below are my thoughts on AMP’s taxi.com.br idea…
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It can become a mix of vans (as in more than one passenger) and cabs (passenger defines point A and B), using networks to calculate the most optimal source. After all, fixed stops & fixed schedules were needed before the age of constant communication.
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Check seamlessweb.com business plan: Customers use the web to order deliveries (credit card payment, better menu list, convenience) and restaurants don’t need to lock a line and pay employees to be available to call. It sits in the middle, helps both parties and gets a cut of the action.
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Same way with your taxi.com.br… I’ll send you a paper about it if j can find it, but here’s the happy path:

• Customer goes online (minimal website interface, good but not limited to iPhones) tells point A (where he is), point B (where he wants to be) and optionally, when (defaults to as soon as possible)
• customer receives total price, pays right away
• customer receives an sms telling the 5 min before van arrives (the driver has to inform the system, more on that later)
• customer picks the van, is told when it arrives to point B
• customer receives an email asking to rate the experience.

Price fluctuates based on van availability on the area a or b, traffic, reputation.
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The van is part of a club. It needs:

• initial checkup
• app installation fee (you sell)
• monthly fee (comm costs)

The app can be a simple beep with gps.
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The higher the ratings:

• lower the monthly fee
• better offers (daily commute pool, fixed A, B points)

The driver doesn’t have to negotiate payment or service. The system deals with it and offers customers from the nearest places (route optimization). The driver gets the fare, a cut going to the system (70-30?)
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Problems:

• legislation, lobbies
• quality of service
• do we count start or end time? End time is better, but we need to take traffic into account

Opportunities:

• airports, malls, any fixed point b
• daily commutes: customer pays monthly and can make minor adjustments (free prior 24h). You’re competing with cars!!!
• if overall cost is cheaper than car, with same benefits (control of a to b), market it as the green solution, find government grants

transition
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there will come a time in your life when you will ask yourself a series of questions:

- am i happy with who i am?
- am i happy with the people around me?
- am i happy with what i’m doing?
- am i happy with the way my life is going?
- do i have a life? or am i just living?

do not let these questions strain or trouble you.
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just point youself in the direction of your dreams, find your strengh in the sound, and make you transition.

e o que o iching tem a dizer quanto a minha politica de back off?
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Li, aderir, o fogo: Finda o dia. A luz do sol poente lembra o aspecto condicionado e transitório da vida. Nesta falta de liberdade exterior os homens com freqüência perdem também sua liberdade interior. A transitoriedade da existência ou os impele a uma euforia desenfreada, a fim de gozar a vida enquanto ela dura, ou se deixam levar pela tristeza e desperdiçam um tempo precioso lamentando a aproximação da velhice. Ambas as atitudes são erradas. Para o homem superior é indiferente que a morte esteja próxima ou distante. Ele aprimora-se, aguarda sua sorte e assim consolida seu destino.
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ok, odeio quotes de outros sites no meu blog, mas po, tapa na cara eh issae… estamos nos reajustando, realinhando, obviamente doi.

pra quem acha que americano é povinho racional e pragmático:
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“
Americans probably use a greater variety of units of measurement than anyone else in the world. Caught in a slow-moving transition from customary to metric units, we employ a fascinating and sometimes frustrating mixture of units in talking about the same things. We measure the length of a race in meters, but the length of the long jump event in feet and inches. We speak of an engine’s power in horsepower and its displacement in liters. In the same dispatch, we describe a hurricane’s wind speed in knots and its central pressure in millibars.
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durma-se com um barulho desses!

do meu signo (aquário), amanhã:
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The superior news: A major breakthrough or transition is well within the realm of possibility. But, this presupposes that you’ve done your part - i.e., the background, inner or fundamental work that permits it - and aren’t continuing to promote or subsidize arrangements that might have been coherent back in the Pleistocene era but have little relevance now.
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swoon é o mais foda.