Taxi Driver Online

I have been for a site visit to a barely appropriate office with very friendly people but a very small circuit.
They talked highly of Mercury2.
We are an 80 car circuit and looking to expand. Is there anyone out there this sort of size who are using Mercury2.
Also a fair proportion of our work is account work.

Maybe I was spoiled by Cordic ( at my previous office ) where you can simply click on a driver ( when already allocated ) and see how far away he is from pick up and what speed they are travelling and the telephonist can relay this information to the client.
I find it hard to believe that Mercury2 or all systems do not offer this.
Next week is the sales pitch from Mercury so i would appreciate all comments to help me influence the owners in the right direction.

Thanks in advance

Don't buy it. Look around for the lads on here who've had it taken out and gone with other firms. They'll fill you full of bollocks and tell you they they'll be right there if anything goes wrong. It's expensive for what it is, beware of all the little add ons what they don't tell you about.

I'd stick with Cordic or give Bill a ring at Datamster, he's on these forums and what you see is what you get, he's honest and his system works a treat.

I wouldn't wish Mercury on my worse enemy.

I looked at mercury 2 at the exhibition a couple of weeks ago, now I know that I don't have anything to compare it to but to me it just seemed overly complicated.
I run a very small company and at the moment we are evaluating Datamaster. It is early days but most of the time it works great. The only problems we have is with over eager drivers who don't always press the right buttons at the right time but that will come right with practice.

_________________
Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

Have you gone with Datamaster?

I used Cordic at my previous office but I have moved to a company who have used Mercury for a few years. Both partners like it lots but I see Mercury1 as backward. They are now thinking of upgrading. I am not convinced by Mercury2 and want to see it working with a similar sized firm and not the small one that Mercury sent me to. What i saw of it seems basic and clunky.
After using Cordic for a few years and Shamrock for a short time, Mercury2 looks like a backward cousin.

I have contacted Bill at datamaster but when their website contact form does not work on their old and new website, I have to say this worries me greatly. In the end I have sent him a pm here.

Mercury2 nearly crippled us, we got promised on the spot support if anything went wrong, as we were only 1 mile away from their offices, we didn't get that support every Saturday night when it crashed because it couldn't handle the work that was being pushed through it. We ended up canning the whole lot and reverting back to Mercury1.

The whole Mercury Package was stolen from Stewart Harding at Diplomat, go on their website and look at Diplomat Navigator, it's exactly the same as Mercury1, now bear in mind Diplomat had been in business many years before Exel and Mercury came onto the scene. Would you trust someone or something that had been stolen from another company and the name changed to Mercury? I wouldn't. Mercury is so antiquated it's unreal. When I look what other firms round here are using and the simple things they can do with their dataheads I shake my head in disbelieve.

The connection problems we have is beyond a joke, Exel keep harping on about the dual sim, why would we want dual sims?? Ahhhh that's right to fleece more money out of us. Does a mobile phone have dual sims? No they don't, if a PDA can't pick a little packet up AKA a text message then there's something wrong somewhere.

Them sites you visit are set up so they run without problems, I bet the firm gets a nice little back hander to to say the right things to visitors


Bill will be back in touch with you, they're always busy with new installs etc etc. He doesn't advertise because word of mouth is better than any advertising.

We have the basic system installed on our own computer and we are evaluating it. So far it is good.
Not all of our drivers are using it yet.

_________________
Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

Nige, you dont like Mercury do you....lol

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Can you tell?

here we go again. Get mercury in you wont regret it. weve had it nearly 3 years now and its never let us down. the monthly support charge is the same as most other dispatch providers. So that rules nidges hidden extras out. It was stolen from diplomat so the diplomat system must be [edited by admin] aswell then.

Read the other mercury coment on hear theres quite a few firms very happy with mercury. Weve had no problems at all with the support side of things.
So for a firm thats owned by thieves that pay people to say there [edited by admin] system is good it makes me wonder how there still in buisness. theres a big firm down the road to us 100 plus cars and there mercury system works a treat.

get down to the nitty gritty and ask nidge what is really wrong with the system other than problem that drivers cause or greedy office owners cause or the fact that the pc is used to go on facebook and youtube by clerkes instead of just being used for work. Hell be hard pushed to say anything other than " the system went tits up last night" but no specifics

How much they paid you to come out with that drivel?

The computers are blocked from accessing the internet so there's no Facebook or Youtube viewing.

Answer the question, how many firms are ripping Mercury out and installing other companies software? You've only got to look on here.

As for the greedy owners, he's gotten wise to their way of business and isn't giving them another penny, they've fleeced over £90K out of us in 4 years, £90K for a bag of shit.

How much they paid you to come out with that drivel?
Well erm nothing. But im sure they must be paying you because youre always going on about mercury and giving them free advertisment. In fact il bet you go to the xmas works party.

The computers are blocked from accessing the internet so there's no Facebook or Youtube viewing.

Weve already discussed that your talking out of your alsehole when it comes to dispatch system. All dispatch system need the internet for the gprs and to send the jobs. And if you know the mercury system aswell as you say you do then you should know that mercury is just a app that sits on a pc and the internet is just a click of a button.

Answer the question, how many firms are ripping Mercury out and installing other companies software? You've only got to look on here..

Theres probally quite a few that are taking it out. But how many are taking datamaster,autocab,cordic,diplomat out etc etc. its the nature of the game and people will swap and change there providers. And on the flip side how many are putting mercury in. If you have some statistics or insider information from mercury ( maybe from the drink talking at the xmas party) please put it on the forum. if not then neither of us can debate that as neither of us know the true figures.

As for the greedy owners, he's gotten wise to their way of business and isn't giving them another penny, they've fleeced over £90K out of us in 4 years, £90K for a bag of [edited by admin].

90.000 shared by 208 (thats the number of weeks) = £432.69 per week. please enlighten us as to what you were getting for this figure. Also why has it took 4 years for the boss to man up and make them sort it out. contract or no contract im sure most people would have refused to pay way before now if the system is a useless as you say it is.




So now then apart from your personal preference or maybe your inability to work a few buttons out or keep the pda charged up what is the problems you have with mercury ( ive asked you this a few times)
i.e
It wont dispatch
it wont do ringback
it wont txtback
etc etc etc
And the words " it went on its arse last night" or "Its a load of bollocks" dosnt really count" So come on nidge sensible answers only

Don't go with Mercury you will hate it. It cost you mega money to put right.
I know I kicked them out. Now have Data Master iam happy as a pig.
No more jobs hanging up. No connection issues. No 2cars on same jobs.
No server crashing. No more its YOUR FAULT.
AND NO MORE LIES FROM IT @WATS.
Yes granddad I was shouting lol.

as you know im a new user but cant see many issues, it does need intelligent input (thats 5hit it then) like a job sent to me with an incomplete building name and no street......doesnt help much

_________________
Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

This company has had Mercury1 for years. As a controller who has just returned here and who has been using Cordic at my last firm and had a little taste of Shamrock, I think Mercury1 is backward but as I said maybe I have been spoiled by superior and more expensive systems.
The partners both like Mercury1 but are looking to upgrade to Mercury2. They don't have any of the problems that Nidge or anyone else describes.
I had some issues with Cordic but Mercury1, whoever designed it, is not for me and I am unconvinced by Mercury2.
Why can I not track a driver on his way to as pick up and see on the map where the driver is and where the job is, the speed of the driver and the distance he is away.
Any system that does not have that should be binned. I want my telephonists to relay this information without asking me every time.

But I do want to see Mercury2 in action in a similar sized firm to sway my bosses one way or the other.