MAX CABS LEADS THE FIELD IN HIGH TECH IN ACCRINGTON
As with so many transport providers these days, it often takes a major overhaul of the company’s computerised booking and dispatch system to dramatically increase the volume of business. That’s exactly what happened with Max Cabs of Accrington, an extremely fast-growing firm in the North West comprising mainly private hire vehi- cles, but also ten hackney carriages. Max Cabs developed not from a company takeover, but more a rebranding: they used to be known as A1 Taxis, then changed to Max Cabs in 2008. According to their systems manager Andy Baxter, they started off with just ten drivers, but “because of the low fares we offered (minimum £1.50) we became far busier than we ever thought possible and started recruiting extra drivers. “With the influx of an extra 20 drivers within the next month we were able to cover more work, and with word of mouth being a taxi man’s best friend, we continued to grow. As we got to 50 drivers we started to look for a dispatch system; we opted for a system that used PDAs and for a few years everything was fine – apart from sims not working if the network was down, and it slowing down when we were busy.” Basically Max Cabs’ old system had taken them as far as they could go, so they did some research and ascertained exactly which system would be best suited to their needs. As Andy tells us, “We needed a solution; the answer was simple. Autocab’s Ghost dispatch system, with the Minos dataheads, gives us the very best of
the stresses caused by an under-performing system, but it’s as if Ghost has eradicated that bottleneck and replaced it with a calm and col- lected working environment, resulting in a much happier workplace. “The speed at which Ghost operates is phenom-
quite interesting as well: the name may be derived from “acorn farmstead”; thus the pre- ponderance of oak trees around the place originally. The Industrial Revolution saw the establishment of several very busy mills, for which the North West is well known. Cricketers David Lloyd and Mike Atherton were born in Accrington – as was the astrologer Mystic Meg. (Bet you didn’t know that!) And of course it the home of the famous Accrington
Stanley
Football Club. But we digress. There are over 35,000 people who live and work in the Accrington area and who need regular trans- port, especially after Dr
(l-r) Mohammed Sharif, Andy Baxter and Talib Zaman
both worlds: data radio in case the sims go off, and sims for when the data radio is out of range. “Our confidence in the new Autocab system over the last five months has enabled us to recruit even more drivers and we are now up to 200. Our new state of the art call centre, com- bined with the easy-to-use dispatch system, has seen our average weekly job count rise to around 22,000 – all cash work by the way - and we are hoping that this will increase further when the sip solution on our Phantom phone system is activated.”
SAY WHAT?
Hang on – what’s a ‘sip solution’? For those of you in the know, look away now... SIP is short for Session Initiation Protocol, an application-layer signalling protocol for internet telephony, a sys- tem of flexible call routing that is cheaper than ISDN to run, and offers improved resiliency with increased call routing options. You learn some- thing new all the time around here... Anyway, Max Cabs is well pleased with their Autocab Ghost and Minos package. As Andy Baxter says, “Ghost is the best thing we have invested in. It has completely changed the mood of the office. Previously we had struggled with
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enal. The short-cut functions make dis- patching and other operations a dream to use. And with IVR to add to our already fast grow- ing Max Cabs App, we should have more and more chances to cover every customer who wants to book a journey with us. Jobs booked with the App are done almost instantly; what’s more, we have a 100 per cent pick-up rate with jobs through the App. “All in all we love the Autocab system and every- thing that comes with it. I would highly recommend it to anyone considering a dispatch system. In my opinion, the perfect solution for any private hire firm is Ghost and Minos, and I am willing to back it up with pre-arranged visits to our site from other firms.” Now there’s an accolade!
PEOPLE PLACE
So what about the folks behind the IT? Mohammed Sharif is the MD, Talib Zaman direc- tor/compamy secretary, Andy Baxter (who’s done all the talking) is the systems manager, and there are two dispatchers, ten full time and 13 part time telephonists. Max Cabs also has its own garage on site, with five employees to look
Beeching decimated the local railway system in the sixties. So who you gonna call? Max Cabs, naturally. They have their sights set high, and they have the cutting edge technology to cope with their growing volume of work, no problem. So bring it on!
MAX CABS Address: Telephone:
Max House, Ranger St. Works, Ranger St. Accrington BB5 0RL
01254 555555
Year firm started: 2008 No. of vehicles: Types of vehicle:
200
190 private hire, ten hackney saloon/estate/minibus
Licensing Authority: Hyndburn Borough Council
Cost of – Operator licence: £465 for three years
Driver’s licence: Vehicle licence:
after the company’s burgeoning fleet. The firm covers a 40 square mile area within Hyndburn Borough Council. Its modern base is in the centre of Accrington, whose history is
Phone system: Radio System
£57 £210
Booking system: Autocab Ghost and Minos
Autocab Phantom Tait
PHTM AUGUST 2013
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