Taxi Driver Online

Hiya Bill,

If I am allowed to ask, who writes your software updates? Is it done locally (You and Slim?) or are you part of a multi-national group?

Andy

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

To answer a question publically, that two of you have Emailed me about:

The Siemens system to which I referred above is not targeted at the taxi business. Its basically a bus package being worked downhill (in my eyes), to just accommodate taxibus. Its an all bells and whistles system which our County Council are installing at the moment, which gives real-time running data on all our local buses. We now have Lcds at the bus stops in Chelmsford/Colchester etc, telling us what time the next bus will arrive. We have to integrate whatever taxi system we use into it, in order to give ETAs for our Taxibuses.

Next, our County Council are looking at Mobisoft's Schools router package too.

Mobisoft do a taxi package, but dont expect much change out of £100,000 and then every bit of it has an ongoing licence fee.

The Seimens package is over a mill.

However, the name of the game for small cab companies, seems to be to "link in" to a multi-user server, rather than hosting the package in our own offices, as we could never afford it. Thus, do we wait and let our respective County Halls direct us and pay for the software development, or, do we develop our own in house systems and just interface into theirs?

Either way, it sounds expensive, but I'll bet the second option is gonna be cheaper than the first.

I reckon all this interfacing and stuff is worth a new string actually. We are getting it with VOSA, Taxing the cars, the Insurers database and all sorts lately.

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

Andy7

Course you can ask Andy. We don't have secrets apart from the bits I can't tell you about. I do most of the coding these days for the booking and dispatch so if it doesn’t work, it’s me that you shout at. We used to have two graduates writing it but after a couple of years they start rambling on about air quality and standard of office furniture. The back office was getting more like a subcontracting outfit rather than part of the same company and so it had to go!

"Slick" who I guess you know??? doesn’t write code, he’s more involved with setting up and maintenance plus he's does the demo discs. That’s when he’s not playing with his motorbikes that is. (Midlife crisis! Born again biker or something like that)

As for being part of a multi-national company, we have a good laugh about that each time someone suggests it. Fact is we have just five full timers and have had to shelve our plans to buy out Microsoft till next year. Still being big doesn't necessarily make you better but it does mean some other bugger gets to make the coffee.

Bill

Bill, If you are ever in our neck of the woods, pop in, and I'll make you a coffee (direct from our machine) or from our personal burger van just over the road (assuming Phil, our burger man, returns home from his hols in Thialand).

I don't know Slick personally, just spoken to him a couple of times on the net.

As for offices, our office is like that too. So, you'll probably have to stand to drink the coffee I make you. But soon... we will have our new building up... (this guy lives in hope - a year so far to get planning approval and building regs sorted !!!)

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

I know I will probably get shot for saying this, but I have been analysing the different systems for about two years or more now, and I am still convinced that Diplomat's Navigator is the most flexible and "Actually do it all" software system out there.

Do I still have issues? Yeah sure. But nothing is perfect.

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

the moany old sod isnt on here anymore.so we can now have a sensible discussion on navigator without that old women crying.
i like the free bit.

But Andy don't you have serious doubts about a company that keeps going into receivership and then walking bold as brass into the Private Hire and Taxi Show.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Yup. I do. But its still hard to get away from the fact that their system does all they say it does. Which, incidentally, is more than Auriga does at twice the price.

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.