Taxi Driver Online

I believe the CT4000 will be binned very soon.

It just can't compete in the marketplace with PDAs

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Tom Thumb wrote



How very astute of you I believe this also, the belief that digital mobile phones would be the only communication system worth carrying data first reared its wonderful head tweleve years ago with the introduction of Orange. Dolphin had the right idea IMHO, however it is the same old story across the board and pda's are the way to go, however based on my own reasearch there is not one company as yet that has been able to match the requirements of a basic software package with the functionality of data transfer so we all still sit and wait for the very thing we have been waiting patiently for for the past twelve years or more. Keep your money is my advise, if you can operate at a level sufficient to accomodate your customers needs without it do so. Very soon something will come up I hope.

But do you just want a despatch system or do you want data and a despatch system? this is where the real confussion comes from on the whole we do not really know what we want and the operators that do still to this day can not find it.

Kind regards

Eric[/quote]

Tom Thumb wrote



How very astute of you I believe this also, the belief that digital mobile phones would be the only communication system worth carrying data first reared its wonderful head tweleve years ago with the introduction of Orange. Dolphin had the right idea IMHO, however it is the same old story across the board and pda's are the way to go, however based on my own reasearch there is not one company as yet that has been able to match the requirements of a basic software package with the functionality of data transfer so we all still sit and wait for the very thing we have been waiting patiently for for the past twelve years or more. Keep your money is my advise, if you can operate at a level sufficient to accomodate your customers needs without it do so. Very soon something will come up I hope.

But do you just want a despatch system or do you want data and a despatch system? this is where the real confussion comes from on the whole we do not really know what we want and the operators that do still to this day can not find it.

Kind regards

Eric

Eric the Viking said:-

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“there is not one company as yet that has been able to match the requirements of a basic software package with the functionality of data transfer so we all still sit and wait for the very thing we have been waiting patiently for for the past twelve years or more. Keep your money is my advise, if you can operate at a level sufficient to accomodate your customers needs without it do so. Very soon something will come up I hope.”
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Bill said:-

I hear and understand what your saying but if everyone adopted that attitude then all technological development would simply stop because nobody would buy anything and all companies would go bust! I've been involved with taxi data systems and software since 1989 and can't think of one single company that hasn’t benefited from investing in the technology available at that the time.

Course there’s always going to be something on the horizon that offers a better solution but ask yourself this. If you really believe in what your saying, then why isn’t your TV set a black and white 405 line system because Hi definition TV is not that far away? You even typed your post on a computer that you bought knowing full well that a better one will be available next year! So why did you but it?

In our company, we have a saying that turns your logic on it’s head. We tell people that the only time to start worrying is when we say "We can't make it any better and that's as good as it gets!" That’s the time that we give up trying!

It’s your opinion Eric but I reckon it’s really bad advice! Searching for the Holy Grail may be admirable but in reality it’s only for fools!

Bill

Better interduce myself properely here my name is mike,

we are a medium size taxi outfit here in the west of ireland and we have been running datamaster for 2 years and gps for 3 months and we've had minor issues with the software, but nothing that could'nt be resolved over the telephone or internet. i've never worked with any other dispatch system, and as far as i can see they all do one job and that is to dispatch calls to the drivers, i have a freind of mine that works in another office running autocab and he tells me that even though they have fancy screens in the car it still does the same job as our data system.

thats my 2 pence (cents)

by the way i'm a disptacher

Can someone tell me why the pda are better than the data heads other than being portable cuz auriga are saying the new ct 4000 data heads have full turn by turn navigation & also will be pmr & gprs compatible so why the pda if they do exactly the same stuff?

I'm not at all techie, but I would say the cost of the datahead is a biggy, and its size.

I suppose the portability of the thing is a good, and a bad thing. Many drivers will lose them, but at least they will be cheaper to replace. And if they use telephone lines when not connected to the car i.e. drivers having lunch etc, then the office can keep in touch with drivers 24/7, and vice-versa.

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IDFIMH

I agree they would be good to keep in touch with the office wen ur out of the car but wud u they be cheaper to replace than data heads cuz if u wer buying them from autocab or auriga will they not be the same price if it included their software? also i knw of a company close to me who have 3 stolen by passengers last week cuz they thought they wer mobile phones

The Auriga CT4000 is said to have turn by turn navigation. But its release is 2 years behind schedule, which tells that all is not well.

