Taxi Driver Online

From my experience with airport fares they do, especially when they are looking up prices on the net.

If they weren't concerned with prices then they would just use the local firm that takes them out at the weekend and/or picks them up from the supermarket.

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IDFIMH

Ah, but how can you say? airportbytaxi.com is currently the only website in the UK to publish real taxi fares.

Have I convinced you to give us a try yet?

er......

http://www.arctaxis.co.uk/airport%20fares%20list.htm

http://www.where2guv.com/?city=London&page=&action=city

http://www.clockhousecars.co.uk/London_Airports_Transfers.htm

http://www.londonairconnections.com/

http://www.holidaytaxis.com/index.php

http://www.airportgo.co.uk/


and 100's more when your type airport and taxi in to google...

Not one of those sites tells me how much it is to get a taxi from Lincoln to Gatwick based on real taxi firm quotes (not just 'as the crow flies')

Or Kings Lynn to Humberside
Or Beeston to Stansted
Or Corby to Luton



Shall I go on....?

may be good if appears to be unique and only one company used per town. As an ex marketing manager I can tell youl that a "listing" is a waste of time but what appears to be one unique opportunty, properly advertised, will always produce results. Some call it the rifle versus blunderbuss appraoch to marketing.

Yes, and I think that brings us back to what I said earlier about the unreliability of information. For example, how do you grade standard vehicles and executives - is it just what they tell you, and do you believe it? For example, I've seen firms adverstise executive services with cars that are worse than many of those sitting on local taxi ranks.

Another good one is the amount of trade websites that use pictures of vehicles taken from manufacturers websites, whereas the cars they actually use might well be the last version of the model and about six to eight years old.

I remember on another forum a couple of years ago an organisation called National Cabline was trying to push itself - this was a national phone number linked to local affiliated cab firms. Its website said:

“National Cabline offers hundreds of top quality taxi and private hire Members, across the UK...

“Furthermore, every National Cabline Member operates under special pre-set passenger and vehicle safety standards, making us the safer choice for you and your family."

However, it transpired that membership was open to any licensed cab firm, and was offered in a first-come first-served basis in local areas. Thus the spiel was in fact a load of garbage.

I'm not saying that your website is doing anything like that, but knowing the trade and how it markets itself sometimes I just wouldn't rely on a quality designation without a good deal more investigation.



So you mean that you'll effectively be setting the prices for the firms so that they aren't competing?

However, going back to my original point (and ignoring the quality aspect), if I wasn't the cheapest in my area then I wouldn't really see a lot of point in using your service, surely? People are always going to use the cheapest?



Well I can't disagree on the merits of promoting such services, but if I was alongside five other firms that were all cheaper, surely it's unlikely that I'll get much work, so why would I pay you to be on your website even if it does increase awareness?

Ignoring the quality aspect (which if I was a consumer I would have to be persuaded that the information and designations were reliable enough to rely one), I think your website is a good idea from the consumer perspective, but as a supplier then unless I'm the cheapest in the area then I'm not really convinced.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

TDO, I think you're missing my points, but you did hit the nail right on the head at the end of your post when you said the website is good for the consumer.

You're spot on there: it's good for the consumer, and things that are good for consumers will be popular - so you'll need to be on it.

Not wanting to be too blunt, but If your prices are too high, then you'll be losing business anyway. If people really do focus solely on price (which i disagree that they do) then you'll still lose business when customers call around for quotes and find that you're more expensive.

To address the other points very briefly - 'executive' vehicles are not just indicated by an icon, when you click on the taxi firm name we can put as much *specific* information about a fleet as you wish - so the customer really can see what they're getting.


I appreciate all your feedback on this, it has been good to get the perspective from the trade-side. I can understand that our views are not all the same, but airportbytaxi.com is a consumer tool, and I believe there is a demand for a new service like this.... and if the consumer is indeed totally focussed on price, then one way or another they'll find a way of finding the cheapest.

