Taxi Blog

Never Bring a Knife to a Gunfight

I remember the famous scene in Crocodile Dundee where Paul Hogan is accosted by a bunch of men who pull a knife, and he replies “That’s not a knife, now THIS is a knife!” , whereupon he pulls out a huge Bowie knife. Harrison Ford took it  a step further in Raiders of the Lost Ark. When cornered by a large man in a turban wielding two menacing swords he simply pulled out a gun and shot him.

In my travels between cities the last couple of weeks I have encountered a number of cab companies, some small, some quite large, who were considering moving to some form of computerized dispatching system. I have personal experience with the Mobile Knowledge system, and I know quite a few people who have experience with the DDS system as well. Both are fairly robust, and both have some major flaws. The flaws are not necessarily in the programming itself, but in the ability of the companies to adapt their systems to what your individual company needs. Both also require you to use only their own terminals, which eliminates any bargaining position you might have when it comes to replacing equipment. Be that as it may, what we have found Mobile Knowledge to be quite good at is integrating their systems with the various other technologies out there that we have opted to take advantage of.  Whether we are working on credit card processing solutions, text or iphone app based dispatching, or any other functionality, they have been, albeit sometimes very slooowwwwllllyyy, able to adapt their dispatching systems to meet our needs. In truth, the purveyors of the new technologies generally go to Mobile Knowledge and DDS prior to launching their products, so that they are “pre-integrated”.

There are some very solid operators who have developed their own operating and dispatching systems. As long as you are large enough and savvy enough to have your own programmers on staff, this can be an interesting option. If you have to go outside for programmers, on the other hand, be prepared for a lack of availability and a drain on your funds, as everything will be charged out hourly.

Wireless Edge, and Verifone, among others, have been touting their own dispatching systems in markets where they believe that credit cards will flourish. The compelling feature of their dispatching systems is that they are free, as long as you let them take 5% (or whatever percent you wind up agreeing to) of the credit card totals. I have not seen any of these contracts, and I do not know anyone that has actually used either the Wireless Edge system, or the Verifone system. I therefore cannot discuss the flexibility, robust nature, or accuracy of their dispatching systems. The cautionary tale here is this. Make sure that whatever system you choose can handle all of the peripheral technology that you will be adding to your fleet dispatch in the next couple of years. If not, your competitors will have a huge edge, and the money you save on free dispatching equipment will be lost in revenues.  Your competition will be paying for the proverbial gun while you show up with the “free” knife.

Once again, I will state that I do not know anyone using either of these two systems.  Both companies are experienced in the taxi market, so I would assume that the basic dispatch functionality will work in both cases. Do your homework, speak not only to companies that use the dispatching systems in question, but also to other technology companies to see if their products are compatible.

And when you speak to someone who uses the system make sure that their interest in dispatching is the same as yours. In the case of Veriphone specifically, they won the contract to dispatch all of Philadelphia. The contract was not with a company, however, it was with a city. The city’s interests will be far different from your own.

Happy hunting.