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Customer Successes
The Challenge: Reduce call center costs and improve service levels while positioning the company for growth – a common problem in the transportation industry. Greater Austin Transportation Company (GATC) in Austin, Texas provides transportation services to almost 1.5 million passengers annually with their 300 car fleet. In July of 2004, Texas Taxi, Inc. had recently purchased GATC, forming the largest taxi company in North America. The Solution: Texas Taxi implemented the UniBook™ System, an automated call taking system from Unified Dispatch and available through Digital Dispatch, which enables callers to order a taxi within 20 seconds without speaking to a live agent. UniBook™ uses information stored in GATC’s dispatch system and an IVR interface allowing callers to bypass live agents and book automatically. The Result: A 14 percent increase in dispatched trips and a 15 percent decrease in live agent shifts. Before UniBook™, the call center had 140 8-hour shifts per week; with UniBook™, the shift total is now 119 shifts per week – reducing the total number of 8-hour shifts by 15 percent. The dispatched trips increase is attributable to GATC’s new marketing programs and UniBook™. UniBook™ increased GATC’s capacity which dramatically reduced hold times. Hence the percentage of abandoned calls was reduced by 20%, allowing GATC to service more trips with less call center staff. The reduction in shifts is equivalent to 4 full-time employees. Labor savings alone amount to over $90,000 annually or a 15% reduction in call center costs, without taking into account the 14% growth in call volume. Within the first year, the UniBook™ system has paid for itself. With the success at the Austin facility, Texas Taxi extended the use of the UniBook™ system to its facilities in Houston and San Antonio. “UniBook™ has enabled us to simultaneously reduce our call center costs by 15% while experiencing a 14% growth in call volume. Very few products can provide impact like that! Further, we were recently voted one of the three most innovative medium sized businesses in BTA (Dispatching) Ltd of Bermuda The Challenge: Deploying GPS-based dispatch technology to a newly formed 250-vehicle taxi fleet within 8 weeks. Challenges included the logistics, interfacing with third-party vendor and adherence to stringent project timeline, which spread over the 2005 Christmas holiday season. The Solution: One-stop shop at Digital Dispatch for one of the most advanced dispatch technology in the market and entire project management. The Result: The 250-vehicle fleet of BTA was fully operational with one of the most advanced GPS-based dispatch systems within two months of selecting the product, and thereby meeting the Ministry of Transportation’s deadline of February 6, 2006, for having GPS technology installed in all of Bermuda’s taxies “I was very shocked to hear the system was operational and that 250 cars have been installed to date … I was hoping for some but not expecting 250 … I’m very happy with BTA and this accomplishment,” Digital Dispatch undertook project management responsibilities with the mandate to work closely with Telecom Bermuda Ltd. and BTA (Dispatching) Ltd. and coordinate with third-party vendors where necessary, and delivered the project on time meeting the deadlines. Some of the challenges in this project were dealing with the logistics and project timelines which spread over the Christmas holiday season. Obtaining necessary telephone lines and delivery of equipment onsite during the holidays was tough. The Challenge: Capital Taxi’s primary concern was that business was not growing as fast as expected since they were struggling to achieve operational efficiency and fostering customer loyalty. Driver safety was also a concern. Formed in 2004 by a group of taxi owners and drivers from the local taxi companies, Capital Taxi found that building customer loyalty and relationships with local businesses, and growing their fleet were very challenging without an advanced dispatch tool to automate some of functions and increase overall business efficiency. The Solution: Capital Taxi realized that they needed to opt for an advanced computerized dispatch system and implemented Digital Dispatch’s solution. This includes the proven TaxiTrack™ ?application and mobile data terminals. They started using the Automatic Booking and Callout features immediately as well as in-vehicle credit card payments. The Result: Within months of the new system being operational in May 2005, Capital Taxi experienced obvious improvements in their operational efficiency and corresponding growth in business. Evident mprovements included:
TheCab: A Hawaiian Success Story TheCab’s Goal: Optimize operational efficiency of its 500 –vehicle fleet and a dispatch center that handles over 45,000 calls a month. The Solution: Vector 530™ mobile data terminal with TaxiTrack™ dispatch application with CallTaker, CallerID, in-vehicle credit card payment solution. The Result:
