mytaxi change in terms 5 Euro cancellation fee

Muahahaha

Spook_ie wrote: »

Toggling between apps probably not something you should be doing when driving anyway, but as I said if I'm for instance busy on the app with a non MyTaxi customer and decide to use Google maps to get a route it doesn't appear to update my location on the MyTaxi app until I switch back to it.

ah right, sounds like you'd nearly need to be running two phones at the same time. Whats the idea of using google maps for a route, do you use it to check which route has the least traffic? And does it work well in that task?

KoolKid

Doesn't all the different taxi apps route you to the destination anyway.?

Spook_ie

Muahahaha wrote: »

ah right, sounds like you'd nearly need to be running two phones at the same time. Whats the idea of using google maps for a route, do you use it to check which route has the least traffic? And does it work well in that task?

Just use it for traffic mainly, but sometimes you'll get a passenger who wants to go somewhere you and they just aren't familiar with.

Spook_ie

KoolKid wrote: »

Doesn't all the different taxi apps route you to the destination anyway.?

Only if the passenger has entered a destination, and only then if they've entered the correct address and not something like Main St in Ballygobackwards rather than Main St in Swords

KoolKid

The poor customers do everything wrong....
In most cases the apps use GPS for your location unless you choose to change it.

Spook_ie

KoolKid wrote: »

The poor customers do everything wrong....
In most cases the apps use GPS for your location unless you choose to change it.

Yeah, well if you press hail and you are for example at a BBQ in the backgarden, the GPS will often put the address as being the street nearest your location, which may well be one street over in an estate. Is it the customers fault, yes because it tells you where it thinks you are and do you want the taxi to pickup there.

Also which is similar to my case is that if you take your phone out and don't give it time to synchronise the GPS location you can be considerably out, sometimes as much as 2 or 3 km, but again the app does ask you if that's where you want the taxi to collect you from and if you don't bother reading it then yeah your fault as the customer user.

KoolKid

I've heard it all now. Next time I have a BBQ I'll go to the front garden to order my taxi. Otherwise the driver will get lost and I'll get charged a fiver.. I work a lot with GPS and have done a lot of work work with TomTom. I would never see a GPS put you out by a few km.
From reading over this thread it's amazing how many terrible customers there are compared to how many perfect taxi drivers.
The taxi business amazes me where so many self employed people have such a dislike for their clients.

magicbastarder

I assume the issue is lack of GPS lock, and instead a triangulation off mobile base stations. Which can be out by hundreds of metres in my experience.

KoolKid

Possibly but not 2-3 km as claimed.

Spook_ie

KoolKid wrote: »

I've heard it all now. Next time I have a BBQ I'll go to the front garden to order my taxi. Otherwise the driver will get lost and I'll get charged a fiver.. I work a lot with GPS and have done a lot of work work with TomTom. I would never see a GPS put you out by a few km.
From reading over this thread it's amazing how many terrible customers there are compared to how many perfect taxi drivers.
The taxi business amazes me where so many self employed people have such a dislike for their clients.

The GPS doesn't put you out by Kms, the GPS doesn't sync instantly with the app, its simply overcome by waiting 20-30secs for the app to catch up. Or alternatively relying on the user to actually look at the screen where its saying you are.

Another example, three pubs in Swords, depending on where you are standing in the pubs the app will put you at either 72, Main St/Cooldriana Court or Well Road as being the nearest Street address to you, you could be standing in the middle of a cow field it will still allocate the nearest address to you and if you aren't arsed enough to read it, well you probably shouldn't be allowed to use technology.

KoolKid

Sure wouldn't if be a great job only for the customers. 😅

Spook_ie

KoolKid wrote: »

Possibly but not 2-3 km as claimed.

Well I can only tell you what actually happens in real use and my thoughts on why it happens.

KoolKid

Exactly. ‘In the same way as I and others tell you of our experiences with drivers cancelling and sitting around.

Bigmac1euro

In all honesty I do drag the curser to select where my house is exactly and plonk it on the street just outside the house.
The driver a lot of the time will still take a wrong turn and end up on the other street. Some good points above though. I just had a look at the lynk app now and it seems to be a lot better than it once was. Hopefully they can steal all the business from mytaxi.

bk

To be honest, if I was a taxi driver, given how cheap smartphones have become, I'd just run 2 or 3 with multiple apps.

Why not, at least for the no base fee services like MyTaxi and Uber. Maximise the jobs.

