Taxi Driver Online

With todays technology it does not matter where your office is actually located, calls can be answered anywhere in the world and the data dispatched to any part of the world.

The 1976 act doesn't allow an op to answer a phone outside their licensed area, and they can only give work to vehicles and drivers licensed in the same area as them.

Define "ANSWER". Thats simple enough to get round. I can have calls answered in the operators area..."Welcome to SUSSEX Taxis, your call is being transfered to an operator......." click "Hello Sussex taxis where would you liked picked up from......"

Ok the call was answered by the telephone system in the licensed are but was then trasnfered to an operator who might be at home, in Aberdeen, in Timbucktwo.

Local knowledge will only be required on a small number of bookings. With systems that can store the phone number of the folk so that the correct address is brought up next time, the use of IVOR (booking system) which Delta was one of the first in the UK to actually use, then internet booking systems (this will start to take off IMHO).

Also when someone phones and so many systems now having a mapping station near the terminal they can easily find things. The technology is already there to make things better for the customer (paying passenger) the customer (the driver) and the company operating the callcentre.

As for unions well I cant possibly comment on that as I have never been a member of one.

The taxi and PHV industry is changing with regards the sizes of fleets etc, there are more larger fleets and smaller companies being bought up all the time, its very hard to run a small fleet and make ends meet. The main cost for any company these days is staff wages.

Its good to see a company putting the money back into the local economy and it will give folk work.

regards

Ok the call was answered by the telephone system in the licensed are but was then trasnfered to an operator who might be at home, in Aberdeen, in Timbucktwo.

It is always stupid to bring a London hackney driver into this argument, he takes three-and a-half years to qualify, that is a big commitment he has to pay his own way, he does not get something for nothing, he works hard to pay for them three and a half years, don't ever class a London cab driver in the same category.

The operators licence, drivers licence, vehicle licence and premises must all be in the same licensing authority area.

There was an operator up here who had 2 offices in 2 different licensing areas and was dispatching jobs to cars from either area from either office. That is not the case now, after they were taken to court.

In my opinion the people pushing these issues are the Data Providers who are desperate to expand their own businesses.
Its often the call from such data companies that installing their systems does away with the need for expensive, experienced and knowledgable staff to take the bookings.

How long will it be until call centres in India are taking bookings for large operators, as it seems the next step for the data companies could be to provide that service, and offer to handle the bookings through their call centre.

B. Lucky

Delta chiefs were furious with the article. We have already written a complaint to the news editor... The industry can do without antagonism from Sun-style tabloid garbage. We apologise unreservedly to the local hackney trade for any threat or challenge their reporter may have implied. We just wanted other industries to look upon Bootle as a wonderful untapped local resource.

Define "ANSWER". Thats simple enough to get round. I can have calls answered in the operators area..."Welcome to SUSSEX Taxis, your call is being transfered to an operator......." click "Hello Sussex taxis where would you liked picked up from......"

Ok the call was answered by the telephone system in the licensed are but was then trasnfered to an operator who might be at home, in Aberdeen, in Timbucktwo.

Having thought about it today I think the booking is when the customer's request is confirmed, so I think in this case the license would have to be where the person was sitting.

The 'fly in the oinment' to that is auto bookings, and I suppose a case could be made that the computer taking the booking must be within the licensing area of the car it despatched the job to.

Bit of a mess really.

Of course, if you really wanted to placate, the Liverpool Hackney trade you could always let them on to, your circuit . Streetcars.

Alas we would be no use to each other. With Liverpool hackney drivers paying Liverpool plate owners between £300 and £350 a week just for their cab I fear they'd have no money left to pay for our swanky radio equipment. And with cab drivers disappearing to cover their own street work whenever our telephones are busy, they'd be no use to our customers either. Also, what fares would they charge? They'd have to charge our radio customers the same as our private hire drivers, a lot less than their street work, which makes them even LESS likely to help out with the radio work when the streets are busy. Nope, it'd never work... Nice idea though!

As a small footnote to this heated debate, (Lol) The two hotels I stayed in the other week (Holiday Inn and the Radisson) both used Liverpool Taxis