Taxi Driver Online

Blobby

Being fair, any system can be down for that amount of time if it comes to the crunch. I assume you had some form of backup in place? What time did the system conk out? How did it affect you?

Bill

Hi guys,

I followed part of your discussions regarding computerised booking/dispatch solutions via PMR and GPRS.

My internet research regarding providers in UK seems to indicate Auriga or Cordic as the most promising providers which is almost similar with the opinions of most of the people on the forum.

Auriga has an interesting downloadable demo on their site with their EVOCAB system. They have probably the most important experience and they have also proofs of case studies on their site.
Their CT4000 car device to be launched soon (next month?) on the market, use PMR channel and in the same time provides optionally GPRS with PMR/PMR roaming and PMR/GPRS roaming. This solution seems to allow a taxi company that already invested in PMR infrastructure to reuse its investment and in the same time to switch in a seamless way from voice to data via PMR and, where consider useful the taxi company can use GPRS channel too.
Their weak points: very expensive and their proprietary CT3000/CT4000 equipment being provided by a single provider (Tait, owner of Auriga).

Cordic, is impressive through their growth in few years since start-up. They focused on single data communication channel (GPRS). Their mobile device is not a proprietary solution (PDA) and in general they develop a more standardised solution in terms of hardware equipments and software (CPAQ document on their site). Probably (I’m not sure) Cordic solution is less expensive than Auriga (it is?).

Cordic weak points are more related to the missing of GPRS/PMR tandem and what is surprising is the fact they do not refer any customer case study on their site.

I would like to have your opinions and comments on my post. I’m very interested in opinions of peoples that know about these systems from their own experience. I need the best solution for a company of about 100 cars that uses PMR voice systems at this moment and wants to switch on data.

Thanks

Mazz

Happy to be a case study. Have pm'd you.

I strongly believe that PMR is fast becoming a dinosaur and GPRS is the way to go.

Nope dont agree with you on that one

Me neither, our reliable old Raywood system knocks out 1,800 bookings an hour without breaking a sweat, all over PMR. That includes bids from all local cars to ensure the job is awarded to the car that has been empty the longest, confirmation of jobs being accepted or rejected, how far away the car was when the job was accepted, meter on time, meter off time, ring on approach request, requests to go to query, yes / no messages and replies, area boundary reporting, GPS locates etc. I love watching our radio channels in full swing... genius. I think GPRS may have a future as a second string to the PMR bow, particularly for wide area coverage, but at New Year when the GPRS grinds to a halt, you'd better have a dedicated PMR network if you want to cover your work.

We average 120,000 bookings a week by the way, all Raywood units from the early 1990s. Stay away from the new MDX though!

Regards

Me neither, our reliable old Raywood system knocks out 1,800 bookings an hour without breaking a sweat, all over PMR. That includes bids from all local cars to ensure the job is awarded to the car that has been empty the longest, confirmation of jobs being accepted or rejected, how far away the car was when the job was accepted, meter on time, meter off time, ring on approach request, requests to go to query, yes / no messages and replies, area boundary reporting, GPS locates etc. I love watching our radio channels in full swing... genius. I think GPRS may have a future as a second string to the PMR bow, particularly for wide area coverage, but at New Year when the GPRS grinds to a halt, you'd better have a dedicated PMR network if you want to cover your work.

We average 120,000 bookings a week by the way, all Raywood units from the early 1990s. Stay away from the new MDX though!

Regards

I won't argue with those that use PMR happily (we have left sets in some cars but the drivers use them less and less).

What I will say is this.How much will be invested in developing PMR over the next decade by the likes of Tait/Motorola compared with how much Nokia/Siemens/Samsung etc are going to invest in GPRS kit.

Digital PMR, what is the range going to be Radioman?

What you have forgotten is that TETRA is PMR but in a digital form and this is being used by the Police, soon the Fire Service and even the MOD.

Digital PMR will allow connections out onto other networks, rebroadcast stations, repeaters, lots of nice things when it all comes about.

There is heavy demand for radio channels for the 2012 Olympic Games, planes are already in place for the whole thing, mobiles are NOT going to play a major part.

In any sort of emergency mobile phones basically become usless unless the cells are set to allow specific numbers thru.

What I dont like is companies knocking things, Cordic salesmen are the worst for doing this sort of thing, attacking PMR with a vengance which is not called for. GPRS has its pitfails but also its advantages.

TETRA are you kidding, ask the plod on the street or a fireman they hate TETRA: unreliable, inconsistant, dead spots, lost data. TETRA has not delivered and is causing problems all over the country blocking TV and DAB radios.
Digital PMR "when it comes", yeh when, its been superceeded, GPRS and satelite systems are already streets ahead in what they offer. Digital PMR is only a work in progress an artists impression.
I am sure Cordic would not tollerate any of their sales people using negative sales patter and if you have proof of this contact Cordic. I haver never known any of their sales or technical staff denegrate other systems or use hard-sell techniques. Negative selling is rarely effective, it tends to alienate the customer against all systems.

That includes bids from all local cars to ensure the job is awarded to the car that has been empty the longest.

First of all dont get so bloody ratty, this is a debate/discusion.

Yeah whatever regarding sales people.