Connecting Chicago through Taxi Service Campaign
Goal: Establish a centralized dispatch system
The UTTC is proposing the establishment of centralized dispatch system, which would allow all taxicabs in the City of Chicago the ability to respond to calls from passengers in search of a taxi. The centralized dispatch system would improve service by providing cabs in typically residential or underserved areas while improving income for drivers as well.
The current dispatch system, as it stands, is operated by individual affiliation companies and when a call for service goes out, it only reaches the taxicabs that are affiliated with the company.
However, the empty cabs that may already be in the area where service is requested, will have no way of knowing and will end up driving back to a more populous area without any passengers, thus wasting time and gas, while losing money. Under a centralized dispatch system, passengers would be able to call one central number and have the ability to get a response from all cabs that may be in the area.
The UTCC is committed to establishing such a system by working with local government authorities and offering informational seminars to drivers and the general public.
THE PROBLEM: Poor Service = Fewer Fares
Why do so many cabdrivers go to neighborhoods to drop off fares and then go back empty to the Loop, O’Hare or Midway
to get another fare?
Lets look at our customers point of view.
Let’s say you live in Beverly and you need a cab. You call Yellow, for example. Yellow puts out the call on their dispatch system.
If a Yellow driver has dropped a fare in the area, wants to work in the area, and decides to log in to the dispatch system, then there is a chance this citizen who needs a cab might get one.
If these conditions dont line up, and no Yellow taxi takes the call, then that potential passenger is just out of luck. Meanwhile, there are five other taxis with other affiliations driving empty in his neighborhood. Eventually, this potential customer will be tired of waiting for a cab and find an alternative.
Haven’t we lost lots of customers in this way? Do you know that unlicensed taxis are now taking our business in many neighborhoods?
Fortunately, with Centralized Dispatching, there is a solution! We can win these customers back!
Centralized Dispatching: THE SOLUTION
UTCC has laid out a bold proposal to improve driver’s income by increasing the demand for taxi service.
How it works
Centralized Dispatching will hook up every cab in Chicago that opts-in, into a system where every cabdriver who is in a neighborhood will have access to every citizen who is calling a cab in the vicinity regardless of affiliation.
Improved Driver Income and Taxi Service
Once the proposed system is implemented, callers needing a taxi in the neighborhood will have access to every taxi in Chicago, about 7000 in total, who may be dropping off a fare nearby, instead of only a few hundreds who are affiliated with the company that the customer has called.
A Long Term Solution to Improve Business
Once the callers from the neighborhoods come to rely and depend on cab service, they will call them more often! In the long term this will open up potential increased taxi service needed by the many citizens in Chicago who don’t use cabs now, increasing the total revenue for drivers in the taxi industry.
