Taxi Driver Online

CAB COMPANY ON OUTSKIRTS OF LONDON. 85 DRIVERS. LOOKING TO INSTALL COMPUTER SYSTEM WITH DATA.

SEEN MANY DEMOS, NAVIGATOR, MERCURY, AURIGA AUTOCAB TO NAME A FEW. ALL LOOK GOOD AT DEMO. WHAT ARE THAY LIKE IN REAL LIFE?

3


Navigator there is about one in the UK, try and look at it

Auriga dont know but those that have it rave about it.

Mercury excelent

They all have faults, it's just some of them have less than others.

I think if you check all the posts on this section it might give you an idea.

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IDFIMH

HI
Well there are a number of options and things to consider when buying a data system. You have looked at some of the main ones on the market and they will all cost you money, some cheaper than others.

It all depends on what you want to do with you business and how you want to look towards the future.

Other things that you have to consider are the "hidden costs" these are not charges made by the acutal data system suppliers but costs like landlines for radio sites (your fleet will need two channels one data and one voice), radio site charges, antenna installation at sites, maybe a new phone system or upgrade of exsiting system including installation of ISDN digital lines to get screen popping (not all data suppliers need digital lines).

There is also the question of how can you cut the overall cost down, do you have base stations that can do the job? Do you have radios that can be used for data? Do you have a phone system that is compatiable.

Others thing to look at is the fact that you data channel transmitting power will certianly be around the 5watts for the London area and you will have to think carefully about radio coverage, after all if you cant communicate with the drivers within your exisitng working area then you will have problems.

Its a bit step and a lot of money to invest, no matter which supplier you go to.

Anyway, if you have any questions you can always ask on the forum or drop me a line.

regards
RadioMan

so who do you sell data systems for then radioman?

I also might be interested in such a system, but do not want to be seduced privately.

Tell us all about it on te forum please.

Punter, maybe?

Mr Guest, if you registered then you could PM Radioman for more details.

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IDFIMH

What I want is simple. 30 vehicles with GPS on a radio network.

What is so private about that?

I think the fact that you are posting as guest does confuse people when they are giving advice.

Most people on here don't generally respond to guest posts, because they don't know which guest is who. Especially when some guests think everyone is Stewart from Diplomat.

Alex

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ʎɐqǝ uo pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ɐ ʎnq ı ǝɯıʇ ʇsɐן ǝɥʇ sı sıɥʇ

Simply the best taxi forum in the whole wide world. www.taxi-driver.co.uk

well ther are four guests on line at this moment, so I suppose they can not all be called stewart, or has he cloned them.

God help us.

All this new technology does my head in.

Another guest

Hello (another) Mr Guest,

My message was not about me selling a system, it was about what YOU the buyer should be looking for in a system. What you should do is sit down with a blank bit of paper, a pen and a nice cold bottle of beer and then on the bit of paper right down all the things that you want a data system to do.

Remember at the end of the day ALL data systems allow you to book jobs and dispatch them to cars, everything else that is added onto this facitlity is to help you, your staff and your drivers:

Such options would be:

1. Caller Line Identification - This is a MUST for every company, its the
best way to save time with bookings etc
2. Callback - This is also very good for drivers and customers, especially
if your in an area with high rise flats
3. Accounts - Some use windows some use in house systems. Again write
down what you want from the accounts package.
4. GPS - There are various forms of GPS plotting in use on data systems,
the majority of systems use the GPS to PLOT the driver and in
an area, nothing else, it just stops him/her from false locating.
Its also good for you to be able to pull up car position. Other
systems actually send out jobs to the car that is nearest the
pickup point, totally differant from GPS Plotting.
5. Autobook - There are various options but now Auriga and others are
moving into the IVR market, this is basically a system that picks
up the number from the caller id and asks the caller some
questions and they can book a car without having to speak to
an operator.
6. Internet Bookings - Some companies are now offering this option.
7. Remote offices - If you have some remote offices then some companies
offer options to connect booking terminals from your main
system to these remotes offices so that the staff can book jobs.
8. Multiple data channels - if you have a very large fleet the system should
be able to support more than one data channel, but again some
systems handle the data channels totally differant from others.

Radios
Most systems use the Tait T2000 Radio, but that is now being replaced with Tait TM800 radio, GM350/GM340 Motorola Radio, Simoco SRM9000, Icom and for base stations, Tait 800, Simoco TSF2000 (replacement for PRF10) and thats about it.

Nothing much new on the radio side unless your going down the IR2008 way, which we can debate in another thread).

Data Units
This has been one of the biggest changes in the industry. Auriga, Autocab, Cabmaster, Marandy, Diplomat, Raywood have all brought out new data units, they all do the same BASIC function i.e receive a job and display it, what you have to look at is what else can it offer:

Some of the features that are being offered:

1. Mapping software for the driver i.e Tom Tom type stuff.
2. GPRS - back up for for driver going out of area.
3. In-built credit card swipe, but not much use once chip&pin come into
play very soon.
4. Text to Speech, system reads job details to driver.
5. Touch screen (no buttons) or just a couple of buttons, everything is
as it says, touch screen.
6. Colour screen.
7. Various stats
8. Whatever else they can program in to it.

Software Plateforms
You have various software plateforms in use, i.e. the main operating system before the data companies software is loaded.

1. Autocab - Dos base but moving onto Linux/windows
2. Auriga - Real32 32bit operting system moving onto windows
3. Datamaster - Windows XP
4. Cabmaster - Dos based application but David was doing windows
5. Diplomat - Windows
6. Raywood - Unix based systems and Windows 2000
Marandy - I belive now windows but will have to confirm
7. Mobile Knowledge - Windows 2000

Thats about it for dispatch systems. So as you can see there is a lot and that bit of paper is the thing that you should go by because the things on it are what YOU want and not WHAT others want to sell YOU!

I hope this helps, but if you have any other questions then let me know, on or off forum.

regards
RadioMan

I've been looking at several Data systems over the past few weeks with a guy I used to work with in Sutton In Ashfield, he's got over 25 cars and is looking to get Data installed in a few months, the ones that have come out on top are Excel and Auriga. Both IMHO are a good buy, Auriga is a bit pricey but the back up is second to none, Excel is a local firm so not far to travel if any problems occur. Looked at Cabmaster Datamaster and all the others and to be honest they are trailing in the stakes.

Some systems do Andy, the operators can still feed like F**K on Data though.