Safe. Fast. Now.

When I was starting out, I used to take cabs to and from work. I used to take cabs to press conferences and interviews, and it was probably one of the most challenging parts of my job.

Beating deadlines was easy — I trained a lifetime for it — but hailing a cab during rush hour at the South Super Highway; or during the holiday season was like sniffing for a scoop. You could get lucky — or you could wait forever and a day.

In the past, meters inside taxis were never uniform and you had to be more vigilant than a security guard to catch faulty meters — or you ended up losing a day’s pay on a 20-minute taxi ride. You were never sure which driver to trust, and though my guardian angels always watched over me, there was a time my gut feel told me to get off a cab in the middle of Roxas Boulevard. My instincts also told me to get off near a lamppost, so I would be visible to motorists in case I was held up. Or kidnapped! Luckily, I got off the cab without incidence.

My daily on-the-job angels were the security guards of The Philippine Star, who dutifully jotted down the plate numbers of each and every taxicab I took.

To be sure, most taxi drivers are decent men just trying to earn a living. Some of them even give up their earnings to drive accident victims and women in labor to hospitals. Most of them are actually Good Samaritans.

But it is an imperfect world, and women, who cannot as easily ward off attackers as men can, are particularly at risk when they hail a cab out of nowhere in the dark. With more and more women working the night shift, the need for cabs with trustworthy drivers is becoming more urgent.

***

This was the need 22-year-old Natasha Bautista recognized in working women like herself when she introduced the GrabTaxi app to the Philippine market.

A 5-ft.-11-in Management graduate from the Ateneo de Manila University, she was working as a ramp and commercial model in Kuala Lumpur when she decided to intern with MyTeksi, which also provided an app that helped passengers book a cab in the shortest possible time.

On a visit to the Philippines in 2012, Natasha posted via BlackBerry the plate number of the taxi she was riding in.

Her Malaysian boss Anthony was actually incredulous. “You guys know the plate number of the taxi you’re in?”

“We do it for security purposes,” she told Anthony, who lost no time in convincing her to bring the principle behind MyTeksi to Manila.

Thus was born GrabTaxi, the first and largest taxi app in the Philippines that helps passengers book a cab with safety, speed, certainty and convenience.

“It’s what you grab when you like it safe, fast, and now!” the former ramp model smiles naughtily.

She is talking about taxicabs, of course.

***

Natasha says GrabTaxi gets a “few thousand” clicks a day.

“GrabTaxi aims to improve taxi markets by introducing simple, cost-effective mobile-based technology to both taxi fleets and drivers and passengers that will optimize the matching process between both,” explains Natasha, who graduated from university at age 19.

You can download the app if you have a smartphone. Drivers who are part of the GrabTaxi network also have smartphones.

You type in your location and destination, and drivers respond to you through the app. A P70 “booking” fee is automatically added to your fare, and you type in the tip you plan to give when you book the taxi. The first one to respond to your booking is immediately linked to you by GrabTaxi. Sometimes the taxi is at your doorstep in one minute, sometimes, in 15.

My officemate Bernadette has used the GrabTaxi app more than five times, and has been satisfied with the service it facilitated. Just be prepared to pay more, she adds.

“But for the safety and convenience it provides, it is worth the extra cost,” Bernadette says.

So do you get it safe, fast and now?

“Not always ‘now’,” she smiles. “Safe and fast, yes!”

***

Natasha is the assistant general manager, corporate secretary and marketing vice president of GrabTaxi Philippines (GrabTaxi is also available in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam).  It took her less than a year to shift from first to fourth gear in the taxi mobile app business — from intern at MyTeksi to AGM of GrabTaxi. She is the only woman in GrabTaxi Philippines management, and much of its success is credited to Natasha’s understanding of its target market — working Filipino women like her. To this day, Natasha takes cabs when she sees that parking is going to be a problem, in going to meetings and when it is her number-coding day.

According to the statuesque Natasha, all GrabTaxi drivers are carefully screened and chosen by taxi operators and managers.  Once they pass initial requirements, the drivers are required to attend classes on how to use a smartphone and how to navigate through the GrabTaxi app. The classes also include lessons on etiquette. This service is a first in the Philippines, and it couldn’t have come sooner.

Always ahead of her time, Natasha remembers begging her parents when she was a toddler to be sent to school just like her two older siblings. Then living in Baguio, she went to nursery school at age three and graduated from high school (she didn’t have to go to Grade Seven) at age 15.

Even before graduating with a degree in BS Management from the Ateneo in 2011, Natasha was already modelling as part of the Professional Models Association of the Philippines. In 2012, she was a full-time professional model in Singapore and Malaysia, where she met the brains behind MyTeksi Malaysia.

“Commuters all over the world, not just in the Philippines, have problems with taxicabs. So this app provides invaluable service to commuters,” she points out.

How far does she want to take GrabTaxi? “Our goal is to make it the first and only taxi app in Southeast Asia,” she declares, admitting there is competition.

As for herself, she also knows where she wants to go. “My ultimate dream is really to be a good wife and mother someday.”

Now if only there could be an app to ensure that, too!

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].)