It takes experience to fix the user experience

June 27, 2023

When it comes to learning the ropes, nothing really beats hands-on experience.

But what if you grab that experience and couple it with innovative tech, and a team of gifted engineers? That’s where the magic happens.

To me, that’s what sets eCabs apart from other ride-hailing and taxi platforms.

It’s a technology company that also has years of real-world, hands-on industry expertise.

That’s because, over the years, eCabs has transitioned from a traditional dial-a-cab operation to a digital platform-based taxi and booking dispatch platform with multiple revenue streams.

eCabs embraced the power of emerging technology and built on more than a decade of real-life experience.

“You just can’t fake that kind of experience”

Thirteen years ago, when I was in my early 20s, one of my first part-time jobs was driving cabs – with eCabs.

And I cut my teeth working at our first operations centre smack in the middle of St Julian’s, Malta’s busiest urban centre.

Picking up customers, dropping them off, taking booking reservations, and working around traffic flows and people’s lifestyles.

It taught me a lot about the realities of this industry.

I learnt what it means to get stuck in traffic because you aren’t sure about the best route.

Or how peak passenger numbers change depending on a whole range of factors – like is it the middle of summer? Are you on the West or East coast? Is the area you’re driving through urban or suburban?

This was at a time when mobile data was prohibitively expensive and mapping apps were practically inexistent.

And I’m not alone.

Key members of the eCabs and eCabs Technologies leadership teams were also there at the beginning of this journey.

You just can’t fake that kind of experience.

Because when it comes down to it, you need to know how something works if you’re going to have any chance of fixing it.

Our job is to continuously refine our tech offering, making our product smarter, faster, and more user-friendly for all our users – whether that’s riders, drivers, and now also our city partners.

eCabs Technologies Head of Product Marvin Briffa

As an aside, eCabs is also the kind of company that believes in personal growth.

Over the years I furthered my education, studying business administration at prestigious European universities – this was possible in no small part to the support and encouragement I received from eCabs.

Going global

Today, as Head of Product, I work with a team of business analysts, product owners, product managers, UI UX designers, talented engineers and gifted data crunchers.

Our job is to continuously refine our tech offering, making our product smarter, faster, and more user-friendly for all our users – whether that’s riders, drivers, and now also our city partners.

And when we’re not fine-tuning our existing offering, we’re creating new products to enrich our suite too.

We’re doing all this because 2023 is shaping up to be a big year for eCabs.

Taking our tech solutions and industry know-how to new jurisdictions is the next step in this journey.

At eCabs, we know how to help traditional taxi operations transition and embrace the solutions that tech offers the mobility sector.

We know this because we’ve already done it.

We know the teething problems and growing pains – like the resistance to embrace new technology or the fear that that tech is out to get them.

We’ve been there.

We’ve also learnt what it’s like to re-educate a market. One that’s used to thinking of mobility and transport in set ways.

But those ways are increasingly less compatible with contemporary lifestyles.

And another thing: This isn’t one-size-fits-all.

Each city has its own requirements – its own particular reality.

That’s why our team includes product owners and development teams from diverse backgrounds and cultures that are dedicated to creating new city-specific features.

We’re taking our tech global, and we’re pumped!

It takes experience to fix the user experience

eCabs Technologies Head of Product Marvin Briffa explains how eCabs built on real-life experience to embrace the power of emerging technology.

When it comes to learning the ropes, nothing really beats hands-on experience.

But what if you grab that experience and couple it with innovative tech, and a team of gifted engineers? That’s where the magic happens.

To me, that’s what sets eCabs apart from other ride-hailing and taxi platforms.

It’s a technology company that also has years of real-world, hands-on industry expertise.

That’s because, over the years, eCabs has transitioned from a traditional dial-a-cab operation to a digital platform-based taxi and booking dispatch platform with multiple revenue streams.

eCabs embraced the power of emerging technology and built on more than a decade of real-life experience.

“You just can’t fake that kind of experience”

Thirteen years ago, when I was in my early 20s, one of my first part-time jobs was driving cabs – with eCabs.

And I cut my teeth working at our first operations centre smack in the middle of St Julian’s, Malta’s busiest urban centre.

Picking up customers, dropping them off, taking booking reservations, and working around traffic flows and people’s lifestyles.

It taught me a lot about the realities of this industry.

I learnt what it means to get stuck in traffic because you aren’t sure about the best route.

Or how peak passenger numbers change depending on a whole range of factors – like is it the middle of summer? Are you on the West or East coast? Is the area you’re driving through urban or suburban?

This was at a time when mobile data was prohibitively expensive and mapping apps were practically inexistent.

And I’m not alone.

Key members of the eCabs and eCabs Technologies leadership teams were also there at the beginning of this journey.

You just can’t fake that kind of experience.

Because when it comes down to it, you need to know how something works if you’re going to have any chance of fixing it.

Our job is to continuously refine our tech offering, making our product smarter, faster, and more user-friendly for all our users – whether that’s riders, drivers, and now also our city partners.

eCabs Technologies Head of Product Marvin Briffa

As an aside, eCabs is also the kind of company that believes in personal growth.

Over the years I furthered my education, studying business administration at prestigious European universities – this was possible in no small part to the support and encouragement I received from eCabs.

Going global

Today, as Head of Product, I work with a team of business analysts, product owners, product managers, UI UX designers, talented engineers and gifted data crunchers.

Our job is to continuously refine our tech offering, making our product smarter, faster, and more user-friendly for all our users – whether that’s riders, drivers, and now also our city partners.

And when we’re not fine-tuning our existing offering, we’re creating new products to enrich our suite too.

We’re doing all this because 2023 is shaping up to be a big year for eCabs.

Taking our tech solutions and industry know-how to new jurisdictions is the next step in this journey.

At eCabs, we know how to help traditional taxi operations transition and embrace the solutions that tech offers the mobility sector.

We know this because we’ve already done it.

We know the teething problems and growing pains – like the resistance to embrace new technology or the fear that that tech is out to get them.

We’ve been there.

We’ve also learnt what it’s like to re-educate a market. One that’s used to thinking of mobility and transport in set ways.

But those ways are increasingly less compatible with contemporary lifestyles.

And another thing: This isn’t one-size-fits-all.

Each city has its own requirements – its own particular reality.

That’s why our team includes product owners and development teams from diverse backgrounds and cultures that are dedicated to creating new city-specific features.

We’re taking our tech global, and we’re pumped!