Taxi Driver Online

Hi all
finally getting onto the site after sitting on the fence just watching. Anyway down to business we are a small taxi firm (12 cars) but we've been that way for over 10 years with the same drivers and we all do OK nothing fantastic but everyone is happy. We do have a waiting list of driver wanting to start but short of death or retirement we wont take anymore on as we don't want to lose loyal drivers for the sake of a few extra rents. Anyway 18 months ago we put mercury in and to be honest it sort of worked for us at 1st. (bang goes any Xmas card of nidge) or in hindsight it might of been the novelty of the ring-back and happier clerks but after 18 month of dealing with the mercury finance department trying to shaft us for every penny we have then getting a letter today to say that the system is now going up another £100 a month for a system that we cant even produce a invoice on we've decided to call it a day with them. We own the system outright also the pods and the phone system that had to go with mercury as our previous phone system wasn't compatible. What id like to know is can we use this hardware with any other software so we could save a few penny's. made a few phone calls today and to be honest once they find out you're a small firm they don't want to know you.
So in a nutshell can we do the following
1 Use our existing hardware 1 x base station 13 x in car pods and 1 x phone exchange
2 Find a dispatch firm that deal with small firms and don't want to financially rape you
best regards
Townhall taxis

I would give Bill from DataMaster in Warrington a call. He will be totally honest with you, and won't try and sell you a damn thing.

If i remember correctly i think we spoke to someone at datamaster back in march but again it seemed like they were concerned about the number of cars we had (The office has been going 25 years and under our ownership for 12). We made a bit headway but mercury stepped in and promised it would be sorted and reduced our payments ( which are for software and support only) so we left it at that. Now we still cant produce a invoice and cars still bounce around and now they want us to pay for software that simply dose not work. According to the booking clerks screen we had a car sitting of the coast of Norway last week when he was only six foot away from the office ha ha. anyway enough is enough with them and its time to move on but its seems easier said than done

Now then, now then, now then, which part of your deluded mind decided to go with Exel and Mercury? They are sharks who peddle out shit software that doesn't work.

We've had it in for the last 5 years and it's not run right since day one. We got all the promises that it would be OK because we are only 1 mile away and we would be there test site for anything new, 5 years later it's still shit and doesn't work.

Last week Exel turned up with 45 new PDA's and an invoice for £15,750, now bear in mind we've been using the same PDA's for the last 5 years we thought they were an upgrade for the old ones, the boss told them to fuck off when they produced the invoice.

As for the finance they'll screw you for every penny they can, Richard Moore has a track record in this, we've paid Exel the thick end of £75,000 for the licence fee for the software plus the fee we paid for it when it was installed 5 years ago.

Why did you want dispatch when you only have 12 cars? We used to run 45 cars on voice with pen and paper with no bouncing involved, the bounciing started when Mercury was installed.

If you want to know the darkside of Mercury and Richard Moore give Stewart Harding a ring at Diplomat on 01256 381656 I'm sure he'll love to fill you in on the Navigator software Richard Moore stole from him and re-named it Mercury.

It is all 100% compatiple with Diplomat Easyrent.
Diplomat will not turn away small companies.

If you want reliabilty then rent an Easyrent server including software and support.
It costs £125.00 a month. and then £50.00 for additional stations.
So a 2 station system should be adequate. Total monthy £175.00.
That includes Server hardware, software and support.

If you want data sims Diplomat rent these at £3.00 a month but its not mandatory.

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http://www.diplomat.co.uk

pen and paper were fine and worked well for us. the reason we went to dispatch was that we had run out of debt and would of had to start and pay tax. So it seemed a better option to have a monthly dispatch bill also at times we (drivers included) felt that we were getting left behind a bit and that ringback would benefit both customers and drivers. when we decided we went to a few different company but at 12 cars we wernt sale of the century. mercury were the only one that were really interested (cordic flatly refused to even talk to us with only having 12 cars) and most other company's thought we should be bankrupt and would not be able to afford it. To be honest the system does work for us but we also get every one of the faults you have mentioned but not as bad as yous seem to get. maybe because we are a smaller outfit. But from day one we haven't been able to produce a invoice on the system drivers go through the pod and price and sign it with no problems but when it comes to printing it out it just puts in whatever price it likes we literally have no control over it. And now with a hundred pound a month increase from the 1st of November the system is just not worth the money.
best regards

Diplomat
Please check your inbox as we've sent you a pm
best regards

Ok just to clarify where we sit with some of the smaller companies. We do often tell smaller companies they’re better off staying on pen and paper based on what they tell us. But that’s not just us being honest, the cold hard facts are that smaller companies are much harder to look after and that’s probably why others either give you a ridiculous price or wont even talk with you.

