Taxi Driver Online

I have read through a lot of the moans and groans written by various person or persons unknown to me, I maybe like many others changed to computerised system for my small business, and yes I went down the road where I choose Exel/Midas, it ran reasonably well for a while,then I found I wanted the system to do more and every time I asked Exel "what about this" the response was not what I was looking for, ie its not in the planning stage or no we are not going to do that.

I then clicked on to a diplomat upgrade for the system and found a better variety of choices, so I went ahead and upgraded when I wanted to know more Exel did not want to know me !, even though I was paying my monthly bit,so I called Stewart for advise, all I can say is that this bloke was geniunely very helpful and at no time ever tried a sales pitch to buy.

Like many others in the trade,I Received the story line about the demise of Diplomat, regardless if this was fact or fiction is not something I am aware of, I still was took back and contacted all concerned which left me even more confused, BUT, I still continued to get good support from Diplomat and was even more convinced that it was a sound move to stay with them, from this position I upgraded to a network system with total confidence in the product, and have since placed my trust in Stewart by changing the my other business (taxi & PH ) from cabmaster to Diplomat.
Again if this goes as well as I expect, then I will not have any complaints.

If any one thinks that this is a load of bull.... then I quite happy to discuss the pros and cons of our investment.

Well, we've got our Navigator Lite installed, and its up and running. Stewart has been more than helpfull, and even told me how to sort problems I had with the existing office network. So far, all looks good.

The Street database is gonna need a lot of work, but the Navigator package is a powerful bit of software, which so far, I have been unable to crash!!! Amazing.

Even more amazing, when you try the ultimate, and just flick the mains off, the whole bloody issue just stands itself up again as soon as the power comes on, with, so far, no loss of data.

I am already impressed, as none of the other packages have so far stood up to this test.

I also rather like the premium rate support number that you can use if you dont want to initially buy a support package.

I will report again, once the initial euphoria has worn off. But so far, 10 out of 10.

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

Thanks for you kind words Andy.
I have better street data for you now.
PM me on the Navlite forum later as it is very busy today and I may not log back into this forum for a while.

Cheers
Stewart

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Diplomat Delivers
www.diplomat.co.uk

let us hope so.

As far as the policy of releasig the software for free goes, if it can be done or released cheaply, then go for it i say!

The software industry wouldnt be in such a mess with piracy if they released the stuff at a decent price of which 99% of the public could afford, same as microsoft, if they released their products cheaper then more people would buy it! AND it wouldnt be worth copying it!

A lot of software companies have taken the above route and it has paid dividends, i say good luck stewart, as there are a lot more taxi companies in this country on pen and paper as there is on pc's!

Yeah, I agree, Guest. Wasn't it Microsoft after all, who gave away their product free on all new computers and thereby achieved the dominant market position that they have today.

And, isn't it a fact, that it is the companies who move from pen and paper to eventually full data etc, who are responsible for the lion's share of all taxi business expansion these days?

Diplomat aren't stupid. Once you have their free software, you'll want to expand. So who have you got to buy the rest from? Auriga?

The big boys already have data and the like. The market there is probably saturated. So target the pen and paper offices, and you have a large market share for the future...

Target the market so you can start on a small budget. Then go for growth within your new customer base so you can keep selling them gear and suport into the future. It's damn good business for them, and its damn good for us too.

After the fiascos I had with certain companies, my boss was put off dealing with some companies for life (he still mutters about thier training day rates, ), to the point where I was almost giving up trying to convince him of the bebefits. Now that Diplomat have given us a free install, it has boosted his confidence in the suppliers again, to the point that he has now alocated me a substantial budget to build up to a full data/GPS system spread over the next three years.

While I have a hell of a lot of respect for Wharfie and Mike Scott, we are all at the end of the day in business. And we all have to make decisions which are best for our respective businesses. Stewart, Jason and Peter have gone beyond the call of duty to answer all my (sometimes even bizarre) questions, and have certainly been the company to spend the most time and effort having us as customers, so will be receiving our cheques into the future it seems.

Most of the regulars on here know me, and know I have been posting on here for months trying to find out stuff about computer systems, and thus know that I started out totally impartial to all the various claims and counterclaims.

The simple fact is that we wanted what was right for our business:
and Diplomat Delivered it.

I can say no more than that.

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

Sorry andy,too technical for us Highlanders.
Up here we have pigeon post and two empty bean tins with string
attached.
Pigeon Post the cheapest,few bits o seed,but the bloody string now
quite pricey.
Cheerio noo.DOOOOOOBLO MAN.

Those lads up there, haven't mastered pen and paper yet !!

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IDFIMH

Maybe tried to keep us out of that place down from Scotland,but we had
or yir wimmen,so all I can say is,HIYA COUSIN.

I`d like to agree with andy, I have had nothing but help from Diplomat and what is the old saying, them who scratch my back will reap the rewards, or something like that - they get my vote !!, not every company can start off by spending 40 - 50 k upfront, smaller businesses have to be able to walk before they can run, we wanted a system that could grow with the firm and I believe we have it with Diplomat.

hope you are right, chances are you are not.

if owt goes wrong and you are stuck for hours on a premium phone line, what do you tell the wife when the bill comes?

or are you just a stooge?

Who knows if he is a stooge, but we all know who's a Scrooge.

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IDFIMH

Unlike other companies (you know who you are) we don't use stooges. We just let the product do the talking.

If you don't like the idea of a premium rate call then there is the option of a support contract. It is only 6.73 a week. That less than96p a day. Which would be about 45 seconds on the premium rate line.

So as you can see we are trying to encourage people to have support contracts. For those who are adamant they can cope without one we also extend access to the support team through the medium of a premium rate number.

The other alternative is to become a reseller or a trainer and then you get it all for free anyway.

So its down to the customer, we provide the choices, they select the solution that best suits them.

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Diplomat Delivers
www.diplomat.co.uk

glad you think its good, dont you feel a prat for sacking its develpoer?
where would you have been today? stalking around rubbish dumps?

No sir I am neither a stooge or a scrooge, we had our shorts took down by a firm in Milton keyes who charges a monthly contract which HM Gov. would have found heavy, when we told him to stick it, the firm did not respond to our letter or even get in touch to see what the problem was, only a few months later to send us a note to tell us that they were offering a alternative deal for service. cheeky git, from the outset with Diplomat we knew what we wanted and what we could afford and set every thing else up in line, service contract as well. good luck when you break down or your ink runs out.