Taxi Driver Online

Hello All

Im in a bit of a situation and would like some independant and unbiased advice please.

Currently run two firms on the same dispatch system (Diplomat past 4 years) and my business partner (my brother) wants to pull his firm out and wants to get a PDA based system as he feels the current system is not working well for his side of the business but he wants to continue sharing the office.

Im very happy with the system we run as it is so user freindly and very stable, in the cars we have a mixture of cars on voice, data terminals and a few drivers on PDA's. The dispatch screen has various icons to help controllers identify whose on what. We have good radio coverage, data works well and i feel the system is very cost effective running 42 vehicles.

The PDA's available on our current system are not very user friendly and the TOM TOM does not work well (route to pick-up etc), however, the GPS works well but does not give you any feedback such as distance from pick-up, ETA etc. Therefore, from a driver point of view and the overall efficiency, my brother believes, he needs to change to a system that acurately tracks his vehicles, gives controllers acurate information from all cars and is driver friendly.

We have tried to compromise and came up with the following solutions:

1. He gets a new dispatch system and telephone system and we run it from the same office as we usually have 2-3 control staff working at any one time. but the problem here is the adverse effect this can have on both businesses as we usually share bookings. Do you think it is possible to run like this, does anybody else use two systems?

2. We change the whole fleet to another system that is purely PDA based (ie Cordic), but i feel it might not live upto expectation as the current system we have has all the tools to manage bookings proficiently, is easy to use and is well laid out, very user friendly. He believes that whilst it is a good tool for bookings, the auto dispatch side of things needs too much tweaking to get it to work right (currently we use manual dispatch only) which he thinks is essential at weekends and system based pricing needs to improve. Does any body have any experience of running a totally PDA system and how well do they work, as i have heard even the best systems out there the PDA's have this tendancy to freeze especially when you need to route to the pickup/destination via tom tom and as we all have our "super star" drivers who have difficulty using a simple two way radio i just cant imagine a PDA in their hand that freezes!!

3. Change all our data terminals to PDA's and see how things go with the current system?

Please help as im the kind of person who likes to taste the water before i take the plunge!! shall i stay the way i am or go the cordic way??

All help will be appreciated.

Many Thanks

We had the PDA system installed back in April by Excel management up till now it's been solid as anything no crashes no freezing nothing to shout about really. Give them a call on 01623 44 22 11.

Click here to view their website. Hope this helps?

The Cordic system seems to be very popular, and I think can be used by firms big and small.

Auriga will eventually start using the system they have had hidden for a while, or at least once they have sold their warehouses full of their brick displays.

Interesting at the taxi show, loads of bricks on the Auriga stand, but none of the displays that are going to be the ones folks use for at least the next 10 years.

It appears they wanted more mugs to buy the old displays.

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IDFIMH

I was at the show and apparantly Auriga were showing off their OLD version didnt like their PDA's, too fiddly and you have to carry a magnifying glass to read the screen.



Thanks Nigel, but to be honest with you thats one place i wouldnt like to be and thats Excel management never liked them!!

Obviously there is history between Diplomat and Excel.

Anyne who dwells here frequently knows I switched from Auriga to Cordic two and a half years ago and I think it is fantastic. It suits my business model and is solid, quick and easy to use.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

I am aware of the history between the two and if you compare the two diplomat is easily tops. Ive seen the system develop over the past 4 years and it has gone from strength to strength. The only problem i have is my business partner wants one thing and i want the other.

End of the day we need to make a compromise and do whats best for the business.

Any way I spoke to a friend of mine who works for a rival firm running cordic in the local area and one interesting thing he told me was that when they are browsing the net their system seems to crash and come to life after a couple of minutes and they are running around 20 cars. 2 minutes is a long time!! Anybody else have similar problems running cordic?

Web connection can be a problem on rare occasions.

But your friend appears a little short sighted to me. We have a dedicated line for out despatch traffic and another line for other web use.

We also have broadband from two different suppliers incase we have 'connection problems' with one.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Change to Cordic but temporarily keep your radios till the system settles. Expect to put a lot of effort into customising the system the way you want it (neccessary on any system from any supplier). The new XDA Orbits and Orbit 2 with TomTom 6 are much more reliable. Cordic PDA software very, very rarely locks up. Cordic is a very robust system - not cheap however.

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"Where to, Guv'?. Na sorry not going my way"

Actually, Auriga WERE showing the LATEST RELEASED version of their system on 3 of their demo areas. They then had a seperate system (linked to their office) showing their next release - mainly because of the phenomenal number of features its gonna have. I know I was certainly shown it - just had to ask!

I asked them why it was not on all machines, and they told me it was because it was still in development and was not yet 100% reliable. I can see their point - I know what I would think about the system if it kept bloody crashing!

As for the PDA's - they looked really stylish - its nice to see someone NOT jumping on the standard XDA ship! I liked it so much, Im thinking of getting one for my personal use.

As for the screen, its the same size as the XDA Orbit / Orbit 2 and has the ability to show journey details bigger by a tap of the screen (I know cos I too said the screen looks a bit small).

Seems to be the way of things now - I struggle to find a PDA with a decent size screen like you could 'in the good ol days'.

Not quite sure that's the point of exhibiting your wares if people can't see it on display.

Most sensible firms would be biggin it up, not hiding it around the back.

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IDFIMH

'Hello Mr Taxi Operator

Can we show you our old system over here.

We would like you to buy our new system but it is keeps breaking down, even though it is a big improvement, honest.

So look at the old one and we will sell you the new one.'



pure genius.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

If anyone is thinking of getting a new data system then please bear in mind that Auriga's engineers don't work at the weekends.

So if your system goes down at Friday tea-time, your f***ed till Monday.

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IDFIMH

The original poster asked for independant and unbiased advice. If you're going to make stuff up to suit your personal agenda, at least try to make it vaguely believeable.

What you have written is untrue and I'm guessing libellous too. Well done!

Well best you sue me then, cos it's true.

Why else would an Auriga customer, of long standing, have to go to PC World to buy a server and have to pay an independent engineer to fit it on a Sunday?

So Mr JimJam, go f*** yourself.

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IDFIMH

Don't beat about the bush, Sussex, tell him what you're thinking.

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Former taxi driver