There are some hidden benefits from its new dispatch system that TheCab is beginning to realize as well. Although tourism is booming, profits for taxi drivers and taxi companies seem to be falling behind due the soaring gas prices. Interestingly enough, the new system is helping TheCab’s drivers offset some of their higher fuel costs. "Every month, every driver is probably paying an additional $600 a month just for the difference in the price (of gas) of what he used to pay and what he's paying now," said Howard Higa, President of Signature Cab Holdings, in an interview with Norman Lee for the local TV station KGMB9 in September 2005. "A rough calculation based on every day fill-up on their cars, our fleet of drivers are spending an additional $300,000 a month in gas," he told KGMB9*. "We actually saw drivers making more money from the GPS, and now, they may not be making more money, but they're probably not losing that much more money because of higher prices in gas," Higa mentioned in his interview. Cost Savings from Optimized Operation The Challenge: Metro Cab’s expansion strategy was getting hindered by everyday inefficiencies like system misuse by drivers and miscommunications between drivers and dispatchers over the voice dispatch system resulting in loss of business and low customer satisfaction. The Solution: Metro Cab chose the Vector 530™? mobile data terminal with the TaxiTrack™?? dispatch application software and communication infrastructure to replace its existing voice dispatch system. Their solution also included the self-serve booking functions, the WebBooker? and the Automated CallTaker and in-vehicle credit card payment processing. The Result: Metro Cab not only reversed its constant loss of drivers but added 16 more drivers within the first few weeks that the new system became operational. “The new dispatch system is exactly what we had expected it to be. We are 95 percent satisfied and the remaining 5 percent is part of the bumps that comes with any technology. This is really the best you get in dispatching,” said Felix Shneur, owner of Metro Cab Association Inc. near Boston, Massachusetts, after using his new dispatch system for a few weeks. The company chose the new Digital Dispatch system over a competitive solution because it wanted to get “the most effective dispatch solution possible”, a comment made by Felix at the time of the purchase. “Efficiency is the key to our operation and we are a lot more efficient today with many of the basic dispatching activities now automated. This leaves very little room for human error,” Felix mentioned. “The resulting optimization means cost savings for us.” Value-added Services Made Possible by Fleet Management Solution: Waterloo Taxi saw the opportunity to make itself the preferred taxi company in town when the local University-issued student card could also pay for local services even outside the university services. Waterloo Taxi serves the Kitchener-Waterloo area in Ontario. With over 20,000 students out of a total population of 400,000, Kitchener-Waterloo is a real university town. The two universities in town, University of Waterloo and Wilfried Laurier University, have both deployed a card system developed by General Meters Corporation, which gives each student a single electronic University-issued card that is used as an identification and a payment card. This single card functions like a debit card, with students pre-paying their account after which they can use this to pay for a variety of goods and services including photocopies, food at university cafeterias, local restaurants and vending machines, laundry services, and library fines. Acceptance of this card over cash has been shown to increase the use of services offered by vendors accepting this card. It also eliminates any delays in receiving funds for the vendors. Waterloo Taxi is the only taxi company in the Kitchener-Waterloo area that currently accepts this card to pay for cab rides. After deploying the TaxiTrack™? system and mobile data terminals with integrated magnetic card swipe to its fleet, Waterloo Taxi is able to accept this card. “TaxiTrack™? confirms if the student account has sufficient funds to pay for the fare. The account information and fare are sent wirelessly from the vehicle to the TaxiTrack™? server. TaxiTrack™? then contacts the university’s relevant servers over the Internet to authorize the payment. The SmartPrint? mobile printer prints a receipt for the driver and the student,” explained a product manager for TaxiTrack™?. “The integration of TaxiTrack™? with our card system has made payment processing faster and more reliable,” said John Cunningham of WatCard Office at the University of Waterloo. “Hundreds of students use our taxi service every week, and they prefer paying with their University-issued cards. Since our drivers can validate a student’s card in real time, they do not have to worry about cards with insufficient funds,” said Tony Araujo of Waterloo Taxi. “This also ensures that we continue to be the preferred taxi company for most of the students in the town,” Mr. Araujo concluded. The kind of card system is in use by hundreds of universities. “Now that this dispatch application is compatible with this system, taxi companies across North America can expand their businesses by accepting these cards,” according to Jeff Zender of General Meters Corporation.
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“ Efficiency is the key to our operation and we are a lot more efficient today with many of the basic dispatching activities now automated. This leaves very little room for human error. “The resulting optimization means cost savings for us.” |
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© 2008 DDS Wireless International Inc. |
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