An American cab firm with a difference opened for business in Portsmouth last Friday and is set to revolutionise the way we hail a taxi. It has been a long time since anyone held their arm aloft and yelled ‘taxi!’, and now the days of calling a harassed controller and haggling over fares with drivers may well be over.

Uber was founded in 2009 in San Francisco as ‘UberCab’ by two young entrepreneurs, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, and their innovative business model caught fire Stateside before going global. Portsmouth is the latest city in Britain in which Uber has set up stall and it is sure to find a receptive market here.

The difference between your regular cab firm and Uber is that the latter is essentially a smartphone app which utilises locally-recruited drivers who own their own cars. Uber bypasses the conventional ‘cab stand’, making the office, telephone line and controller obsolete. They save money doing this and, thus, are able to considerably undercut their rivals.

Sign up with Uber and it will enable you to see which drivers are available in your area, each one having a profile including name, a photo and their car’s registration. You can then get an accurate price for your planned journey, book it and pay the fare before the driver even gets to you.

Uber is an extraordinary success story, with stock value of $18.2 billion, accrued in just five years.

In the end, it is up to the consumer. Imagine the scenario: it’s late, you are lashed with rain and really need a lift. Worse, you are out of cash! It is then you may wish you had signed up to Uber.

Find out more about Uber here:  https://www.uber.com/