I usually use Uber and I see a lot of Uber drivers here using two phones. I'd assume they are also running MyTaxi. Smart as they are probably catching at lot of folks from the US and their tips, due to them always using Uber in the US and never heard of MyTaxi or whatever they have decided to call it today :rolleyes:

Spook_ie

KoolKid wrote: »

Exactly. ðŸ‘In the same way as I and others tell you of our experiences with drivers cancelling and sitting around.

Firstly, I've never said that drivers don't cancel, how to prevent it I don't know, but again I do know that the go busy and accept buttons are in the same place on the screen and I have been going busy when the button switched to an accept call, leaves you no option but to cancel because you already have passengers aboard.

Secondly I have seen drivers "sit" around, myself included, whilst trying to see if someone ordering a taxi from McDonalds or wherever is going to wait around for you or even to aid in identification of the correct customer, often you might need to call 2 or 3 times before the customer will actually answer their phone, and even after all that I've still had customers walk out and get into the wrong taxi then cancel or worse still not even bother to cancel and just leave you sitting there turning away custom while waiting for a now non existent customer but sure blame the taxi drivers it's always their fault.

Spook_ie

bk wrote: »

To be honest, if I was a taxi driver, given how cheap smartphones have become, I'd just run 2 or 3 with multiple apps.

Why not, at least for the no base fee services like MyTaxi and Uber. Maximise the jobs.

I usually use Uber and I see a lot of Uber drivers here using two phones. I'd assume they are also running MyTaxi. Smart as they are probably catching at lot of folks from the US and their tips, due to them always using Uber in the US and never heard of MyTaxi or whatever they have decided to call it today :rolleyes:

No you wouldn't because then you'd need 2 or 3 call packages at €20 a month each as you'd need data and voice on each one, I suppose you could in theory hot spot the phones, take a hit on the response time of the apps all sharing one data link but then you would also need to manually copy customers number from hot spotted phone to phone with data/call enabled, but sure if you want a dashboard full of phones why not (yes the "why not" has a lot of sarcasm attached to it )

Spook_ie

Bigmac1euro wrote: »

In all honesty I do drag the curser to select where my house is exactly and plonk it on the street just outside the house.
The driver a lot of the time will still take a wrong turn and end up on the other street. Some good points above though. I just had a look at the lynk app now and it seems to be a lot better than it once was. Hopefully they can steal all the business from mytaxi.

Unlikely they'll ever steal all the business because so many taxi drivers won't pay the €100+ and the 10% commission on credit jobs that Lynk charge.

Cast your mind back to 2020 cabs, they are one of the backbone companies owned by Ebbs that formed Lynk, At busy times you could look for your 20% off taxi but you would be lucky to get one because the drivers wouldn't be covering them when they could get full fare off the street.

Genghis

Spook_ie wrote: »

Only if the passenger has entered a destination, and only then if they've entered the correct address and not something like Main St in Ballygobackwards rather than Main St in Swords

This is interesting.

I have an eircode associated with my home address and work address. I added them as I wasn't happy with GPS location accuracy in the app, and thought it might help to be specific.

Eircode brings you to the door if you say input it into Google Maps, but MyTaxi ignores the saved collection point and relies on live GPS location from the phone, often Kms out.

Even then, when I drop a pin to correct, every time and I mean every time I use MyTaxi for pick up from work the driver "arrives" at the Corp HQ 200m from my door. They all assume that anyone in that general location must be calling from there.

All this annoys me as I have taken the trouble to be exact about location, but the app and driver believe they know better.

KoolKid

To me Lynk is the best of the rest. They have very rare cancellations in my experience. Not up on with their charging model, however I have heard virtually every My Taxi driver complain about their charges. Have never heard a driver even mention the Lynk fees. Also have never seen one get lost or sit around.
Maybe the fact that they have live controllers keeping an eye on things helps.
Customers are not the enemy , they are your bread and butter. Maybe have a better attitude towards them and explain why you got lost & help make it better next time.
To most self employed people I know the customer is number one. Well to the successful ones anyway

Spook_ie

KoolKid wrote: »

To me Lynk is the best of the rest. They have very rare cancellations in my experience. Not up on with their charging model, however I have heard virtually every My Taxi driver complain about their charges. Have never heard a driver even mention the Lynk fees. Also have never seen one get lost or sit around.
Maybe the fact that they have live controllers keeping an eye on things helps.
Customers are not the enemy , they are your bread and butter. Maybe have a better attitude towards them and explain why you got lost & help make it better next time.
To most self employed people I know the customer is number one. Well to the successful ones anyway

