THE FUTURE OF
A call handler/dispatcher working for a traditional operator looks at the booking screen at, say, 11 pm on a Saturday night and sees they will have 22 drivers avail- able to cover 20 advance bookings at 11.30 pm. But at 11.20 pm, demand on the p2p apps begins to surge. 20 of the 22 drivers then go offline on the screen as they chase the surging fares on the p2p apps. The passen- gers who made those advance bookings are then left stranded or are forced to make trip requests with the p2p apps at inflated prices - if there is any availability.
The traditional operator then loses its market share and the call handlers are instructed not to take any advance bookings during potentially busy periods in future, following a string of complaints from stranded passengers, and possibly even warnings from their licensing authority.
Allowing drivers to work for
multiple operators simultaneously is therefore clearly in the interest of the p2p apps.
However, when passengers are vulnerable and/or have appointments to keep, leaving the booking of a ‘taxi’ to the last minute is not really an option. Passengers may have doctor/hospital appointments, a train seat reserved or a flight to catch, and they need to book a ‘taxi’ to the station or airport. We have customers who use our services as part of their daily commute and they make block bookings for the entire week. An 80-year-old lady may attend her granddaughter’s wedding. She is staying at a hotel 7 miles from the wedding venue. She needs a ‘taxi’ booked for midnight to take her back to her hotel.
I experienced a similar situation first-hand at a wedding last year. One of our group of friends was staying at a hotel some ten miles from the rural wedding venue. She needed a ‘taxi’ for 1am. In the afternoon, I advised her to telephone a well-known traditional operator, licensed in numerous areas across the UK. She was told that they could not take any advance bookings for that time, that she should try her luck and call again when the time came. Presumably, the drivers were working on multiple platforms... After wasting time searching for other options, she was finally able to make an advance booking with a small local firm. At 1 am, she was picked up without issue. However, at 12.30 am there was a group of women standing in the porch, sheltering from the pouring rain. Three of them were looking at their phone screens as their p2p app trips were cancelled...
In all instances where passengers want to book in advance, if there is no facility to do so, passengers will
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likely either make alternative arrangements, risk being stranded, at least for a while, or cancel their plans.
I asked a friendly call handler/dispatcher at our local base, the one I work for, approximately what percentage of bookings are made in advance compared with ASAP bookings. He said that it was about 50% for each. Of those 50% advance bookings, if it was no longer possible to do so, how many would make alternative arrange- ments or take a chance on an ASAP booking? We do not have any data for this, but let’s assume it’s 50/50 again. Thus, if drivers are permitted to work for multiple operators, we could potentially lose up to around a quarter of our work. This could also have a significant impact on the economy, especially the night-time economy.
As drivers work for multiple operators and cancel trips when a better offer comes along, passengers will be tempted to make bookings with multiple operators for just one journey. This will create a chaotic situation resulting in frequent no-shows for drivers as well as cancelled trips for passengers. This only serves to undermine the relationship between the service provider and the consumer.
In this scenario, the losers are the travelling public, the night-time economy,
traditional operators, and
ultimately all drivers. The winners are the p2p apps who are then able to monopolise the industry, as the unique selling point of their competition from the traditional operators is lost.
Perhaps this is why the p2p app corporations are so keen to saturate the market place with as many drivers as possible, in order that supply always outstrips demand, even at the end of a major football match or a Taylor Swift concert.
Is it really safe for a driver to have as many as 5 data screens open in their car, attached to different parts of the dashboard and windscreen?
VEHICLE SIGNAGE
The DfT recommendations are that councils should require signage on private hire vehicles to be limited to the rear plate or disc and possibly a door sign indicating that the vehicle is not available for immed- iate hire. There should be no signage advertising the operator as this could mean that passengers confuse the vehicle with a hackney carriage.
JUNE 2024 PHTM
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