One of Dublin's largest taxi companies has introduced new technology enabling operators to track its fleet using satellites.
National Radio Cabs switched to the new automated system on Saturday and the company believes the system will eliminate its drivers "cherry-picking" jobs and lead to a more efficient and equitable service. The company is the first Irish taxi firm to use the GPS tracking satellite system, which costs about £500,000 and is widely used in Australia and Asia. It uses up to seven satellites while tracking cars.
Mr Liam Brady, director of National Radio Cabs, said yesterday the system would speed up service to customers and enable dispatchers to pinpoint from the control room any of its fleet of 300 cars in the city to within 30 metres.
"It's a completely automated system. The telephonist takes the call and instead of sending it to a dispatcher, who could take 15 minutes to get a car to take the job over the radio, it's sent directly to the nearest car through an in-car text system," he said. "The only time an operator will intervene is if a job comes back as being late." The driver would not know where the job was until it was accepted, which, Mr Brady said, would prevent jobs being cherrypicked. "The system is going down brilliantly with drivers because they know it's completely fair and there's no corruption."
If a driver did not accept an allocated job, a time penalty which prevents him from logging back into the system would be incurred. The company has installed text units in all its cars but the system can facilitate more than 1,500 more cars without adjustment. It also allows one company to operate simultaneously taxi companies in other geographical areas.
"There is huge potential with the system and it would allow us to branch out but we are taking it a step at a time and allowing people to adapt to the technology," added Mr Brady.
Mr Vincent Kearns, the vice-president of the National Taxi Drivers Union, said before the recent High Court decision in favour of hackney drivers, five other Dublin taxi firms had considered introducing GPS or data-based systems but only two were pursuing their plans.
"We would welcome more companies investing in this type of technology but at a time of instability in the industry, you will see people holding back on investment until they are sure of the future," he said. According to Mr Kearns, the shortage of taxis in Dublin could be eased with better use of the current number of taxis.
"Flooding Dublin with taxis is not the answer, it's systems like this that allow firms to use their cars more efficiently, that work."