Uber Competitor Uses ‘Rent Is Too Damn High’ Candidate for D.C. Promotion

Here’s another transit option for cash-strapped college students: The GW Hatchet reports that Hailo, a service that pitches itself as a cheaper alternative to Uber, will “reduce prices by 50 percent for a limited time every weekday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.”

And it’s using a familiar face from four years ago to hawk its service in D.C.:

Jimmy McMillan, founder and central candidate of New York’s Rent is Too Damn High Party, turned his efforts to GW’s campus to promote Hailo, a car service app that is marketing itself as a cheaper version of Uber. Passersby took pictures as the float made its way through campus on a route that also took it past the Verizon Center and down U Street.

McMillan said young people, like GW students, deserve “extra money in their pocket to spend” on other luxuries and “necessities like breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

“This is not about us,” he said. “This is about the millions of public people who can’t afford to make ends meet.” …

McMillan said he wanted to publicize the app in the District because several members of the Rent is Too Damn High Party were elected to the D.C. Democratic State Committee this past year.

The Rent Is Too Damn High guy is riding through DC shilling for Hail-O and against Uber pic.twitter.com/yg4R2V5qoE

— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) September 8, 2014

Hailo stands out from Uber by also eschewing surge pricing, but it charges a $1.50 fee for every hail. One student isn’t impressed:

Another sophomore who noticed the campaign, Sachin Kumar, said he downloaded the Hailo app to see if the company’s claims about lower rates were true, but he found no proof that their prices were cheaper than Uber.

He said unlike Uber, Hailo doesn’t allow users to look at a fare quote, which allows them to find out in advance the cost of arriving at their destination.

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