Taxi business has thrived especially after the advent of Uber, Lyft, other ride-hailing services in the various parts of the part.
These app-based services have totally changed the way we commute in cabs with their revolutionary cab services which has set a new precedent.
The rise of on-demand cab services has tormented the traditional cab services in most parts of the world. It happened mainly because the traditional companies didn’t change with the time.
Even in the modern era they kept on employing the traditional ways without leveraging the power of technology.
Talking about the on-demand cab services, the initial few years since its inception went well. However, they faced problems in the later stage. Services like Uber faced a lot of resistance from the local cab industry.
It also faced obstructions from the government in the form of new laws and rules. It was because the government of all the countries wanted to ensure that there’s an equal opportunity for everyone to do business.
Moreover, incessant strikes and revolt of traditional companies and their drivers also pressurized the government to take some tough decisions.
And one of such decisions is to make the digital metering mandatory for all the ride-hailing businesses. This decision was taken by governments of many countries like US, India, and many other countries.
The main argument came from the traditional taxi companies and drivers. They said that for traditional cab to operate, they needed to install a meter compulsorily.
Whereas, the ride-hailing services operated without any meter in place. Due to this they were able to decide the fare more flexibly. In addition, it also allowed them to surge prices whenever the demand increased.
This greatly hurt the traditional cab companies, as they didn’t enjoy this flexibility in the pricing and lost their customers to the ride-hailing cabs.
Advantages of GPS-enabled digital meter?
Before knowing about the digital meters, let’s get to know what were the earlier types of meters.
Earlier mechanical meters were used in the cabs which were generally mounted outside the cab, above the driver’s side front wheel.
As time passed, the mechanical meters were replaced by the electrical meters which were first introduced in the 1980s. Unlike the mechanical meters, these meters were placed inside the taxi.
As time passed, the meters also started evolving which finally gave us the GPS-enabled digital meters.
In the digital meters, a tablet is mounted on the car which shows the progress of the ride, fare, ETA, and route to the passenger.
There are also other types of digital meters such as the smart mirror fare taxi meter in which the drivers and passengers can view the reading inside the mirror.
GPS based digital meters are considered superior to that of electronic and mechanical meters due to their high accuracy.
It’s because the digital meters are based on point-to-point calculation of the distance which is facilitated by the Google Maps. This makes the service extremely transparent for both the driver and the passenger.
By installing digital meters in your cab, a cab driver can get rid of all the fare related issues.
It can prevent quarrels and argument that earlier used to take place between the drivers and the customers due to faulty meters.
One more major advantage of installing digital meters is that you can get your cabs compliant with the local authorities.
All the authorities around the world has set a fixed rate for the traditional cabs. The cab driver cannot charge anything above that rate.
However, ride-hailing companies generally used to get away with it, since there were no meters placed.
But now things have changed, authorities around the world have laid some stringent rules for the ride-hailing companies and complying to the rates decided by the government is one of them.
With the help of digital meters, it’s possible for the ride-hailing companies to get compliant with the government’s fare rules.
It’s because you can set the algorithm in the digital meter that will calculate the fare as per the price decided by the government.
Conclusion
Ride-hailing cab services are already facing a strong resistance from the traditional taxi companies coupled with government’s stringent rules.
If any ride-hailing service wants to survive in today’s time then they must follow all the rules and regulations. And installing a digital meter is one of that rule.
If your current taxi dispatch system doesn’t have a digital meter then don’t worry as you can switch to Yelowsoft’s robust taxi booking and dispatch management system.
Yelowsofts' solution comes with a digital meter that can be calibrated as per the rates decided by your local government.