We can and do take on small companies but we can’t have too many for exactly the same reason that you couldn’t have too many wheelchair jobs. I like helping the small local companies but it’s my staff that have to deal with the increased workload and they say I don’t pay them enough already. We have companies running several hundred cars that we hardly ever here from while some of the small ones are on the phone almost every day.

If your system is only 18 months old, we could swap your software but as Stuart’s already given you a price for his and they’re virtually the same, maybe that’s the way to go.

excuse my ignorance but how are smaller company's harder work. if the dispatch system is installed to the same standard as a big company and the training giving by the dispatch company is the same rite across the board then everything is equal. im not having a go or anything like that as we are new to this kind of thing and don't have the knowledge that the company's have. But from a]small firms point of view it does seem like dispatch company's are just interested in mega fleets and ignoring a good source of income from smaller fleets
best regards

As one of the smaller companies, I will back up what Bill is saying, as we are often phoning DataMaster up several times a week with various ideas on how we want the system to operate. I get the impresssion that some of the larger firms accept the system for what it is, and don't ever try to change it. Bill made the mistake of telling me that the system is completely customisable, and I've spent the last two and a half years perfecting it
Don't think that Bill is trying to put you off. He will be totally honest with you and he won't try and take your money off you. If you do go ahead with DataMaster he wont tell you to change your phone system because its not compatible or that you need to go with a particular mobile network. He doesn't get kick backs plain and simple.
DataMaster are a refreshing change, and even if you are on the phone to them several times a week, there is always somebody to answer you and they will always resolve any issues/problems that you have.

TownHall Taxis

To be fair many smaller companies do run pretty well. I’ve literally just come off the phone with one that’s a carbon copy of yours. They had twelve hackneys in Durham twenty years ago when we put their data in and they’ve still got twelve now.

Our software and training is the same for all companies but its not quite a one-size fit’s all solution that's installed and then forgotten about. The problem is not so much what we do or don't do but way in which some small companies are forced to operate on account of the low staffing levels. Let me give three examples of actual calls that I dealt in the first two hours this morning.

A manager doesn’t know how to generate a report so I spend an hour on line with the police on their behalf. Now you might argue that we should train people how to get these reports, and we do, but what’s the chances they can do this when they ring back to ask how to log back into the system. Not knowing the basics of how to log in is a dead give-away that the manager does zero management functions or even basic maintenance.

Customer two calls to report the clock is two minutes slow. I spent nearly 15 minutes just trying to explain how to use the mouse and then just when we were nearly done the phone goes dead. I rang back and get answered by a driver who tells me the boss has had to go out to cover an important job.

Customer three wants to know how to upgrade a PDA where the drivers been out of the country for three months. He’s operating single-handed, the phones are ringing and I’m on hold for most of the time. I tell him to just plug it in and click upgrade PDA. After an eternity trying to explain what the lead looks like, him looking for the bloody thing and then how to plug into a usb port, it turns out it’s not even a PDA.

The thing is I don’t really mind this sort of stuff, it sort of goes with the job but if all my customers were this way I’d have to employ a lot more staff to deal with the “silly” calls. Darren’s company in contrast is extremely organised and he’s actually takes the time to “tweek” his system for best use. I welcome calls such as Darren’s because it’s good feedback that helps to improve our system. Unfortunately understaffed companies don’t seem to find the time and so expect us to just make it work the way that they expect it to and that’s pretty much impossible.

So the bottom line is yes money does come into the equation but it’s not that we don’t want to help it’s simply that in general, smaller companies often put too much demand on our support service.

BTW Thanks for nice comments Darren. I was at Westside late lastnight and reconfigured your network again to try and speed it up a bit.

Bill

Well i cant argue with that Mr datamaster. My apologies if i seemed rude or off handed

Not at all. I had to go back and look what I'd written because sometimes the things I write don't always come out the way I intended them.

If you'd like, you can always give me a call and we can chat about where you're issues are and if I can help, I will.

Regards

Bill

I find that larger firms, due to the number of cars and the fact that they usually have one everywhere, don't need to tweak as much as smaller firms.
Just as I find the 'best' setting, a different driver starts asking questions such as "Why did I not get that job?" So many options, too many drivers to complain.
I used to work for a firm using Autocab. Pretty good system, even though it is overly complicated, but it was set to pull cars up to 8 miles just to cover work. This one issue was the reason I left, and just so happened to go back to a firm on Datamaster.
I'm likely to be making a call myself next week but I know I will get a helpful person when do. It's about the MapPoint upgrade Bill, it doesn't like me.

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