This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
How Taxi Dispatch Software Can Disrupt the Taxi Industry?
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
On-demand taxi firms like Uber, Lyft, and many more have spread their footprint across many cities in the world within a few years of launch. Recently, Uber went public, hoping to raise around 80 billion USD. The irony is that it also reported 1 billion USD loss in 2018. This made us ask some serious questions regarding the operations of these on-demand firms. Not to mention that, after the advent of these firms, the conventional taxi industry has taken a huge hit.
The traditional taxi businesses are making huge losses and very few are able to change their model to app-based. The rest of them attached their taxis with the on-demand taxi companies.
As I have mentioned above regarding the Uber losses, we can infer that the on-demand business model for taxis is unsustainable since they are not able to generate profits even after so much popularity.
What is wrong with this business model?
These on-demand taxi firms revolutionized the taxi industry and became so popular among the people but it made a lot of mistakes apart from running an unsustainable business model. First, they compromised customer data security. Second is that they abysmally paid the drivers with literally no bonuses, incentives, insurances, etc.
Now is the best time for traditional taxi firms to regain their lost market. But, they have to enter with some technological advances incorporated in their operation.
A taxi dispatch solution loaded with taxi management and booking system can do all the work.
Now let us take a quick look at how the taxi dispatch solution can positively affect the conventional taxi business.
Allowing customers to book using an integrated booking system
Just like the on-demand model, each stakeholder is provided a mobile app including the customers.
The customers can use the app to book a cabin case he is not comfortable with booking via call. The customers can select the type of vehicle, pickup, and destination in the app itself. The admin dispatches the vehicle once a taxi is booked.
Taxi movement is updated real-time. Destination, route, taxi fare, is updated on a real-time basis to the rider.
Quick cab dispatch
The integrated taxi dispatch system is decentralized and it allows the dispatcher to automatically and quickly release the cab. Manual dispatch process is filled with inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Also, manual dispatching is prone to miscommunication and takes a long time. This involves a lot of inconvenience for the customer and the admin.
Nowadays, there are more than a hundred bookings in a day and converting all of them through telephonic conversation is difficult.
Even cab rescheduling and cancellation is easy using the integrated dispatch system.
Handling daily business operations
Unlike the on-demand model, here you can employ drivers instead of attaching the cabs. This gives an increased responsibility and more control over the day-to-day operation.
Drivers will get a fixed salary no matter how many rides he gets. With exciting bonuses and incentives, you can attract more drivers for a long term commitment.
Convenience and comfort
In one word, taxi dispatch system brings convenience and comfort for all its stakeholders. The customer no longer needs to locate the cab on the street. Instead, the user can select the location on the map and the driver easily identifies them without any wastage of time.
The latest taxi dispatch software is cloud-based and every data of the customers and the drivers are stored in the cloud. So, there is no need for spending on servers and maintenance.
The drivers can get the money and incentives directly credited to their bank accounts.
A lot of payment gateway options like UPI, credit/debit cards, net banking, etc are available.
Maintenance of taxi fleet ranging from fuel, tire, exterior, interior, licenses, etc is maintained in a database that is available to the admin.
Digitalization
Manually overseeing the reports and accounts is a tedious and laborious process and the taxi dispatch system does it effortlessly. The solution has advanced analytics tools which are at the disposal of the admin. The analytics tools help to improve the operation by providing valuable results by analyzing a lot of data.
Right from taxi booking to paying the driver, everything is done online and there is no paperwork involved.
So, by now you would have decided to opt for the taxi dispatch solution for your conventional taxi business. If implemented, one day your performance as a traditional taxi business will surpass the on-demand companies. Integrating your old operation with the latest taxi dispatch system may be cumbersome but it is definitely worth it.
The taxi dispatch solution is available readily and the price is many times lower than the solution that is developed from scratch. Just focus your time and effort on selecting the best solution provider.