UBER smartphone taxis will be launched on the streets of Bolton today.

The firm will officially open its operations in the borough from 4pm — when customers will be able to order cars directly from an application on their phones.

Uber was granted a licence in March to operate in Bolton and has opened up offices in Bark Street in the town centre.

The company says it has been meeting with local drivers who want to work with the firm, with a number of them hitting the streets for the first time this afternoon.

New branches of the business in Bolton, Bury and Oldham form part of the firm’s new Uber X offering.

Bolton customers will be charged about 20 per cent less than those in Manchester — with an example journey from Bolton Bus Station to the Royal Bolton Hospital costing £4.60.

Max Lines, general manager of Uber in Greater Manchester, said: “Bolton is the first town in the area outside of Manchester where we are properly launching — it made sense because it has the highest number of private hire drivers and also because of the interest level from customers and drivers in Bolton.”

The Uber process allows customers to access an application on their smartphone and directly select a car that is in the local area.

The customer can then see the live route that the car is taking to get to them — as well as accessing details of the driver including a photo, number plate and phone number.

Uber is also a cashless firm, with punters paying for their journey directly via credit or debit cards.

The arrival of the American company — which currently operates in 57 countries — has not gone down well with local operators which have threatened strike action, claiming that Uber cars do not adhere to the rules set down by Bolton Council’s licensing department for private hire vehicles.

Mr Lines said: “We have a Bolton operator licence. We went through a very thorough process with Bolton Licensing who looked at a lot of parts of our business.

“Everyone was happy and they granted the licence — I think they are confident they have done the right thing.”

He added: “I don’t think any of the reasons I have seen in the press are reasons why we shouldn’t be granted a licence — it is the job of the licensing team to decide this and not up to others.”

The 30-year-old believes that the arrival of Uber will force other operators to “up their game”.

He said: “We have seen that in Manchester — I think that is great for customers because it means they have better options."

He said the best way for interested drivers to find out more about working with Uber is to visit partners.uber.com where details of "on-boarding sessions" at the Bark Street office will be made available.