

File: A line of taxi cabs, as seen from City Sights DC, wait to pick up passengers at Union Station in Washington, D.C., on Monday, May 5, 2014. (Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)

This post has been updated and corrected. An earlier version of the story had the incorrect name for one of the companies offering digital dispatch. It is Curb, not Curbed.

The e-hail app Hailo is billing itself as a friend to the traditional cab driver, who may feel squeezed in an age of Uber and Lyft. Now it is launching a discount program it says will help traditional cab drivers get more business, while saving consumers money.

For the uninitiated, Hailo is an app, which enables uses to order a standard cab via app. This week, the company announced a 50 percent fare cut for D.C.-area rides taken weekdays between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The announcement comes on the heels of fare reductions announced by UberX (Uber recently cut its prices 15 percent, saying that its service is now 30 percent cheaper than a D.C. taxi.) The Hailo discount is in effect for a limited time.

(One important difference to note: with Hailo, you are summoning a standard cab. UberX, Lyft and Sidecar drivers are private individuals driving their personal vehicles.)

A 50 percent discount sounds like a pretty good deal at least for consumers, so we thought we’d try it out.

First of all, the Hailo promotion can save you money. Maybe not 50 percent off the meter fare once you throw in the $1.50 booking fee and tip, but it will save you some bucks. For a trip from Union Station back to The Washington Post, I would have paid $13.34 plus including tip had I hailed the cab the old-fashioned way, but with the Hailo promotion, I paid $9.04 (tip and fee included). Good for me, but maybe not so good for cab drivers — whose income is based on how much they bring in in fares.

I didn’t realize this until I spoke with representatives from Hailo and confirmed it with the D.C. Taxicab Commission, but customers who”hail” their cab using an app may pay less than if they did by waving their hand in the air.

In D.C., meter rates for taxis are set by the D.C. Taxicab Commission, according to spokesman Neville Waters, but so-called e-hail companies (or digital dispatch companies) like Hailo have an exemption that allows them to set their own rates. Just like Uber and other companies, they can set prices higher when demand is greater — and offer discounts when business is slow. Hailo’s executives note that the company does not do surge pricing — raising prices during times of high demand.

Hailo operates in D.C., Arlington, Alexandria and Prince George’s County. It is just one of several companies approved to operate in D.C. Others include, Yellow Taxi and Taxi Magic, which recently became Curb ed . All allow you to summon a cab using an app.

Kevin Hatfield, co-president of Hailo North America said the Hailo app is aimed at customers who may prefer a taxi to other alternatives such as UberX and Lyft because of security and insurance concerns.