There's only so much education you can give to a customer after they've been in the pub, conversation goes along these sort of lines

User. " Hi, I ordered a taxi to 44 Main St, Swords and I can't see you"
Spook " That's because you ordered the taxi to the Ploughman's Pub in Kinsealy"
User " Can you come and get us anyway"
Spook " You'd probably be better ordering a different taxi but make sure you check the pick up location is correct"
User " You mean you're refusing to pick me up"
Spook " Yes because if you'd ordered it to the correct location I wouldn't have accepted the call"
etc. etc. etc.
Until I just cancel it on him on and tell him to reorder.

bk

Spook_ie wrote: »

No you wouldn't because then you'd need 2 or 3 call packages at €20 a month each as you'd need data and voice on each one, I suppose you could in theory hot spot the phones, take a hit on the response time of the apps all sharing one data link but then you would also need to manually copy customers number from hot spotted phone to phone with data/call enabled, but sure if you want a dashboard full of phones why not (yes the "why not" has a lot of sarcasm attached to it )

Yep I was thinking a hotspot would do. There would be no hit on the response time of the apps, these apps are using little or no data, it is just GPS coords and some other metadata, nothing for a 4G or even 3G connection.

Even if you want to have a SIM per phone, you could get away with Lycamobile at €7.50 per month. Or if you don't want the trouble of that, Eir does a good deal for €15 per month.

Seems like pretty small money to potentially get a lot of extra work and money to me.

No need for the sarcasm, I'm genuinely trying to help out you and any other driver who might read this.

I find it highly ironic that many taxi drivers complain that they hate MyTaxi, but they then don't take relatively simple steps to run multiple apps which would help stop one app/company gaining a monopoly and screwing you over

KoolKid

Spook_ie wrote: »

There's only so much education you can give to a customer after they've been in the pub, conversation goes along these sort of lines

User. " Hi, I ordered a taxi to 44 Main St, Swords and I can't see you"
Spook " That's because you ordered the taxi to the Ploughman's Pub in Kinsealy"
User " Can you come and get us anyway"
Spook " You'd probably be better ordering a different taxi but make sure you check the pick up location is correct"
User " You mean you're refusing to pick me up"
Spook " Yes because if you'd ordered it to the correct location I wouldn't have accepted the call"
etc. etc. etc.
Until I just cancel it on him on and tell him to reorder.

A fair point in that incidence. But I'm sure there are genuine people who simply don't understand entering their location would improve things.

Spook_ie

bk wrote: »

Yep I was thinking a hotspot would do. There would be no hit on the response time of the apps, these apps are using little or no data, it is just GPS coords and some other metadata, nothing for a 4G or even 3G connection.

Even if you want to have a SIM per phone, you could get away with Lycamobile at €7.50 per month. Or if you don't want the trouble of that, Eir does a good deal for €15 per month.

Seems like pretty small money to potentially get a lot of extra work and money to me.

No need for the sarcasm, I'm genuinely trying to help out you and any other driver who might read this.

I find it highly ironic that many taxi drivers complain that they hate MyTaxi, but they then don't take relatively simple steps to run multiple apps which would help stop one app/company gaining a monopoly and screwing you over

Sorry but even if the phone data etc. was totally free I wouldn't do it, imagine the distraction of phones going ding ding ding and then having to go busy on 2 out of 3 phones all while driving and find a customer, I multitask when I'm driving but not to that extent.

Spook_ie

On the subject of Lynk and Cab2K I'll see if I can find out the story behind their apps, see if they actually utilise the drivers phone or if the app merely alerts a dispatcher who then passes the call over the normal datahead. I suspect it's the latter.

KoolKid

So is one phone app not a distraction.??
To be honest it seems you want to find everything wrong & there's a million and one excuses not to make an effort. Much easier to blame the stupid customer.
At the end of the day you are a self employed business man. And any one in that position who constantly makes excuses and blames everyone else instead of concentrating on growing their business is doomed to fail.
If the My Taxi app is not helping you generate business drop it. The same goes for any other app or marketing tool available to yo.
If, as a self employed person your business model is not viable then pack it in and move on.
People are offering some advice here but it's just met with negativity.