Just to remind everyone of the original point of the topic of course, a trial 6 month subscription to airportbytaxi.com is just a one-off, no obligation payment of £10 to allow you to see how it could work for you.

This offer is only for counties that do not have any fares published at all at the moment - so this is twice the reason to subscribe now, as you will of course be the first taxi firm in your area on the site!

I suspect the opportunity is there for someone with an inventive mind to produce a similar but slightly different variation to yours which concentrates on advertising revenue rather than subscriptions.

It would be much easier to get Taxi/PH firms to subscribe if they didn't have to pay Ten pounds for the privilege. You would no doubt have thousands of subscribers in a matter of days but why stop at just airport prices? Why not calculate from Town to Town and even display the individual firms mileage charges. The information you can offer is substantial if you are prepared to work at it, but that is easier said than done.

You better hope that some bright spark with time on his hands doesn't set up a similar website for free.

Regards

JD

Good points, but the site has to be kept simple, quick and easy to gain wide-ranging consumer use (and respect). That means the site can't be teaming with adverts.

Requiring a paid subscription also means we are properly answerable to taxi firms, a free service can be abused, taxi fares wouldn't be kept up-to-date and the whole thing could fall apart. Consumers know that if taxi firms are paying for the service, then the information on the site will have more credability.

Also, the price we are charging (even for a full price sub) is very cheap method of advertising indeed when you consider the amount of exposure you will receive.

Your other points are very valid, but the site needs to have a unique selling point, and at this point that is providing a centralised place on the web to find airport taxis

In order to survive your site needs revenue and customer support, why should a Taxi firm pay ten pounds for the privilege of having their number published on your website when 99% of trade probably comes from within a ten to fifteen mile radius of their own locality. Having their own web presence will generate far more enquiries than your site could hope to offer.

I honestly can't see the business model working but it is interesting for people like me who just want to look and compare the prices on offer.

Regards

JD

No, I think you're wrong. A 'one-stop-shop' site will always generate more traffic than a taxi firm's own website. A subscription also creates a revenue to advertise beyond the scope of a taxi firm alone.

You're also not thinking about a new area that we have had interest from - taxi firms that are based close to an airport which, of course, have the whole UK as their market!

And here was me thinking it was you who was missing the point



I can't see where I said that customers focus solely on price - indeed I've been saying completely the opposite, but I was just trying to seperate the two aspects (price and quality) for simplicity's sake.

What I've been saying that if you have two identical firms on your listings then from the consumer's point of view it's a no-brainer - they'll clearly choose the cheaper one.

We both agree that it's good for consumers, but what's good for consumers is bad for business since it will drive down prices - that's one of the reasons that prices for consumer goods have come down over the last few years, because the internet has made price comparisons easier, which exerts downward pressure on prices. Now I'm not saying that I'm anti-consumer to the extent that I don't like people comparing prices, but what I'm saying is that to the narrow profit-motivated perspective of a firm considering using your service then unless they are the cheapest then they would have to think twice about paying to use your service, at least at the full price.

Your response to this seems to be that a dearer firm that did not want to use your service would in any case lose business when consumers are phoning round for quotes, which may be correct, but this is not as convenient as your own service for comparing prices, thus to that extent if I'm not competing on price then targetting people who are likely to phone is better than targetting them via your website.

In any case, if you are resorting to the argument that people will phone anyway and to that extent dearer businesses not using your service will lose trade anyway then to that extent isn't over-complimentary about the efficacy of your own business model, so you're hoist by your own petard.




Well I'll give you an example to illustrate what I've been saying about pricing and also bring in the quality aspect.

For example, I tried the journey Newark to Bristol, and the system produced three firms, let's call them A, B and C.

A - 320
B - 400
C - 416

The firms are all designated 'luxury', so to the extent that those designations can be relied upon, then they are all the same.

Thus if I was a consumer, it's a no-brainer - A is the clear leader and nearly £100 cheaper for the return journey.

