Collective taxi service Collecto gets its own app

The Brussels collective taxi service Collecto can now be ordered using a smartphone app, mobility minister Pascal Smet has announced. Until now the service has only been available to order by telephone and text message. 

Collecto is an initiative of the Brussels region’s mobility agency, Brussel Mobiliteit. It offers a shared taxi service between the hours of 23.00 and 6.00, with pick-ups from 200 points in the region, on the hour and half-hour seven days a week. A journey costs €6, or €5 for holders of the MIVB’s Mobib card. Last year the service was used by 142,000 passengers, up from 116,000 in 2012.

Using the app, passengers can now order a taxi automatically, find a map of the nearest pick-up points, follow the progress of the taxi ordered and receive a text message showing when it will arrive. 

“We wanted to make Collecto even more user-friendly,” Smet said as he launched the app. “You’ll be led to the pick-up and see the taxi coming on your smartphone. This is a response to the expectations of a lot of young users, who use their smartphone more and more for assistance in getting around the city. Above all it shows that the region intends to go on investing in the Brussels taxi sector.”

Smet’s comments are intended to appease the official taxi sector after comments he made recently stating that there could be a place in Brussels for the alternative taxi service Uber. Brussels taxis are due to take part in an international protest on 8 October against Uber’s increasing presence in many cities, including Brussels. 

The Collecto app will be available free for Android and iOS in Dutch, French and English from 1 October.