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PREPARE FOR THE NEXT DISRUPTION: Taxi technology is moving beyond dispatch, says industry specialist iCabbi ETGL
Taxi businesses should view themselves as technology companies rather than dispatch operations, according to Ben Cook, sales director at Exel Technology Group.
Cook said the industry’s understanding of taxi technology had traditionally focused on dispatch, but the systems supporting a modern operator now extend across almost every part of the business.
“For most working in and around the taxi industry, when somebody talks about ‘taxi technology’, they are normally talking about dispatch,” he said.
“But I think the definition of taxi technology is changing.”
A typical taxi company now relies on office telephony, broadband, computers, Microsoft 365, dispatch platforms, driver and passenger applications, card payment systems, CCTV, vehicle tracking, online bookings, customer communications and reporting tools.
While each system performs a separate role, Cook said their combined importance meant operators needed to think more broadly about how technology was selected, managed and integrated.
“Collectively, it means a taxi company today is fundamentally a technology business, and I don’t think the industry looks at itself that way,” he said.
The impact of Uber provides the clearest example of how technology can change customer expectations across the private hire and taxi market.
Uber did not create the private hire vehicle or the basic process of taking passengers from one location to another. Its major change was to combine booking, vehicle visibility, tracking and payment in a single app-based experience.
Customers could see a vehicle, make a booking, follow its progress and pay without contacting an office or handling cash at the end of the journey.
Cook said the industry could continue to debate Uber’s pricing, business model and impact on drivers, but there was a commercial lesson for established operators.
“Technology changed what the customer expected, and once the customer expectation changed, everybody else had to catch up,” he said.
Passenger apps, vehicle tracking, cashless payments and automated communications have since become common features rather than exceptional services. This means the next major disruption may not come from a new dispatch platform. It could come from another part of the customer or operator experience that remains inefficient.
“The next Uber probably isn’t somebody inventing a better way of moving a booking from an operator to a driver,” Cook said. “The bigger threat is somebody looking at another part of the customer or operator experience and asking: why are you still doing it like that?”
For taxi operators, that question could apply to missed calls, manual administration, fragmented reporting or systems that do not share information.
Cook said Exel Technology Group was increasingly examining the wider technology estate used by customers rather than focusing only on products traditionally associated with the taxi sector.
A reliable dispatch system has limited value if an operator’s broadband connection or mobile data service is poor. Customer information also loses value if it is collected but not analysed, while a sophisticated telephone system may not solve the underlying problem if missed calls are not examined.
Operators can also create additional work when multiple systems are purchased from different suppliers without sufficient integration. This can leave businesses managing separate contracts, logins and support arrangements, with no single view of how the technology is operating as a whole.
“The question shouldn’t just be whether each individual product works,” Cook said. “It should be whether all of that technology actually works together for the business.”
That includes whether data can move between systems without manual copying, whether managers can see what is happening in real time, whether repetitive processes can be automated and whether the technology can support future growth.
Cook said every technology investment should also have a commercial purpose. This could involve generating more bookings, retaining customers, improving driver utilisation, reducing administration, limiting missed calls or replacing a more expensive manual process.
Telephony is one area where integration could provide additional value. Rather than simply making and receiving calls, a modern phone system can help operators examine when customers call, why calls are missed, how quickly they are answered and how many calls result in bookings.
Connecting that information with dispatch, payments, vehicle tracking and customer account data could give operators a fuller view of performance.
Automation could also reduce routine administrative work. If information already exists in one system, it should not necessarily have to be entered manually into another. Repeated tasks carried out weekly, monthly or after a particular event may be suitable for partial or full automation.
“Saving somebody ten hours of unnecessary work every week has a very real value,” Cook said.
Artificial intelligence is likely to become part of this wider technology environment, but Cook said operators should not view AI as a standalone product that must be purchased simply because it is fashionable.
Its practical uses could include analysing business data, identifying unusual patterns, summarising information, supporting customer communications or allowing managers to ask questions without producing multiple reports manually.
Customer acquisition is also changing. Search engine optimisation remains important, but passengers are increasingly using AI tools to answer questions and make recommendations. This creates a need for operators to consider how their businesses are represented across websites, online references and other trusted digital sources.
The objective is not simply to appear in traditional search results, but to ensure technology can understand where an operator works, what services it offers and how it differs from competitors.
Cook said the future role of a taxi technology provider would therefore extend beyond supplying individual products.
“Operators don’t necessarily need another supplier selling them another system,” he said. “They need technology partners who understand their business well enough to know how the different pieces should work together.”
Dispatch will remain central to taxi operations, but the surrounding technology is expanding. For operators, the commercial opportunity lies in understanding how each system contributes to the wider business and preparing for the next change in customer behaviour before it becomes an urgent requirement.
