Dispatch

Dispatching taxis is like playing a real time strategy game about herding cats. I have 2 screens in front of me, splitting a desktop.

On the right screen I have TaxiMap gps tracking taxi map, listing location all 140ish cabs in our fleet, color coded for availability status, as well as existing orders.  On the left screen I have tiled components of the Taxi Track program. 

• Messaging 
• Database of recent, current, and future orders
• Existing orders (address, type, time, zone number all updated by orders database)
• Action list (orders that have been on the existing screen for to long, driver emergency button alerts, manual entry of orders on new streets)
• vehicle status window
• order status window
• web browser
• wordpad

On the right TaxiMap gps tracking taxi map, listing location all 140ish cabs in our fleet, color coded for availability status, as well as existing orders.

I sit next to 3 phones each with a different purpose (customer, driver, VIP) and I have a over the air radio dispatch as well for when the data network is down and or when the Luddites who don't have cellphones need to communicate.

Each hour we receive hundreds of phone & app placed orders, which get routed by a combination of grid zone of the order and taxi availability. As I can't force a driver to accept an order (they are all independent contractors) if someone is away from downtown, you have to rely on a combination of a motivated and knowledgeable driver, expected dollar value of the trip as well it's following trip(based on where the drop location of trip 1 is), and likelihood that someone will be at the pick up location by the time the driver gets there. For example a weekday 5pm order at Balboa Park BART isn't likely to have an available cab nearby, as it's shift change, and most business is downtown. I will remind the drivers of that order but they are under no responsibility to go get it. It will probably sit there until the customer flags the first cab they see driving by, a cab gets a trip near there and accepts the order from me, or gives up & walks/take MUNI or BART.

As we have a large number of new/inexperienced/limited English skills drivers, it can be difficult to get a driver who knows where places are for pick ups, and they tend to gravitate towards sitting at SFO or hotels.  This diminishes the pool of drivers who are out on the streets getting flags as well as responding to phone orders. Maybe this would change if there were more stringent testing methods to being a cab driver, but that's an unknown. Regardless, an order on Geary/Franklin is much more likely to be picked up than 8th/Minna. Add in a driver's fear that driving empty to an address where no one is going to be, makes it easier to accept the flag in front of you vs. taking a dispatched order.

When a driver gets in an accident I get a phone call from them & I complete accident reports, find an accident investigator to come to the scene, call for a tow, contact the police if necessary, etc. I also get to play detective when someone calls because they lost an item in the cab. Once I find out any info the person has (usually very little) I send a message out to the fleet regarding the item, expecting no response. If I get one, I call the lost item person and give them the option of picking their lost item up in Bayview during business hours or paying the driver to drive the item to them.