The new ways to book your taxi

The new ways to book your taxi

The new ways to book your taxi

In the past taxi bookings were made using one of two methods. Either call up the taxi company to make the booking or book the taxi with the driver. Those days are well and truly over, with modern taxi firms offering several booking methods.

For many, the easiest way to book a cab is to call the company up. When calling you simply give time, pick up, destination and any other details. When calling to book it is very helpful to the telephonist and the person making the booking to have the full details of the booking ready so that the details can be taken swiftly and accurately.

The second "conventional" method to book a cab is to book your next journey when you are already in a taxi. Here the taxi driver will radio the booking to the office who will be able to confirm the booking right away.

The above two methods of booking your taxi have been around for as long as taxis themselves. The arrival of modern telecommunications has bought about many new and advanced booking methods making taxi booking easier than ever.

The most useful progression in telephone technology to taxi companies is the development of Caller Line Identification (CLI). This allows the operating system to recognise an incoming phone number and match it with details stored on the system's database. By linking the phone number to details stored in the database the taxi booking system can bring up details of frequent addresses used by the telephone number, or even have the last pick up address already entered into the booking system. This saves time for the taxi company as well as reducing the likelihood of typing errors.

The most common new booking method is Interactive Voice Response (IVR). This system uses Caller Line Identification described above to match the incoming telephone number to a set of preregistered pick up points. The IVR system allows users to register their most common pick up points and then simply press the corresponding number to have a taxi sent at once to that point (e.g. register home address as pick up point one, pressing 1 on the keypad when instructed to do so will have a taxi sent to that point). This cuts out the need to speak to an operator entirely and so reduces waiting time.

Text booking is another new booking method. One text booking method is similar to the IVR system described above with the text booking system requiring the user to reregister their pick up details with the taxi firm. The customer then sends a text message to have a taxi sent at once to the pick point of their choice. This again cuts out entirely the need to speak to the office.

Some text booking systems allow the taxi firm to set up a list of shorthand locations that correspond to real world places e.g. the word "Bus" corresponds to the Bus Station. The customer can then send the word "Bus" to the taxi firm to have a cab sent to the Bus station. This cuts out the need to pre register to use the system.

As well as the telephone methods described above there are several internet methods available to book a cab. Some taxi firms offer a form on the company's website to book the taxi. This is particularly popular for airport taxis as it allows the company to set out the exact details it needs for the booking in a form. It also ensures that vital details such as flight numbers, flight times and dates etc are transmitted to the company with 100% accuracy by the customer. This method requires at least 24 hours notice to ensure the company has time to get the booking details into their booking system.

Booking by email is perhaps the most obvious way to book a taxi online. Here the customer simply emails their details (pick up, time, date, name etc) to the taxi company's email address who will then input the details into their booking system and email the customer to confirm the booking

It is also possible for customers to book a taxi using an Ebooking system. This system allows the taxi company to set up login details for a customer and then allows the customer to book a taxi in real time by logging into the company's secure booking system. The customer can then input their full booking details and send it to the taxi company's booking system. Doing this is especially useful for taxi account customers as it allows them to view past jobs and also allows the customer to book multiple jobs at once.

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