To that extent, if I was firms B and C then I would wonder if it was worth using your service just to be shown as a dear service.

Looking at the further information, it seems that firm A also offers 'executive' Mercs at no extra cost.

Firm B offers 'executive Mercedes' at 50% extra. So in actual fact, comparing firm A with B would actually mean comparing A at £320 with B at £600.

So what does your designation 'luxury' actually mean? Are 'executive' and 'luxury' the same thing, in which case designating A and B as luxury is misleading, because B is in fact luxury only at extra cost?

Indeed, I'm further confused because if you look at car magazine the executive class is the one up from the family class, and the luxury class is the one up from the executive class, so to that extent the designations on your site seem to turn this upside down and to that extent is misleading.

Turning to firm C, all it says is that the vehicles are all luxury. This could just mean the same as firm A, in which case firm A is still the clear leader, but if it means luxury in the usual sense then it could mean that it's an S-class Merc instead of an E-class (say), so to that extent it could be the best of the three after all. On the other hand, it could just be running top of the range ten year old Granadas or whatever, in which case that's again a very different thing.

That's also without actually looking at their own websites, which I'm sure would confuse the matter still further.

Thus to that extent your site is a classic example of why I always take these things with a pinch of salt - the information provided simply isn't reliable enough to use without further investigation.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

That's certainly a very comprehensive reply, and i'm certainly flattered that you're interested enough in airportbytaxi.com to spend so much time looking at the site! (Though sadly not interested enough to part with £10 for a subscription)

I genuinely do see your points, but you must remember that although we aim to give as much information, and as accurate prices as possible, the prices and information are indeed open to clarification at the time of booking - hence the reason this is an 'open' service that gives direct phone numbers, and not one that insists on online booking etc.

My point about people traditionally phoning round was simply to say that, in the past, people would phone around taxi firms to get a quote. In the future that will be done on airportbytaxi.com. The same rules about pricing and competitiveness still apply - it's just a quicker tool to get the same job done, and a very good job it does of it too.

We're hoping to clarify vehicle types for our subscribers and hopefully introducing photographs where possible following your feedback, which is most appreciated (as are the new subscribers we have gained from the exposure this forum has given us!)

Personally I think that a better way to do it for you, the companies involved and the customers, would be not to list all the different companies at all.

It would be better to offer the service free to companies on a trial basis. Otherwise they may think you’re a flyby night who will fleece them for a £10 with no return., nothing personal, just its a new venture with no proven track record.

Instead, phone around all the companies in the areas you have and work out who is willing to be available for bookings and at an average price. Like a set cost per mile, or single costs from X town to Y airport.

This would be more beneficial to you in many ways:

1. Then all the customer does is type in where they are and which airport they want to go to. You have ONE price from yourself to the consumer, so no confusing them with different prices with different companies. you are likely to lose customers if they are the ones who have to do the phoning around, they may as well of used yell.com.

2. You don’t lose repeat subscription by companies pulling out due to no bookings from your site or being shown as more expensive than another. this is why many new online pay-to-be-in directories fail in their first year.

3. With several companies on board in one area you more likely to be able to get the consumer exactly the places and times they want, without them contacting one company and being told they can’t fit them in.

4. You will get more companies signing up if it’s free. They have nothing to lose after all.

5. You make your money by adding on a couple of quid booking fee payable by the customer on every single booking. Surely a small price for them to pay, but much, much more income for you

6. By you booking the trip you can vet the companies and weed out the trash. And divvy out the rest of the work to the other companies on a pro-rata basis to keep them happy.

7. you could set up a trade account with the companies and have the customer pay YOU directly and then pay the company at the end of the month. a larger amount coming in from the work in one hit always looks better than dribs and drabs.
( as long as you pay on time each month )

think about it.

and then if it takes off in a big way, you can negotiate discounts with the bigger PH firms, but still charge the customers the same and pocket the difference.