ComfortDelGro customers now have a shorter waiting time when booking a taxi and enjoy the convenience of having multiple ways to pay for their fare thanks to a slew of new technologies implemented by the transport provider.
As the world's second largest land transport company and the largest taxi provider with a taxi fleet of 16,000 across three companies in Singapore, ComfortDelGro had implemented technology changes to benefit both the commuters and drivers.
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It is now easier for to ComfortDelGro's HQ to coordinate their taxis on the road
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Together with ST Electronics, they developed a system that intelligently matches taxi availability with customer demands. The system is built on J2EE enterprise architecture and communicates between wireless terminals in the taxis and backend system using GPRS/GSM network. Features also include handling of emergencies with voice-streaming, Geographical Information System (GIS) in the in-vehicle devices and backend system for street directory and route information.
As at December 2006, about 6,000 ComfortDelGro taxis have successfully migrated to this new taxi booking system. The whole process is expected to be completed by end of 2007. Once completed, commuters will have greater access to all 16,000 ComfortDelGro taxis with the ease of a single booking hotline.
Commuters, drivers and even ComfortDelGro have all benefited from the new system.
Commuters have seen a shorter confirmation time, an average of 25 seconds and a faster pick-up time of within 6 minutes of taxi confirmation. They also have access to multiple payment modes to pay for their fare (apart from cash), such as credit/debit cards, corporate cards, corporate e-vouchers and NETS.
Drivers are now able to receive more bookings thanks to the more efficient system and this in turn, translates to more income for them. The Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) in the taxis is able to prompt and remind drivers of advanced bookings and provide map services for pick up points. In case of emergencies, the system also allows drivers to transmit alerts to the customer contact centre so that help is immediately despatched to them.
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Drivers now have all the information they need at their fingertips
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With the number of taxi bookings increasing on an annual basis, ComfortDelGro is constantly looking for ways to handle more booking jobs. In May 2006 for example, a record 1.6 million phone bookings were clocked and the company is now able to handle more than 75,000 calls a day. In all, over 17 million taxi bookings were received for Comfort, CityCab and Yellow-Top taxis in 2006, an increase of 20% from 2005.
Mr Yang Ban Seng, Chief Executive Officer of ComfortDelGro's Taxi Business, said: "We constantly review and fine-tune our booking system to find ways to cater to more calls. This is because when it comes to bookings, success begets more success. Callers who can get a cab easily will want to call again the next time they need a cab. It is particularly challenging during surges in demand, especially during wet weather." With the new system being implemented, speed and ease of booking a taxi in Singapore should see significant improvements.
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