Taxi Driver Online

Hi guys,

I followed part of your discussions regarding computerised booking/dispatch solutions via PMR and GPRS.

My internet research regarding providers in UK seems to indicate Auriga or Cordic as the most promising providers which is almost similar with the opinions of most of the people on the forum.

Auriga has an interesting downloadable demo on their site with their EVOCAB system. They have probably the most important experience and they have also proofs of case studies on their site.
Their CT4000 car device to be launched soon (next month?) on the market, use PMR channel and in the same time provides optionally GPRS with PMR/PMR roaming and PMR/GPRS roaming. This solution seems to allow a taxi company that already invested in PMR infrastructure to reuse its investment and in the same time to switch in a seamless way from voice to data via PMR and, where consider useful the taxi company can use GPRS channel too.
Their weak points: very expensive and their proprietary CT3000/CT4000 equipment being provided by a single provider (Tait, owner of Auriga).

Cordic, is impressive through their growth in few years since start-up. They focused on single data communication channel (GPRS). Their mobile device is not a proprietary solution (PDA) and in general they develop a more standardised solution in terms of hardware equipments and software (CPAQ document on their site). Probably (I’m not sure) Cordic solution is less expensive than Auriga (it is?).

Cordic weak points are more related to the missing of GPRS/PMR tandem and what is surprising is the fact they do not refer any customer case study on their site.

I would like to have your opinions and comments on my post. I’m very interested in opinions of peoples that know about these systems from their own experience. I need the best solution for a company of about 100 cars that uses PMR voice systems at this moment and wants to switch on data.

Thanks

ive never used cordic but auriga is not as good as people say.
not saying its crap just not good value for money.
the whole clever booking system is evidence of programmers never having drove a cab.
it thinks its clever by holding jobs back and then searching for better placed cars and cars dropping,. but that takes into account that drivers always exectp a job.
and there datahead are stoneage even the new coloured ones.
might change my view when the pdas come out.
but doubt it.

Always the optimist mr cgull

Best thing to do, is to contact them both, and visit some cof their customers. Go to a couple of customers from each. I don't know about cordic customers, but if they are half as helpful (and honest) as Auriga's, you will gain loads.

Probably also worth going to the taxi trade show in coventry (in may, i think it is) - both will probably be there showing their wares, and of course both will be happy to discuss their systems.

Finally, it is probably worth going and visiting their offices. Again, I don't know about cordic, but Auriga has a training system all set up, and the people who would show it to you are pretty good about discussing exactly how it all works.

Hope this helps a little bit

Thank you for your comments cgull and intheknow. Cgull I understand that you don't know about Cordic. Have you ever used Auriga system? Do you know a better alternative on the market? Intheknow, I understand that you know quite well Auriga team and the system. Do you think they are the best on the market today? Are you a customer of Auriga?

auriga is as they say overated, mainly because they are selling the new version off the back of the old one on the basis it is a system all will already be familiar with, but, when it arrives it is totally different from the old system has less functionality is less flexible and in my experience allows many more booking errors to be made than the original system.

Overall a big disapointment. If you are going to change my money would be on Cordic. For what it's worth.

regards eric

Eric, if Cordic is so competitive, why do you think they do not post on their site, references of their customer base?

I will give them a reference.

The system works, and despite the gloom mongers talking about GPRS, we had a GPRS problem last week and the GSM backup kept us going fine.

I was an Auriga customer for many years and thank them for their system being a crucial part of my company's development. But time came to move from a DOS system to a windows based system.

I also wanted to get away from my the whole system (hardware/software) being controlled by one source. When my server goes wrong in future the computer guy next door will fix it, not wait for an engineer to appear from Luton.

When a new XDA arrives on the market in two years time I will throw away my current ones and transfer the software to a new one.

I wanted my software provider to concentrate on software solutions, not trying to compete with DELL/ HP etc in providing hardware kit.

Cordic worked on that basis.

I found the Auriga claims of being super clever rather hollow, as I have said before a super clever despatch system should be able to decide to send the nearest car if it wanted too. Evocab can't.

