The transportation industry can be a tough business, and taxi companies across the world are facing stiffer competition now more than ever. As of last year, there were 242,200 vehicles waiting to pick up passengers in England alone – the most since 2005, and a similar trend is seen worldwide. We at the Gazoop team would hate to see you fail, so here are 4 warning signs that may indicate your taxi business is falling behind the rest of the competition.
Poor Growth Rates
Every taxi business needs to expand at an appropriate rate, and no two taxi companies are alike in this regard. If you are in a rural area that does not need many cabs, for example, or if your regional market is currently saturated with competitor vehicles, you may want to redirect your spending on additional advertising and dispatch upgrades. Simply put, you should not add any new cabs or drivers to your fleet until you are sure it is a completely sustainable decision.
Your Taxi Business is Running at Minimal Capacity
As the old saying goes, "you need to spend money in order to make money", but we at Gazoop have a different saying – "if you pinch a penny for too long, it will eventually pinch back!" Too many taxi companies are understaffed and using outdated equipment such as traditional radio dispatch systems and beat-up-looking cabs. When a taxi business decides to operate this way, customers do not appreciate the longer waiting times, and employees do not appreciate the extra stress.
Ineffective Micromanagement
Every taxi company owner wants to succeed, but not everyone goes about it the right way. Maybe they spend too much time slogging through reports, or maybe they are too busy trying to locate where their drivers have gone. Whatever the case, they are not using time to its fullest potential.
Low Morale
Not every employee is going to walk to work with a smile, and taxi companies are no different. Drivers can fight over jobs, not want to drive radio dispatch vehicles due to inferior equipment, or complain about incorrect information from the dispatchers. If your taxi company is short-staffed, it will only make these problems worse.
What Can You Do to Help Your Taxi Business?
From low morale to ineffective micromanagement, these age-old problems have sunk many taxi companies in the past. Fortunately, the right Cloud-based dispatch system can solve all of these dilemmas. Here’s how:
- Increase your growth rate - why purchase additional vehicles and hire new drivers when you can improve on the ones you already have? With a new streamlined dispatch system, you will be maximizing the profits from each vehicle.
- Effective micromanagement - from client-side features such as automatic booking to driver-side features such as automated reports and GPS driver services, you will never have to waste another moment poring over a report or wondering where your drivers are ever again.
- High morale - a Cloud-based dispatch system automatically chooses the nearest driver, which eliminates any suspicions of favoritism on their behalf. You will be able to decrease the workload of your dispatchers and even possibly reduce your staff overhead without increasing the stress levels. Better yet, with Gazoop Dispatchers you can always ensure you have enough phone agents handling your calls.
Comments