Two operating models

Autocab alternative for UK chauffeur operators

Autocab and Kairo are built for different working days.

Autocab centres high-volume taxi and private-hire demand, public booking channels and ASAP allocation. Kairo centres pre-booked chauffeur work, account clients and one record through the journey and invoice.

Research checked 6 September 2026. Competitor statements are limited to the sources listed on this page and should be confirmed with the vendor.

Start with the operating decision

Autocab is Manchester-based booking and dispatch software for local private hire and taxi operators, owned by Uber since 2020. The comparison below sets Autocab's high-volume taxi dispatch against Kairo's pre-booked executive chauffeur work.

Autocab working day

Public, phone and aggregator demand
ASAP taxi/private-hire booking
High-volume allocation logic
Driver and white-label passenger apps
iGo demand network

Kairo working day

Pre-booked and account enquiries
Quote and live booking record
Chauffeur, vehicle and partner assignment
Secure passenger journey links
Account invoice and operating record

What Autocab is built for

Autocab calls itself market-leading booking and dispatch software for local private hire and taxi operators, established in 1989, headquartered in Manchester with 140+ staff, and says it operates in 33 countries. It's sold as a suite: booking and dispatch, a driver app, a white-label passenger app, automated phone answering with a voice-recognition virtual operator, corporate self-service accounts, analytics, and iGo, a demand network feeding incremental work in from aggregators including Uber, Gett, Addison Lee, First Rail and Arriva. Uber acquired Autocab in 2020; per Uber's own announcement it continues to operate independently with its own board.

Official Autocab site

Why operators look at Kairo

Built for high-volume local taxi and private hire dispatch, with no pricing and no minimum term published anywhere on their site.

Feature and commercial record

Kairo details reflect the current product and published Kairo terms. Competitor details reflect the sources below, checked 6 September 2026.

Comparison point	Kairo	Autocab
Published pricing	£99 / £199 / £349 a month by fleet size, on the website, before you speak to anyone	No pricing is published on autocab.com. Capterra lists Ghost Cloud from $2 per vehicle per week as a third-party figure, not something we could confirm on Autocab's own site.
Contract / minimum term	Monthly or annual billing, chosen at signup	Not published. No contract length or minimum term appears on any Autocab page we could fetch.
Getting started	Free 30-day trial, with your bookings, clients, drivers and vehicles imported for you	None. Capterra records no free trial and no free version; the route in is a "Book a Demo" form asking how many cars you run.
Done-for-you migration	Core data imported free. Managed Launch (£495) adds rate cards, integrations and training, with a 14-day guarantee	Not published. Onboarding is routed through a project-management mailbox (PMOffice@autocab.com); no migration package, timeline or import documentation appears in their help centre.
AI quoting from an inbound enquiry	Reads the enquiry and drafts the booking, ready for you to price and send	Not from a written enquiry. Phantom's Virtual Operator uses voice recognition on inbound phone calls, with an optional "Use AI" setting; no written-enquiry-to-quote automation is described.
Per-mile + per-minute tariff engine	Yes, per-mile plus per-minute with vehicle-class multipliers, VAT shown either way	Not described as per-mile plus per-minute chauffeur pricing. Autocab is positioned for "local private hire and taxi operators", with dispatch logic built around ASAP work such as longest-waiting versus nearest car and demand zones.
Driver app	Driver web app works on any phone; native iOS and Android apps are live	Yes. Driver Companion runs on iOS and Android, including document upload and job bidding.
Partner / subcontractor job flow	Built in: dispatch jobs to your partner fleet, they accept or decline, you track the split	iGo is a demand network passing work in from aggregators including Uber, Gett, Addison Lee, First Rail and Arriva, not a bidirectional partner or subcontractor ledger.
Xero + Stripe	Native Xero sync and Stripe payment links	Not named. Autocab's partners page lists partner categories rather than named accounting integrations; no Xero or QuickBooks integration appears on it.
Getting your data out	Ask us. We'll export your tenant's data for you	Invoice and job export to XLS or CSV from the accounts module is documented; no inbound migration or import documentation was found.

Published pricing

Kairo

£99 / £199 / £349 a month by fleet size, on the website, before you speak to anyone

Autocab

No pricing is published on autocab.com. Capterra lists Ghost Cloud from $2 per vehicle per week as a third-party figure, not something we could confirm on Autocab's own site.

Contract / minimum term

Kairo

Monthly or annual billing, chosen at signup

Autocab

Not published. No contract length or minimum term appears on any Autocab page we could fetch.

Getting started

Kairo

Free 30-day trial, with your bookings, clients, drivers and vehicles imported for you

Autocab

None. Capterra records no free trial and no free version; the route in is a "Book a Demo" form asking how many cars you run.

Done-for-you migration

Kairo

Core data imported free. Managed Launch (£495) adds rate cards, integrations and training, with a 14-day guarantee

Autocab

Not published. Onboarding is routed through a project-management mailbox (PMOffice@autocab.com); no migration package, timeline or import documentation appears in their help centre.

AI quoting from an inbound enquiry

Kairo

Reads the enquiry and drafts the booking, ready for you to price and send

Autocab

Not from a written enquiry. Phantom's Virtual Operator uses voice recognition on inbound phone calls, with an optional "Use AI" setting; no written-enquiry-to-quote automation is described.

Per-mile + per-minute tariff engine

Kairo

Yes, per-mile plus per-minute with vehicle-class multipliers, VAT shown either way

Autocab

Not described as per-mile plus per-minute chauffeur pricing. Autocab is positioned for "local private hire and taxi operators", with dispatch logic built around ASAP work such as longest-waiting versus nearest car and demand zones.

Driver app

Kairo

Driver web app works on any phone; native iOS and Android apps are live

Autocab

Yes. Driver Companion runs on iOS and Android, including document upload and job bidding.

Partner / subcontractor job flow

Kairo

Built in: dispatch jobs to your partner fleet, they accept or decline, you track the split

Autocab

iGo is a demand network passing work in from aggregators including Uber, Gett, Addison Lee, First Rail and Arriva, not a bidirectional partner or subcontractor ledger.

Xero + Stripe

Kairo

Native Xero sync and Stripe payment links

Autocab

Not named. Autocab's partners page lists partner categories rather than named accounting integrations; no Xero or QuickBooks integration appears on it.

Getting your data out

Kairo

Ask us. We'll export your tenant's data for you

Autocab

Invoice and job export to XLS or CSV from the accounts module is documented; no inbound migration or import documentation was found.

Switching from Autocab?

Start a free 30-day trial and send us an export from Autocab. We import your bookings, clients, drivers and vehicles for free. If you want rate cards, integrations and staff training handled too, Managed Launch does that for a one-off fee. Questions first? Call 0161 524 6855.

Start free trial How switching works

Sources

Vendors change features, pricing and terms. Confirm current details with Autocab before making a decision.