple companies or allow cabs to service the train station, he said.
“We’re just not sure the form that it’s going to be,” Greenstein said.
Tobin said that while New Castle was scheduled to be the first community to receive their service, they pushed up the launch date when it recently became public that Leros was leaving the town at the end of June.
Thornton said the car service will pick up anywhere within the town and also pick up out of town to return to New Castle.
An added incentive for each town Chappacar will service is that a still undetermined percentage of each fare will be donated to that community’s high school booster club, he said.
“We come in, the community supports us, we want to cater to the community,” Thornton said. “One of the issues we all have in the industry and as constituents, the (transportation network companies) model does not support the local communities, even once they do business.”
Reservations and calls will begin being accepted on Sunday, July 1. By then, the service’s website, www.chappacar.com, should be activated as well as the phone number. Chappacar’s number will be 914-238-TAXI (8294).
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/