Spook_ie

KoolKid wrote: »

So is one phone app not a distraction.??
To be honest it seems you want to find everything wrong & there's a million and one excuses not to make an effort. Much easier to blame the stupid customer.
At the end of the day you are a self employed business man. And any one in that position who constantly makes excuses and blames everyone else instead of concentrating on growing their business is doomed to fail.
If the My Taxi app is not helping you generate business drop it. The same goes for any other app or marketing tool available to yo.
If, as a self employed person your business model is not viable then pack it in and move on.
People are offering some advice here but it's just met with negativity.

Yes but not as much as 3 apps, jeez

Muahahaha

Maybe not 3 apps but surely 2 would be manageable and would give you a lot more potential customers/fares that are closer to you or fares going to the areas you prefer to work in?

Though whats the official line with taxi drivers and apps, are you supposed to be pulled in to the side of the road in order to even touch the phone? I'd imagine the reality is different but can a taxi driver be done for using a mobile by a single press of a button on the app to accept a job?

KoolKid

Spook_ie wrote: »

Yes but not as much as 3 apps, jeez

Then choose what's best for you and move on.
Who ever you decide to align yourself with should be beneficial to your business. If it is stop complaining about it. If it's not make a change.

KoolKid

Muahahaha wrote: »

Maybe not 3 apps but surely 2 would be manageable and would give you a lot more potential customers/fares that are closer to you or fares going to the areas you prefer to work in?

Though whats the official line with taxi drivers and apps, are you supposed to be pulled in to the side of the road in order to even touch the phone? I'd imagine the reality is different but can a taxi driver be done for using a mobile by a single press of a button on the app to accept a job?

They should all be manageable through the one phone if you set it up right.
As for operating an app. Surely it's the same an inputting options into the older style booking devices many of the major operators use.

Seve OB

Spook_ie wrote: »

On the subject of Lynk and Cab2K I'll see if I can find out the story behind their apps, see if they actually utilise the drivers phone or if the app merely alerts a dispatcher who then passes the call over the normal datahead. I suspect it's the latter.

I can tell you with the NRC App when the customer inputs the job it goes live straight into the dispatch system. It's always been that way, but some of the other apps (in the past at least) did nothing more than send an email into the dispatch centre for a dispatcher to upload it to the system.

to be honest though i think all the apps now once a job is entered, it goes live into the dispatch system. most dispatchers won't even know the job exists unless there is an issue with it.

Muahahaha

KoolKid wrote: »

They should all be manageable through the one phone if you set it up right.
As for operating an app. Surely it's the same an inputting options into the older style booking devices many of the major operators use.

Agreed they should be but from what spookie said it sounds like the apps have some sort of inbuilt software to not be up to date with jobs/locations unless the app is on the screen. Could be wrong but that was my interpretation of it. It wouldnt surprise me either, such a software function would make sense for Mytaxi to try to prevent drivers using Uber simultaneously and vice versa. That said it cant be that hard to operate two phones hanging in cradles from the windscreen. You can even get charger cables that split in two also.

KoolKid

Muahahaha wrote: »

Agreed they should be but from what spookie said it sounds like the apps have some sort of inbuilt software to not be up to date with jobs/locations unless the app is on the screen. Could be wrong but that was my interpretation of it. It wouldnt surprise me either, such a software function would make sense for Mytaxi to try to prevent drivers using Uber simultaneously and vice versa. That said it cant be that hard to operate two phones hanging in cradles from the windscreen. You can even get charger cables that split in two also.

From reading into it I don't think that is the case. Spook doesn't seem interested in using any other apps.
This is the bit that honestly baffles me. All drivers complain about My Taxi. . Users complain about My Taxi. Users want an alternative but drivers continue to support My Taxi while at the same time complain that they are ripping them off.
Common sense has to prevail at some stage. No?

Muahahaha

KoolKid wrote: »

From reading into it I don't think that is the case. Spook doesn't seem interested in using any other apps.
This is the bit that honestly baffles me. All drivers complain about My Taxi. . Users complain about My Taxi. Users want an alternative but drivers continue to support My Taxi while at the same time complain that they are ripping them off.
Common sense has to prevail at some stage. No?

I asked a taxi driver last year why he always complains about mytaxi yet still uses them instead of a taxi rank and he said its because mytaxi are now their bread and butter, especially during the day time and non-peak periods. When it is peak time on Fri/Sat nights then he and many other drivers switch off the app and will only pick up when flagged on the street because theres lots of work and those jobs avoid paying mytaxi their commissions. So it seems to be very much a case of can't live with them, can't live without them.

