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Hi,

I was looking for some thoughts on a website I have been designing.

It was first proposed to me by a local Taxi driver friend who knew I do websites and software and asked me if I could write a system to give taxi quotations.

He says that his local taxi company didn't have a proper, easy and quick system to give quotations out to people who phone in. He says that the operators end up putting a call out over the radio asking drivers how much they thought it would be for the fare.

So, I went away and wrote a demo system for him to have a look at.

It's quite simple how it works although it does use some quite modern and complicated route mapping software.

The route distances are calculated by the route mapping software and then the distances are then converted into cost based on the local borough taxi rates. It allows for address to address routes. Well known place to well know place routes and multidrop. It also takes into account the time of day, the vehicle and the tariff. The only thing it really can't calculate accurately is "waiting time" in traffic.

So, my questions is....

Is this a good idea? Would you, the taxi industry, use it?

My understanding is that the company that my friend works for has just upgraded their booking software to include this functionality and they paid £8k for the upgrade. My system would cost nowhere near this.....

Thanks for any thoughts/comments in advance!

Trev

www.taxiroute.co.uk

 

Do you have any experience in PHP and Mysql databases? this sounds quite advianced for a quote booking system. I work for an insurance consultants and we are looking into building a insurance quote system using PHP and Mysql, but the system you are talking about would be programming in vb or similar or ajax.

Hi dazsly,

Yes, I have experience of PHP and MySQL.

To be honest, I have already written the TaxiRoute system. It is up and running at www.taxiroute.co.uk

I know this is a bit like putting the "cart before the horse" but I am trying to find out if people in the taxi trade consider it a good idea or not. If they do, then I will start to collect the fare data from the various borough councils and try and turn it into a small business for myself.

As I say, I really should have done the market research before writing the system but I wanted to see if I could do it before hand. Silly I know.

The system is written in in vb.net using Microsoft MapPoint and a SQL Server database by the way.

So, does anyone think it would be of any use? Shall I roll it out or shelve it?

Thanks

Trev

Hi,

I would just like people to know that a lot of work has been done on TaxiRoute over the last few months to try and improve it.

You no longer have to register to use it and more importantly, it's now completely free to use.

Please take a few moments to have a look around and give me some feedback?

www.taxiroute.co.uk

Many thanks
Trev
www.taxiroute.co.uk

Was crap without a postcode, didnt suggest 1 of the streets or towns I input.

How does it calculate mileage to pickup point. Say the town in question has surrounding villiages, none of which have taxi companies. if customer is 6 miles from town in villiage A and needs to get to villiage B 7 miles out of town in the opposite direction what would the fare be for the driver to leave the town in the middle to go out to pickup A, drop off at B and get back to town as there would be no likelehood of a fare in village B?

This is an argument we always have in the taxi firm I work for. :-)

Hi Kong,

Sorry for late reply. Didn't get a notification to say a comment was waiting.

The system does not calculate the mileage to a pickup OR the mileage back from a drop off. It only calculates the distance of the fare to give the customer an estimate of the fare cost.

Was that what you were asking?

Can you give me examples of the places you tried to put in and it couldn't find please?

I monitor the system closely and it's currently getting a 98% "find rate" on the places users are putting in.

Thanks for the feedback

Trev
www.taxiroute.co.uk