I was also concerned about delays to the CT4000. It has been a month or two away for over two years now. Has anyone started using it in anything but a trial basis?

Cordic does seem to be quietly recruiting lots of new customers. I understand they now have a 300 car fleet in South West London. I don't know if Auriga are recruiting new customers to Evocab from other suppliers, I am sure they must be.

Both systems work Taxitech. You have to decide which will suit you better.

_________________
A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

taxitech wrote:



Too busy maybe

Don't need to maybe

Oh by the way I did not say anything about price or competitivness in that area, please read the postings properly before you respond, I said they had a system which works, nothing more and nothing less, price then becomes irelevent.

Cheap is exactly that and this system is not, by all accounts.

Regards Eric

bac to auriga.
maybe its me but i do more running with this ever so clever evocab than i ever did with sirius.
if its busy then you dont need evode beacuse auriga plots are so small.
and if its quiet you will never use evode clever thinking system.
so whats the point of it then.
other than to pay salesmens mortgages.

Cgull

I think a lot of your problems are down to how the system has been configured by your office..

Auriga won't dictate zones size, that is left to the operator to decide.

I have no experience of the evocab options, but Cordic gives me everything I can think off (except zone shape).

With the old sirius system it would take months to plan and organize a rezoning and it would involve paying Auriga to reprogram everything. With Cordic(and quite possibly Evocab) I can simply redesign my zones alone within minutes.

The call offs are changed in seconds, I can decide whether to allocate to first car free (in local smaller zones I do) or nearest car (in larger out of town zones).

Fire times (the time allowed before pick up to give the job out) can be ammended by the hour by the day.

Only negative we are having is the XDA's locking up during the day. Sometimes they lock up frequently, other time not at all.Would help if there was a display to tel you it had locked up.

_________________
A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

long time since i posted something but here goes been with auriga for sometime just signed for evocab system went & looked at many different sites with different systems but decided to stay with auriga because it seemed the best option for our company also tried to compare the cordic system with the auriga for us the cost of installing say cordic with our force of drivers would have been very more expensive than upgrading from sirius to evocab will let u ppl know how we get on thanxx for all ur help

Labraiz

So when you say cost of installing Cordic would have beentoo much. Does this indicate that you are upgrading to Evocab but retaining the CT3000 and not planning to purchase theCT4000?

If this is your plan then you are hardly comparing like for like.

I recall radio coverage was a major problem for you. How do you intend to solve this with the CT3000.

_________________
A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

still dont like it.
so there.

Yes tom we are only upgrading to the evocab & retaining the ct 3000 i am not looking to upgrade the data heads just yet but i am having abt 10 ct 4000 data heads just to try as a comparison for like to like with the cordic system it is not but if i bought the evocab package with say 260 new ct 4000 data heads the cost would still be a lot cheaper over 3 yrs Tom u knw what u are paying for each bundle with cordic a week so i will let u work it out what it wud cost me for 250 cars a week to have cordic.

Tom we still have quite a few problems with radio voice coverage but i think regardless of which data system i went with those wud still be there cuz of the the large area we cover but the data side of it is not bad but we are still looking to improve the voice

Ah, so you are not comparing like with like. You are changing the bookings system in your office but won't be able to take advantage of the new features because your data unit won't support it!

Buying the Cordic system would have given you lots more features than you will have with CT3000.

Too make a true comparison you needed to add in the cost of 250 CT4000 (which I am lead to believe would be 250K), then you would also need to add in the cost of the sim and still have your PMR costs on top.

I understand the costs calculation. But how many of your 250 drivers have mobile phones? I bet it is all of them. How many would pay you £7.50 a month rental for contract rental agreement with much cheaper calls than they can buy from O2, Vodafone or Orange?

So you could have given them an XDA and a sim card, charged them £7.50 a month and let them have cheap calls. Or, as someone else has done, given them the sim free and make 20% when you bill them for their calls.

_________________
A member of the Hire or Reward Industry