Catching a cab is about to get a lot less painful.
The taxi industry, working together for the first time, is launching a new app.Is it the Uber killer they are desperately hoping for - or too little too late?
iHail is being, well, hailed as a breakthrough app for taxi bookings in Australia. In theory it should drastically reduce the time it takes for a booked cab to arrive. 
For the first time all of the country's major taxi companies plan to work together to thwart a common enemy: Uber. It's extraordinary co-operation, given the cut-throat competitive nature of the taxi business.
Normally when you book a cab, you only book with a single network. There may be cabs near you, but if they are not from the network you booked with, they won't pick you up.
The iHail app solves this problem by letting users book from every taxi on the road. Simply request a cab and the nearest one, no matter the company, will pick you up.
"This is trying to address consumer experience. If you're waiting for a cab you may not want five empty ones to drive past you first," says Victorian Taxi Association boss  David Samuel.
Designed by some of Australia's top app developers, the app is jointly owned by Australia's largest taxi services, including Yellow Cabs, Silver Top Taxi Service, Black and White Cabs, Suburban Taxis and Cabcharge. Together the owners control more than 50 per cent of all taxis in Australia, and an even higher percentage in capital cities.
For the taxi companies to compete they have to work together, iHail's Nick Kings told Fairfax Media.
"They're a local entity, they are competing against a company worth more than $60 billion. The only way to compete is ... If they leverage these shared resources."
The company's competitors are less enthusiastic. GoCatch CEO Ned Moorfield - his company makes a competing app - was scornful of iHail's chances.
"It's going to be a case of too little too late. This is not going to be a game changer."
Mr Moorfield said his company had put an app with all of iHail's functionality on the market five years ago.
"The taxi industry has completely dragged their feet. This was their way of responding to the fact we were way ahead of them. It's taken them five years to get themselves organised and roll out something similar. But in the meantime the whole industry has shifted. iHail is certainly not going to save the industry from the threat of ridesharing."
When fierce competitors suddenly start working together, the competition regulator often gets involved.
As it has in this case: the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission initially banned the app, but after the companies made a number of changes it finally won approval on Tuesday.
Competitors Uber, goCatch and ingogo all welcomed the initial ban, saying the app would be bad for competition in the sector.
iHail will be released to consumers in   June, backed by a heavy national advertising campaign.
There won't be any Uber-like surge pricing, but consumers can pay a "queue-jump" fee to get quicker service. Payments can be made from the app without having to swipe a credit card, a la Uber.
Since its arrival in 2012, Uber has had a huge impact on the Australian market, despite its nationwide fight for legitimacy. 
As part of the ACCC's approval conditions taxi drivers will have to personally sign up for iHail, and will have the choice of continuing to use existing taxi dispatch systems and other competitors including goCatch and ingogo.
Roy Wakelin-King, head of the NSW Taxi Council, says this is "just the start of the journey".
"Just because you have an app does not meant it will be successful," he says.
"It doesn't matter who the competitor is. Whether it's Uber, Lyft or anyone else, it's a highly competitive  market. We need to make sure we're strongly competitive."