What do most people in the industry consider to be automation?
There are many people in the taxi industry who consider automation to be purely making a booking which is automatically routed through a dispatch system to a driver.
Real automation is so much more than this.
The power of real automation comes from automation which encompasses the entire lifecycle of a booking; from a passenger initially opening their app or making a call to request a car, through dispatch and job execution to ancillary admin regarding pricing, client invoicing and driver wages.
Unlike many systems on the market that offer rudimentary booking and dispatch automation, Sherlock can automate from booking to invoice – without the need for manual processes.
How does it work?
The passenger makes a booking via an app, web portal or phone which is simultaneously visible on the controller screen. This booking will be automatically dispatched to a driver with no need for any human intervention from a controller. The driver automatically receives the job via their app and accepts the booking.
As the driver travels to the pick-up, the passenger can track the status of their vehicle in real-time. Any important information for controllers can be automatically flagged on the Controller ‘Issues’ screen, for example, the driver is running late, do you want to intervene?
Once the driver arrives, the passenger will be automatically sent a text to notify them. Backend geo tracking in the system ensures that this won’t happen too early, for example, if the driver presses 'at pick-up' a bit too early.
Price calculations are automatically considered. For example, waiting time can be automatically added and the price amended – including taking into consideration any customer specifics (e.g. this account gets 10 minutes free waiting time). Or, if the passenger needed to stop en-route, the driver can press “stop & wait” and GPS coordinates can update in real-time to add this wait to the price calculation. This fully automated, updated price can then be sent to whatever workflow of driver payments and invoicing you have set up at an individual customer/account level.
The passenger (if an account client) can check for job and invoice updates in the Account Management Portal in real-time.
This end-to-end automation led to one Sherlock customer reducing 3-4 days of admin per week when using their previous supplier, to one hour of spot checking with Sherlock.
To learn more, get in touch: demo@sherlocktaxi.com or call +44 (0) 20 3214 5110.
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