Taxi Driver Online

It seems your customers are about as patient as ours then

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

But if there are not enough cars either out, or licensed, how can that be achieved when its really busy?

Surely if punters are kept waiting for a booked cab they don't need legislation to help them, just a different phone number.

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IDFIMH

Someone "gets it", in part............And then when it isn't busy of course there are too many licences in the area and the operators are starving.

Which will give them access to what? The balance of licenced cabs available in the area, which at that time, will also be flat out like lizards drinking. Unlicenced operators would be dead men walking.

We've tried to prop this up with an array of "Peak demand" plans, licences, substitutes, part time substitutes and so forth but there are no silver bullets as it were. Our big killer here is CTP insurance which is the same whether a cab works full or part time and @ $6.5K per year for that + insurance, rego et al, part time licences are not really viable nor are they realistically controllable.

But how is the seven minutes assessed?

Is it from phone call to pick up? From despatch to pick up?

And what happens if you don't pick up the phone is you know you are already mobbed with work?

And how do the authorities check up? Mystery shopping or customer surveys?

However surely this does put a lot of power with the driver, which IMO is a very good thing.

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IDFIMH

That one.

Should be that one.

Abandoned calls must be reported to the regulator, and are reported, amongst a host of other data on a quarterly basis for KPI assessment.

As above plus.....

That one.

Customer feedback, hotlines etc.

Meter flashing = arse kicking.

Agreed, providing the focus remains on a collective effort to move as many as far and as safely as possible as efficiently as possible. I do tend to have a short fuse with the new kids who know everything about the Taxi industry and wish to redesign the "wheel" (pun intended) in the first 5 minutes. Generally, the experienced brigade, although, naturally we lock horns from time to time, are a good bunch who can see the bigger picture of creating customer loyalty by a little extra effort once or twice in a shift.

So what happens when no booking office can cover the work in less than seven minutes?

Do they all lose their operating licenses?

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IDFIMH

Yet to be tested in this area. Contractual obligations dictate 85% must be picked up within 7 minutes and then there is a sliding scale of acceptability. We run at around 91%.

At the rate this dopey government is doing its level best to ruin the economy, we'll soon be @ 99%. Handing a grand to almost everyone because of the so called GFC which was apparently supposed to stimulate the local economy. Many of those "grands" were spent on new Plasmas or LCD's (which were made in China BTW) with the precipitant being the punters staying home with their mates to "see the show" rather than going to the pub or club whilst the taxi driver does what.........................? Go figure.

good old Aussie politicians if they're not opening their mouths without thinking they're spending money without thinking ! or so my cousins tell me

Seemingly so and each side seems to specialise in one of the above.