How often have you walked around town and all of sudden the heavens open and rain pours down. This can effect your day in a multitude of ways. If you have shopping your purchases get wet. You’re on your way to a meeting - your suit gets soaked. You’re catching up with a friend over a coffee - you’re favourite cashmere cardigan gets wet. You only need to go a five minutes down the road...not far enough for a traditional road going taxi!

There are a number of scenarios where the rain would ruin your day and put you in a bad mood. Wouldn’t it be great if someone came along and helped keep you dry en-route to your destination? An Aviva Taxi…a uniformed carrier (Aviva Blue polo shirts, beige trousers) with a branded yellow umbrella (each umbrella will have relevant #tags, urls, @’s, FBk details etc).

Aviva Aqua Taxis (AAT’s) would be waking around much like taxis looking for people in need on days/seasons where rain is expected to fall. Upon review of a weather forecast AAT’s can be distributed in the worst affected areas of a town/city. The difference is, these AAT’s will be free and can also be flagged down like a taxi. They can also be attained via a browser (HTML 5, browser to guarantee any browser enabled phone can utilise the service) application. The reason for the app running via a smart phone browser is so the end user doesn’t have to download an ‘app’. Any web-enabled phone, in theory, would be able to use the service.

The idea of the web app comes secondary to the ‘stunt’ of having lots of carriers walking around a number of places being secretly filmed for tv and web content. These carriers can be hailed but initially they will simply go up to people and ask them if they’d like to walk under their umbrella. Safe in the knowledge they’ll arrive dry and with a smile on their face. And it won’t cost you the end user a thing! Each carrier has its own smart phone that can be followed on a map. By clicking on the yellow umbrella icon, on the map, it will show whether it’s free or in use. By requesting a particular umbrella the carrier accepts the request and navigates to the destination. There he or she will help the passenger in need, be it to the local shops, a walk from the station home etc… There will be a time limit to the duration of the journey. This¬ idea is for the those short 5-10 minute journeys that are not quite far enough for a cab but far enough for you to get totally soaked!

This can be utilised by anyone but for the people who regard getting a taxi as a luxury it will be a welcome alternative.