Manual Dispatch vs.Automation: Which One Suits Your Taxi Business?

Introduction

Are you also a small or medium-sized business finding it difficult to manage taxi dispatching?

If so, then you are exactly at the right place.

In this blog, we will discuss manual dispatch vs. automated dispatch.

From comparing their advantages and challenges to understanding which option will suit your taxi business, we will go through each and every topic one by one.

Let’s get started.

Advantages of manual taxi dispatch

With the advancement in technology, manual taxi dispatch is considered as an old school way to operate a taxi business. But still many businesses follow this old school method to run their business. Here are a few advantages to manual taxi dispatching.

With the advancement in technology, manual taxi dispatch is considered as an old school way to operate a taxi business. But still many businesses follow this old school method to run their business. Here are a few advantages to manual taxi dispatching.

Personalized service

Manual taxi dispatch offers dispatchers a chance to interact with their customers in a more personalized manner. They can help their customers with any special requests, last-minute changes, etc. This results in enhanced and tailored customer experience.

Lower initial cost

Lower initial cost is one of the main reasons why many small and medium sized businesses choose manual taxi dispatching. As it requires radios and telephones for normal communication rather than costly software, the SMEs can save a lot of money as they usually have budget constraints.

Less reliability on tech

As technology comes with a steep learning curve, businesses need to train their staff to adapt to the technology. While managing taxi dispatch manually is comparatively easy. Also, when it comes to tech there are chances of software malfunctions, but in manual managing taxi dispatch this won’t be a problem.

Challenges faced in manual taxi dispatch

As this method is not as prominent as it was a decade or two before, running your taxi business by following this method can be daunting. Here are a few challenges faced by business with manual taxi dispatching.

Non-stop calls

In manual taxi dispatch, the dispatchers can easily get overwhelmed with the non-stop incoming calls for taxi bookings. Just imagine this scenario, it’s the peak hour when most taxes are booked and to manage this you only have 2-3 dispatchers.

In such cases, your customers might have to be on hold for a long time, creating a bad experience. This will result in creating a bad impression of your business. In the worst case scenario, your customer might even switch to your competitor, resulting in one lost customer.

Unable to track location of your fleet

When it comes to running a taxi business successfully, being able to effectively track locations is crucial. You must have your eyes on your fleet all the time and without GPS that becomes impossible.

Without knowing the exact location of your vehicles it will become a hectic task to manage operations, as you won’t be able to assign the nearest drivers to a booking request.

Inefficient route planning

In every business, keeping customers delighted is the ultimate goal. But would you be able to leave up to their expectations, if you are unable to efficiently plan routes? No, you won’t. Without it you might not be able to provide your drivers the best possible routes to pick up or drop the customers.

For example, suppose you get a request for a pick up and drop from a customer. And you assign this task to a driver. The driver knows two routes to the location where your customer is. He chooses the shortest route, thinking he will reach the customer quickly. But what if there is a traffic jam on that route and the other route does not have any traffic. The driver ended up taking double time while following the shortest route. The customer had to wait too long for the pick up.

This results in a bad experience for the customers. That is why it is crucial to efficiently plan routes, but with manual taxi dispatching, it is not possible.

Increased chances of error

There is always a high possibility of errors when any task is done manually. It is similar with dispatching as well, when done manually, the dispatchers might get confused and can end up making errors.

For example, there are three drivers A, B, and C who need to be assigned for pick up and drop off at three different locations X, Y, and Z. Now, the dispatcher’s job is to assign,

• driver A to location X

• driver B to location Y

• driver C to location Z

But while assigning, the dispatcher gets confused and assigns,

• driver A to location Y

• driver B to location Z

• driver C to location X

This way, by a small error by the dispatcher, the drivers end up taking a lot of time reaching the customer. A small error but a huge impact. Hence, manual taxi dispatching can result in increased errors.

Costs more

Even though the initial cost of manual taxi dispatching is low, in the long-run it might end up costing a lot. The above example that we saw of manual taxi dispatching errors, can lead to increased fuel cost, ineffective resource utilization, loss of customers due to bad experience, etc. All this results in loss of revenue, costing your company a lot in the long run.

Advantages of automated taxi dispatch

As automation has become an integral part of any business, it's no different for taxi business as well. Taxi business has evolved a lot by adopting automated dispatching system. Here are the advantages of automated taxi booking software.

Enhanced efficiency

Efficiency is key to success for any taxi dispatch businesses. And automation has a huge impact in its success. With best dispatch software, dispatchers can easily stay on top of incoming customers booking requests and can easily assign the nearest driver for pick up and drop off. This way managing the fleet and dispatching the drivers becomes a lot easier when compared to manual dispatching software.

Better route planning

Quick pick up and drop is what customers expect from any taxi business. And to leave up to their expectations, effective planning the routes is quite crucial. With an automated dispatching system, your drivers can easily find the shortest, quickest and the most efficient route to reach their destination.

