Taxi Driver Online

excelent I am proud of you, so would I.

Wharfie

Oh, it must be an absolute joy working for you Wharfy, an absolute joy.

Any way taking this thread back to Auriga.

In the ten years we have had the system I have never heard of a major customer of theirs throw out the system and buy another system.

There has been many talking about it but never done it.

On second thoughts maybe Capital of Cardiff could be said to have but they were brought out by a company using another system.

This tells me that they must be doing something right.

Though if you are reading this Paul, Clive etc, the support is sh1te at present. Please sort it out.

I don't know too much about the support, other than it's very expensive.

Once they have got you by the doodars, they make you pay for it.

Anyone any experience of the sigtec system.

tell us about it

I think ComCab uses it

http://www.sigtec.com.au/taxistart.html

I must confess b4 today I had never heard of it, I thought com cab used a system from asia, again I dont know, the beurau in edinbourogh I dont think uses this system and thats owned by comcabs parent.?

my reccomendation to you is get 1000 cars together and give it a try! Wharfie

There isn't a system out there that can't be cheated. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either a liar or a fool (or more than likely a saleman)!

Auriga is a good system, but like every other it has it's flaws, not least the inflexiblity of the Company to appreciate that every taxi company operates differently and needs to customise their system.

This flaw, however, is also paradoxically one of their strong points as their product rigidity makes the system much more reliable than a system which is continually being tinkered with.

Then there is the excessively expensive support and now, according to several recent reports, it is not to the high standard it once was. Support is where these companies make their money, for as long as you use the system.

The bottom line is that while it may suit one company down to the ground, it could be their neighbours worst nightmare.

What does everyone think of Autocab, or are we not allowed to talk about them for fear of threatened legal action?


Regards,

Dave.

Interesting Dave

When we originally chose Auriga it was because it was 'configurable' to our working systems. A salesman from another company told us that we were clearing running our business the wrong way, he was soon shown the door.

Auriga did make a big effort several year back to standardise everything because. as you say it made their task of knowing the system so much easier. Previously, their brighter engineers had been making 100's od ammendments to system and not recording them.

However, if you ask the right people at Auriga often enough they always seem to find a way of achieving what you want.

The Support, though expensive, is a serious problem currently. You only get a receptionist who takes a message.

I believe the all these companies 'sell' the actual software too cheaply. They have structured the business plan to make their profits from selling the hardware and maintenance/support.

In the current age it seems ridiculous to be sending engineers all around the country fixing PC's when all of us could find a reasonably priced local supplier with far quicker reaction times. Auriga were recently most obnoxious to my local radio engineer who was helping solve a problem their system was causing.

With the development of PDA's etc and the data communications eating into PMR, the 'databoxes' are very very rapidly being made a ridiculous and expensive piece of kit.

What I want is someone to sell me a piece of software that does the job I want, is configurable with various communication systems and can link with other software systems to allow the production of decent management reports.

On Autocab, I have interestingly heard today that they are launching a new system based on LINUX, which is what my computer friends tell the most stable and developable language for what I want.

for what its worth I would be very carefull about that proposal,

I aint heard many good reports about autocab, I aint heard any bad reports about Auriga, though they refused me a system install.

I hear thar Auriga are developing a new system you are the boss and know your system requirements, if it goes tits up we will help you but that would be a third system, and could be disasterous for you!

wHARFIE

If your view is that their products are rubbish or excellant, then talk away.

If they don't like negative posts about their products, then they best improve them. And if their products are good, then lets here the praise.

now that sounds intersting. whats the gossip. are they good or not ive never heard of them.

pete be grateful and keep it that way, get knowledge that will push you ahead, the knowledge you request will not assist your ambitions,

just hope like me that your compeditors buy it!

Wharfie

A newbie: Trying to buy a system:

I have a problem with Autocab. It was not the system, as we didnt buy it so I cannot say how good it is, or not, as the case may be. My problem was being told a price, then being told it would work with our phone system by the salesman, but being told it would not work with our phone system by the technical chappies. Then being told an altogether different price just as we were about to place an order, the "extra few thousand" being added simply to alter our phone system to suit, even though, at this time, the salesman was still selling us on the fact that it would work with our system.

Having just managed to convince everyone that we needed a computer system, I then lost my fight for it, as the "boss" said "there is no way I am going to spend that much on something that we dont yet even know if it will work with our phone system" or words to that effect.

Thus, all my work getting everyone here to accept a computer system was destroyed. Had we been told the truth from day one, this crisis would not have happened.

Other firms we approached:

Softsol (TaxiMate). Here, we had an entirely different approach from the salesman. The system seemed good and reliable, the salesman seemed entirely honest. Sadly, the system did not suit us, due to its development leaning towards the mobile phone rather than dedicated gear. Perhaps this system will show its head for the future, but it was not for us.

CabMaster. Again here, we spoke to a guy called Dean, and this guy did not even attempt to pull the wool over our eyes. He was totally honest about the goods ands bads of the system as it aplied to our operation, and was more than helpful with all the technical enquiries we had. Personally, I seriously wanted to buy from this chap, as clearly, he had given us the most help. At the end of the day, there were two reasons we didnt buy: the first was the (by now) reduced confidence caused by our first experience (as above), and the second was due to a local operator whom had once had Cabmaster and replaced it. He said it was overcomplex, difficult to train his staff up to speed on, and a bit behind the times viv a vis the other systems. He has now installed Auriga.

Diplomat/Midas. Initial enquiries simply didnt get a reply (as with Auriga). However, when I started talking to the guys from these two operations, they were the most helpful of all, and explained a whole lot of stuff to me, via TTF2 and over the phone. In terms of what I now know about systems, Diplomat have educated me most. Any questions I have had, have been answered promptly and I think accurately. I was a bit concerned about the in-fighting between the two (it seemed a bit like a family fued!). But the fight educated me enormously. But the information they freely gave me, leads me to believe, that Diplomat would come out top in terms of support. Others may care to clarify on that point, as, as I say, it is only opinion at this stage. My problem with Diplomat, is the support costs, and I am a little concerned about its complexity compared to the average controller/telephonists ability to F*** things up. We have no IT specialists on our firm.

Datamaster. This system I loved. And I loved the price. They were pretty helpful too with information, although sometimes it was suspect, depending who exactly you spoke to. My ONLY serious problem with datamaster, was that it kept crashing and this frightened the life out of me.

At the end of the day, my neck (so to speak) would be on the block if I bought the wrong system. While price is of course relevent, reliabilty and foolproof operation is the most important aspect. In price terms, the only factor is: is it cheaper and as reliable as staff costs for a manual system.

Several other firms we approached, simply did not reply to us.

I know from personal experience, a number of firms up and down the country, who have bought one system, then changed it later for Auriga. I know loads of Auriga operators who are happy to show me their gear in operation. They generally seem happy with it, but bemoan the fact that Auriga seem to have a take it or leave it, and rather arrogant attitude with regard to support etc. This would not "gell" well with us, being a small and almost family type of operation.

We also have an attitude problem with support costs ergo: Why should support cost so much? Is the system so unreliable that we need all this support?

So, bottom line. What do I do at the end of the day? What is my safest option?

The answer, sadly, is simple.

Stick with the manual system that we have got. My neck is safe with that.

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.