Updates for 2017

MISSING OUT ON MONEY

If you are one of the many drivers that are not out working mornings, you are missing out on making lots of money. Every morning last week, less than 1/3rd of our fleet has been out working in the morning. We had 41 open orders at 7:30 Friday morning. In fact, nearly every morning last week we had more open orders than cabs on the road.
Winter is our busy time. The colder it is, the busier we are and the more cabs we need on the road. Experienced cab drivers know they have to “work in winter” and “sleep in summer”. Don’t miss out on the busy rush, get out there early and make some money.

UPDATES FOR 2017

To keep pace with advancing technology we invested $100,000.00 upgrading servers and other internal dispatch hardware last year. This investment along with other improvements in our call center has allowed us to offer better service to our riders. For instance, we have dramatically lowered the answer time for calls coming in for rides.
In 2017 we will continue our upgrading project by focusing on improvements for our drivers. Some of these improvements include:

• Updating our dispatch software so it will be more reliable, faster and offer new features that will help you compete for customers.
• Replacing the rear-seat credit card readers with newer machines that will allow us to generate other revenue and lower the charge cashing fee on credit card rides.
• Replace the MDT units with the newest state-of-the art advanced models.
• Update our TAXIMKE app and move our BidRide app from the beta-testing phase to an official public launch so you can compete for rides head to head with Uber drivers.

We will begin our 2017 technology improvement program Monday January 23rd by upgrading the dispatch software. To do this, we have to reprogram the equipment in every taxicab in the fleet. While the process itself will only take a few minutes, there are a lot of taxicabs to reprogram so we need to plan accordingly.

We are switching the dispatch software over between 3am and 5am that morning. The shop will start reprogramming cabs on Saturday January 21st from 7am to12 noon and on Sunday January 22nd from 3pm to 6pm. IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO WORK THE WEEKEND you should have your system reprogrammed during this time so you are ready to go at 5am Monday. Once your car is reprogrammed, you will not be able to work until the dispatch room is updated Monday morning.

If you plan to work Saturday and Sunday then you will not be able to update your car until Monday morning. Keep in mind, once the dispatch room is updated Monday morning between 3am and 5am only taxicabs with the new program will be able to log in.

We plan to dispatch orders over the phone between 3am and 5am while the switchover is taking place. If you are on the road during these hours, make sure the dispatcher has your phone number and location to send you orders.
Making a major update like this is always a hassle. We appreciate your patience while we work hard to make the switch as quick and painless as possible. The major improvements in this new program will make the minor inconvenience well worth the work to get it accomplished.

SOME PEOPLE STILL DO NOT GET IT

No matter how much I write about the critical need for all of us to give good customer service to our riders, some drivers still do stupid things.

I recently received complaints on two drivers who made their riders use a square to process a credit card payment rather than the rear-seat machine. Both drivers have been terminated.

Another driver took his rider to a gas station to put $5 of gas in the cab rather than use the rear seat credit card machine. Imagine that, this driver inconvenienced his rider for 50₵. There is no better way to chase our customers away than stupid acts like this. People are calling Uber for many reasons, one of which is they do not like to be hassled by drivers for paying with a credit card.

The taxicab business is a service industry. We must give our riders GREAT service or they will call someone else for a ride. Most of you drivers get this, and do a great job providing great service. Thank you for that. There will be no tolerance whatsoever for the few meatheads who refuse to do things properly. We will not allow those few bad drivers to ruin the business for all you good drivers.

Have a great week and be safe!!