KoolKid

But some competition in the market could only be beneficial. They could support others at the same time as we've discussed.

Muahahaha

True but mytaxi seems to be the dominant player which is probably why drivers stick with them whilst also complaining about them. It might be a case that the other apps just dont have the critical mass that mytaxi do and hence when drivers try to use competitors there is a lack of work compared to mytaxi. Just speculating here but thats the impression I get. Also the article linked further back said almost 1 million Irish people have the mytaxi app on their phone, I doubt Lynk has anywhere near those numbers, at least their cars are a lot less visible on the street so they dont seem to be as big a player.

KoolKid

It is. But its the complaining taxi driver who put them there.
Still no harm running multiple apps to support others.

bk

Muahahaha wrote: »

I asked a taxi driver last year why he always complains about mytaxi yet still uses them instead of a taxi rank and he said its because mytaxi are now their bread and butter, especially during the day time and non-peak periods. When it is peak time on Fri/Sat nights then he and many other drivers switch off the app and will only pick up when flagged on the street because theres lots of work and those jobs avoid paying mytaxi their commissions. So it seems to be very much a case of can't live with them, can't live without them.

Ironically the above is pretty much ideal for drivers. They only pay when they need it and it actually brings them extra work.

By comparison, with the old radio dispatch system, you had to pay a fixed fee every week, all year round, no matter how few jobs you got and with many you even had to pay if you were away on holidays or off sick!

Paying for only the jobs you receive seems much fairer all round to me.

From the customers perspective, the apps are fantastic. They are so much easier to use and vastly more accurate then the old radio companies it isn't even funny. Personally when apps came in I can honestly say I took Taxi's far more frequently because of how quick and easy it was.

If it was raining out and I've a 10 minute walk to the bus stop, I'd say feck it, pull my phone out, do MyTaxi, and have a taxi at my door with 2 minutes. If I had to mess about with calling a radio company, then I'd rather walk in the rain to the bus! It was that painful.

The only issue with the apps, is that MyTaxi have gotten a monopoly and are now starting to abuse that power. But Taxi drivers have no one but themselves to blame for that, if they are only supporting one app and refuse to use others, even when it is so simple to do so.

Muahahaha

bk wrote: »

The only issue with the apps, is that MyTaxi have gotten a monopoly and are now starting to abuse that power. But Taxi drivers have no one but themselves to blame for that, if they are only supporting one app and refuse to use others, even when it is so simple to do so.

Yeah I think the dominance of mytaxi in the market is going to come back and bite them. Once they are dependent on them then the commission they pay can only go up.

KoolKid

And no doubt when it does it will all be the customers fault.:pac:

Genghis

I'm dreaming here but in the same way MyTaxi use additional fees to improve the system for drivers, they should consider changing fees to level out the customer experience.

Example, at peak times make jobs zero commission. Stops drivers going off app when street business is peak.

Or zero commission if located in rank. I often try getting MyTaxi 200m beyond Heuston rank, but taxis won't leave preferring I assume to wait a few mins for a walk up no commission fare.

Unlikely I know, but they have scope to make the app work better for customers.

Lord Nikon

I've been in a few taxi's and I've asked drivers what their biggest problem is with Mytaxi, they've said that they would accept more jobs if customers put in the destination address, as they would now where they would end up. This seems silly to me that the destination address wouldn't be a requirement. If you call any taxi company, one of the first questions is where you are going to?

Now one could argue that if the fare is short or to far, that the driver would refuse the job. However, it wouldn't seem unreasonable for a taxi to travel 3k to pick up a client, only to find out the destination is 0.5km away.

bk

Lord Nikon wrote: »

Now one could argue that if the fare is short or to far, that the driver would refuse the job. However, it wouldn't seem unreasonable for a taxi to travel 3k to pick up a client, only to find out the destination is 0.5km away.

The point of these apps, is that a driver shouldn't need to come 3km, since a closer driver would normally be dispatched.

Back in the bad old days of radio dispatch, a taxi could be coming from half way across the city. But with MyTaxi having such dominance and almost every driver on it, that seems to rarely happen in my experience. They usually come from the local area.

As you say, I suspect a lot of drivers wouldn't bother with short jobs, which is probably why MyTaxi don't force it.

Seve OB

bk wrote: »

The point of these apps, is that a driver shouldn't need to come 3km, since a closer driver would normally be dispatched.

all great in theory

but there is simply not anywhere near enough taxis to give that kind of coverage