Its screen is much smaller than an XDA, which won't help for clarity on SatNav. It is also going to be a very expensive piece of kit, value for money if it last 10 years which they are built to do, but if technology takes another leap in the next three years they will be a defunct piece of kit.

However, it is all horses for courses. You need to investigate what suits your company best and the only way to do that is by getting on the road.

I am always amazed at the number of people who buy a system without seeing t work in another company's office first.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

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i agree with u that the ct4000 is much smaller in screen size but if it is voice navagation does the size of the screen matter? also i would not even entertain the idea of purchasing the ct 4000s yet cuz i knw only abt 2 sites have got them & they are not fully fuctional as for me buying another system without seeing it work i would neva do dat thats why i have been asking questions abt evo on this forum to see how ppl who have got it think of it

So, can we assume then, that the only significant difference between a CT4000 and an XDA2, is that the XDA works, and is a mere fraction of the price?

Or have I missed something?

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

Voice navigation?

From experience that gets on the drivers tits after about 90 seconds and that is 10 times slower than it takes to p1ss the passengers off.

The thing about XDA's are when they become obsolete in two years time you will throw them away and buy a replacement with better technology on it for £200.

With the CT4000 it will take Auriga 6 years to design and develop a new box and then because they are only selling thousands rather than millons they will have to sting you for 7-800 quid for the new unit. Which because of the length of development time will already be out of date by the time it comes to market.

The days of one supplier insisting on a closed shop where you have to buy both the hardware and software from them alone went out in the 1980's with most technology. However, when you are owned by a leading hardware seller (Tait) that is a difficult change to make. Especially when you want to move to a product(GPRS) which is the death knell for your owner's core business (PMR).

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Voice Navigation? We have that on the XDAs as well.

Lovely cynical/realistic/honest/perceptive (delete as appropriate) view Tom.

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

Just one point though. If Hardware suppliers really want to sell their gear, while staying with the market, why don't they go for multi-platform software and interface? Eg. As per Diplomat?

<Andy ducks low to avoid missiles thrown in his direction>

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

Hi guys

PDA's Personal disposable acessories

Everyone is missing the vital point here, including the supplier that KNOWS!!!

It is the carrier of the data and voice we should be focusuing on, ask the poor b*****D's that used to use NB3, Dolphin and the many repeaters/CBS systems that have been forced to shut down over the past few years. Ask them what chaos and devestation this fundemental change in technology has had on their operation and I feel you might feel differently. GOVERNMENT CHANGES.

Bill pal with the greatest of respect to what you do, you surely can not believe us thick cabbies would believe that one about keeping up with technology, we are not talking about a couple of K on a TV we are talking about our life savings of around 250k get real about this my friend, some operators have gone out of business because they made the wrong choice here it is more important than that and a lot more expensive, use an analogy by all means but please make sure it bears at least some resemblence to the topic under discussion.

The only resemblence your analogy has is with relation to THE GOVERNMENTS change over from analogue to digital, there the common ground stops very abruptly.

Ten years ago the Government said they were going to withdraw ALL analogue radio systems and move to digital which would mean all the equipment and software would be redundant.

Five years ago they said they were going to do the same with Television, neither has happened yet, but both will it is just a case of when.

So to recap my comment was digital mobile phones are the way forward for us, focus on the network ( carrier) not the equipment please here. Especially when Vodafone for example have a fixed line rental with unlimited voice calls between business phones at the moment and are offering fixed tarriffs for text messaging within the same user groups.

This is the technology we have been waiting for, wide area coverage at a fixed or low cost, so forget about Radio sytems they are dead man, the hardware is specific to the system, the easy bit is to develop a software package to tag onto it, windows is windows is windows.

Is what I am trying to say now clearer guys?

What we should do is start up a co op or something similar to raise the money to develop all the features WE want from a software package and then market it to other operators, so we firstly get what we want, not what someone else thinks we do and secondly we could also make some money.

As for poor old Bill being put out of business well I only have one comment to this, another analogy, my father was a green grocer, his customers requirements were wide and varied, so if he elected only to offer them bannana's he too would have gone out of business too.

Say la veive or something along those lines.

Take care kind regards

Eric