Taxi Driver Online

I've visited autocab sites and had quotations from them, my honest opinion is that it is not a patch on Auriga's Evo, also had quotes and demo's from Cordic but i wasn't overly impressed with that either. If things don't go according to plan this week at Auriga HQ then i may need to have a look at Raywood.

Hi guy's i have been an Auriga customer for approximately 15 years, along the way we have had our ups and downs but mostly we have had a good working relationship. However about two and a half years ago we we started having some serious problems with their help-desk team, the situation resulted a year and a half later in us stopping our help-desk / maintenance payments. Shortly afterwards we received a visit from one of their sales rep's trying to sell us the evo-core system, i told the rep that we would love the new system but you just need to get your help-desk issues resolved first. A few back sides must have been kicked along the way as a further year down the line most of the issues were resolved and we started contract negotiations for the new system.

This is where the problems started, due to the help-desk/maintenance problems that we had previously encountered, i vigorously insisted on a year's free full help-desk/maintenance support. The rep agreed to this and printed a contract out for us to mull over before we signed up, a few weeks later we were happy to go ahead and i signed another contract that the rep printed out if front of us. I had confirmed with the rep that this was the same as the contract that had been left with us previously, the rep confirmed that it was indeed the same. After another couple of weeks we met with our Auriga account manager, the sales rep and a training guy, the main point of this meeting was to go clarify all of the contract contents and to sort out any of the nitty gritty stuff.

It was at the end of this meeting that the account manager told us that the contract that we had signed did not include full help-desk / maintenance support, we showed her our unsigned version and confirmed that it was different to the one that we had signed. She said well that's why we have these meetings, rest assured we will get it sorted. We have already had our first training day's at Auriga and the install of the system is being done as i type this, however the help-desk / maintenance issue remains unsolved.

We are heading down to Harpenden for our system managers course next week where we have made arrangements to meet with the Auriga management team to try and resolve the situation, i will keep you informed as to what the outcome of the meeting is.

In a previous life I've developed some pretty serious database applications. Out of curiosity I've looked at the currently available PH/HC systems and Cordic marginally sneaked ahead of Auriga followed by Datamaster from examining public data and a couple of private chats with drivers.

So, why do you Taxi Boss, judge that Auriga is ahead? Is part of it the devil you know?

That's not a bad reason actually, familiarity and all that, but it can lead a supplier to unconciously relax and feel you won't ditch them 'cause you've been a customer for so long. They may automatically assume that you'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

I drive for a small company that is outside the city and doesn't need or want a computerised system so it's personal curiosity more than anything. And yes if pushed I could develop a system but the market is mature and there are many suppliers... So I judge that to be nugatory effort.

I certainly do love my Cordic.

Happy to PM anyone, or host a visit.

I've just returned from Auriga HQ in Harpenden and everything went very well indeed, we had our meeting with the Auriga GM and any problems that i may have envisaged have now been fully resolved to my complete satisfaction. In retrospect i feel that i may have jumped the gun a little and was wrong to ever doubt them in the first place, the Auriga staff are an extremely professional bunch and dealt with our problems accordingly.

We go live with Evo week comm. 23/03/09, i am extremely confident that everything will be fine. Since completing our training we now have the tools to go forward with confidence, hopefully the new system will stand us in good stead for the next 15 years. I would like to give my special thanks to both the training staff in Harpenden, as well as the engineer that has now completed our Evo install, a grand job was done by all....Thanks guy's!

At least the PR job must've been good.