Taxi Driver Online

Hello all newish to this forum and an owner of a private hire base looking to bring us into the 21st century with a data/computer based system. Would like to hear opinions on all the data systems out there at the moment and how they compare to working on voice???? Have read the many anti mercury posts and alot of pro datamaster posts but interested to find out how close any of these systems come to they way voice systems work. many thanks in advance for your help

it's like comparing apples to oranges, bluetwo. we went data dispatch about 3 months ago, and I reckon over 90% of the drivers and 100% of the controllers would go ape if we went back to voice. there is the odd murmers of discontent to deal with, but overall the pros far outweigh the cons.

btw count this as another pro-datamaster post,

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My heart is heavy, but my consience clear,
I voted Yes, without any fear.

I would say they all compare favourably to voice.

The thought of coming out to work having to listen to some sour puss old premadonna gives me the willies just thinking about it.

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IDFIMH

If you are goiing down the DATA route "do not get Mercury from Excel Management".

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Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

Believe me, don't get Mercury X2

Going off a local firm that has just made the change to data, the customers are much happier now that the drivers sit out on the road rather than heading back to the office. This means faster response times.
I do not work for this firm but have already seen the difference.
A computer will never replace a human but it can follow rules to the letter every time without forgetting where all the vehicles are.
Clear jobs details on screen rather than mistaken addresses over the radio.
More information can be passed to the driver too, no matter how long ago the booking was made provided the operator enters comments.
PDAs on mobile networks rather than radio signals allows greater coverage.
Built in satnav for those less known places.
Need i go on?
I will never go back to voice as humans can sometimes only hear their buddies.

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Datamaster don't need a sales team, they have happy customers doing it for them
Nidge for Prime Minister

Hi thanks for the replies and although i had already decided on the datamaster system before my original post and having now had the operating system installed Bill has advised me to ask those already operating datamaster to answer my questions regarding how they use it. As i cant use the PM in here can any users willing to help with their experience of the system either PM me or let me know how i can contact them for some advice as to how they use it
regards
Richard BlueTwo

Looks like you made the right decision Richard going with Bill and Datamaster, you won't go wrong mate.

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Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

Believe me, don't get Mercury X2

I'm a believer in small plots so that you can set up sensible pulls from other plots. This saves drivers from being dragged too far and allows the customer to get, hopefully, the quickest taxi.
Also, have the future jobs showing as, in theory, drivers should either wait if they are already in the plot, or head towards plots with work in. I'm hoping as I upgrade more pdas to show this screen that we should hardly ever be late. When i spoke to Bill about this, he described it as 'stopping drivers racing away from work'
I don't like the auto soon to clear option as the driver could be soon to clear but the drop off point is only just over the plot border. Let drivers decide when soon to clear is used and those that abuse it, give them a right rollocking.
Use the hold on soon to clear to help reduce crossing drivers. It will never stop it but can greatly reduce it.

Best advice is have a play with the setting and decide for yourself

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Datamaster don't need a sales team, they have happy customers doing it for them
Nidge for Prime Minister

AND.........

Keep checking for updates as Matt never seems to sleep and is always adding or improving features.

Don't be afraid to point out 'glitches' as he will just fix them, unlike that useless Mercury team that wouldn't even give me a beep to make us aware of new work to bid for.

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Datamaster don't need a sales team, they have happy customers doing it for them
Nidge for Prime Minister

Some good points there Darren but as the saying goes, one mans meat is another mans poison! I remember writing the code to show bookings falling due in 15 minutes. The customer asked for it because one of his competitors had it on his system. He only ran with it for a day or so then asked for it to be taken out because he found drivers were waiting for this work while ignoring other jobs that needed covering. The thing is everyone works slightly differently so things like this have to be a user option.

But back on Richards’s questions, we always say a good operator will always beat the computer because the computer just can’t know everything. The main thing to understand is that we design the software to be an aid to the operator rather than to replace them and providing this is accepted then things generally work out well. The vast majority of work will go out by auto-dispatch but there will be times when the operator might need to intervene.

Having watched Richard’s staff trying to ensure the best nearest driver gets the job, I have to wonder if this same process could possibly be used at the weekends because it’s so long winded that it virtually stops the entire booking and the dispatching process. The girls are only doing what the computer does but they’re working so hard to achieve it!

There are very few companies these days still working this way so it’ll be interesting to see Richard's comments when it’s all up and running.

Bill

PS Please check you PM for details of a site to visit.

That's why you have the pull feature. We have noticed this 'not bidding for other work' before the future job screen was used. Drivers believe that certain plots have better jobs. The truth is that every plot can have good jobs.

Taxis are a truly random work of art. And now they're coming to take me away, ah ha!!

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Datamaster don't need a sales team, they have happy customers doing it for them
Nidge for Prime Minister

Cheers for the advice and overall I have been very impressed with the system as a whole and the many features and options available. The only question I really have now is how users of the system cover any out of area jobs.
For example we work in the south of Birmingham and do a lot of jobs to and from Selly Oak hospital and The Queen Elizabeth.
In the 'voice world' if a driver was POB to Selly Oak and a QE job came in they would call on the job as they would be half way there and get the job to bring them back.
In the 'data world' the driver would be soon to clear on the Selly Oak plot but not be able to see or bid on the QE job until clear (as its on a different plot).
Therefore any free driver over in our main working area plots could bid for the job and get it and then be running past the driver that is POB to Selly Oak(or now on his way back).
Hopefully I have explained my question clearly lol
Just wondering how I might best use the system to get around this??



Hey Bill you only saw the girls at half speed on a quiet monday believe me they can shift work when they need to and please dont tell them they are working 'hard'!!!!! I'll never hear the last of it
PS thanks for the PM will give him a ring.
regards
Richard

If you're happy to, and the drivers are accepting of it, when the job is booked get the dispatcher to hold it for the driver. That way when he clears his meter the job goes directly to him. The rest of the fleet will get theirs in turn in any case, if it's a regular occurance.

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My heart is heavy, but my consience clear,
I voted Yes, without any fear.

Have a look in the plot section. You can set a plot to hold jobs if a car is POB to that area. Therefore no need for operators to check for cars going that way. We have a few plots set HOLD FOR POB. Works quite well.

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Datamaster don't need a sales team, they have happy customers doing it for them
Nidge for Prime Minister

That must be a relatively new feature because I didn’t know about it! Makes sense I suppose to define the outer zones to automatically hold work for POB cars and if nothing else, it removes any suspicion of feeding that Alan might get.

Course there are times when it does have to be done manually and I don’t know if the instructions for this aren’t very clear but I see so many companies editing jobs in order to mark it for a specific car. The easier way is to simply cursor onto the job, type in the car number and hit the enter key! Job done!

There is an important difference though between these two methods. Using the hold for POB cars will stop other drivers following a car out when the POB car is already going that way, however, if another vehicle clears in that area, the job gets automaticaly released. When a job marked for a specific car though, it will only go to that car, even if another car is already in the area!

It gets difficult at times knowing where to draw the line between automation and operator actions. In Richards case, there seems to be a good relationship between staff and drivers and so a degree of manual intervention to achieve a better solution wouldn’t be a problem. In contrast, we see some companies where there’s just no trust between management, staff and drivers and these can be a nightmare to work with. You know when you have one of these when the first thing they tell you is that they don’t want their staff knowing anything about the system.

Bill