Also read: How to grow your taxi business with a taxi booking app solution

Less human errors

Human errors are caused when the process is carried out by putting in manual efforts. But with automated dispatching software, there is no more need for the dispatcher to carry out tasks manually, as the dispatch of drivers can be done automatically. Also, results in less effort and less time consumed by the dispatcher to assign drivers to booking requests.

Detailed report & analytics

Tracking performance is important to check how your business is doing. Easy-to-understand and detailed reports can help you with providing insights into the same. These reports offer you tables, charts, pie charts, etc. so that you can easily understand and determine the performance of your staff and fleet. With its help, you can find bottlenecks and work on improving them for a better customer experience.

Cost effectiveness

Using an automated dispatch system results in minimization of driving without passengers, reduction in unnecessary wait time, smart routing for less fuel consumption, etc. All these factors result in an increase in revenue, proving to be a cost-effective solution for taxi dispatch businesses.

Challenges faced in automated taxi dispatch

Even though automated taxi booking software is widely adopted by businesses it has a few drawbacks. Let’s check out the challenges faced by businesses with automated taxi dispatching.

Adapting to tech

Technology is a boon for those who use it to its full potential, but it might not be easy to understand for everyone. To understand and use it effectively, your staff members and drivers need to be properly trained. And this requires extra effort and a lot of time. Hence, adapting to tech can be considered as a drawback of automated taxi booking software.

High initial cost

Empowering your taxi business with the best taxi dispatch software can require finances upfront. Subscribing to the software’s plan based on your requirements, setting up the software, training your staff, etc. require an upfront investment. When compared to the initial investment of manual taxi dispatch, automated taxi cab dispatch software can prove to be a little more costlier.

Data privacy concerns

When offering service to your customers, you ensure them that their data is safe with you. All the critical information that they share related to themselves is highly safeguarded. With an automated taxi dispatch system, you can offer secure payment gateways, carry out regular security audits, encrypt data, etc.

Final comparison: Manual dispatch vs. automation

We saw above in detail about the advantages and challenges of both manual and automated taxi dispatching. Here is a quick final comparison between the two.

Key features your automated taxi dispatch software must have

Automated taxi dispatching software has a lot of advantages that can help you scale your taxi business. Let’s have a look at a few standout features of automated dispatching system.

Automated dispatching

Dispatching needs to be faster and up to mark and this where automation in dispatching becomes crucial. It helps you to dispatch drivers automatically increasing their efficiency and also reducing the chances of errors.

The automatic allocation is done considering factors such as location, availability, priority, etc. This way, you can utilize your fleet to their full potential and allow them to operate with minimum idle time.

Also read: How to grow your taxi business with a taxi booking app solution

Real-time booking

Real-time booking offers your customers the flexibility to book from their preferred platform and helps you to stay on top by managing all online platforms from one single dashboard.

You can effortlessly manage reservations, cancellations, and last-minute changes with ease with an automated taxi dispatch system. It also automatically notifies the customers and drivers regarding the same in real-time.

Smart route optimization

To offer customers quick pick up and drop off and to offer taxi service of their expectations your drivers are going to need smart and optimized routes. With automated taxi dispatching software you can help them with that. It allows you to find the best possible route to reach the customer in less time and with less fuel consumption.

It optimizes routes based on certain parameters such as traffic, road construction, weather conditions, etc. Route optimization software ensures that you save money on fuel, keep your customers delighted and also keep your drivers out of all the chaos on the roads.

Fleet & driver management

Without a proper system in place, usually managing fleets and drivers turns out to be a gigantic task for the taxi businesses. But with an automated taxi dispatch system you can manage it with ease. You can track where your fleets and drivers are by tracking their real-time location.

This way, assigning them new bookings also gets a lot easier. This can help your taxi businesses to improve its efficiency, cut down on the costs, and boost drivers productivity.

Reporting & analytics

For any business, the most important factor when it comes to improvement is to know in detail about the performance of their staff/drivers. With reporting and analytics you can get detailed insights into how your staff/drivers are performing. You get answers to questions like,

• How many rides did each driver complete in a given period?

• What is the average distance traveled per trip by each driver?

• What percentage of trips completed were on time?

And many more….

By getting answers to such questions, you can find the loopholes in your taxi business and can make sure you find a solution that works. This way, you can improve your service for your customers and give them more reasons to engage with your business.

Let Yelowsoft be your key to smooth taxi dispatching

The decision seems quite clear: to keep up with the evolving and modern taxi dispatching industry, you as a taxi business need to ensure that you have the best dispatch software in place. We understand, transitioning from manual taxi dispatching to automation can be tough. And that is where, Yelowsoft plays a crucial role.

It makes the transitioning process a lot easier and simple. With Yelowsoft you can effortlessly improve your efficiency, minimize errors, enhance customer experience, serve more customers, etc. So, if you are ready to take the next step forward, we are here to help.