Button system to call taxis

How are there only 16 taxis, but several taxi companies?

As regards your suggestion of having some sort of call system, that tends to depend on having a dispatcher available, which may be difficult if there are only a small number of taxis - the dispatcher's wages need to come from somewhere. Setting up Hailo or similar would have upfront costs and not everyone has or can use a smart phone.

One solution would be to pick X number of locations in the town, put a basic phone on the wall and have each taxi company given a specific number, e.g. dial '4' for Acme Taxis. The phone wouldn't work for any other purpose. It is better than a button-only system that might suffer abuse or confusion. Similar systems work in supermarkets and some other locations, but they tend to be tied to one company, which would be unhealthy if it was a town-wide system.

Of course, someone has to bear the cost of such a system.

pinkbear wrote: »

The most ideal solution I can come up with is to have a few calling spots around the town for taxis, and have the rank located away from businesses and residents.

I have made a fair few submissions on taxi and other council bye-laws, e.g. I helped push for daytime loading bays to be used as evening / night-time taxi ranks and for extra ranks space to reduce on-street circulation by taxis.

I think your approach and perhaps everyone's expectations, are unrealistic. All to often, as evidenced on these boards, everyone wants the maximum convenience for themselves (I speak of the townsfolk), with no consideration of the common good. Have a read of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_good

Now, it is possible, if there is a taxi rank on a residential street, that there may be some nuisance at night. Realistically, the same nuisance shouldn't apply in a commercial area. There may of course, be an overlap.

In, I think it was Portarlington, one of the residents told me that there were complaints by shopkeepers of a lack of available parking on the shopping streets. The problem being, of course, that all the shop staff drove to work and occupied all the parking, leaving none for shoppers.

I would suggest that it is an imperative that businesses facilitate taxis, as it is they that create the greatest number of trips that require taxis. A parking space that will facilitate one trip pair (to and from work) per day for an office worker, would facilitate 3-8 comparison shoppers / business visitors or 32 convenience shoppers or a similar number of taxi trips.

I would suggest that each of the supermarkets and pubs would have two or more spaces in front of them to as taxi ranks, not necessarily that the only rank in town would be in the one place. Potentially, they can also be used as a loading bay for specific hours - pub deliveries tend to be in the morning when taxis won't be picking up passengers anyway.

You don't say which town you are in, but some people might get a bus or a lift when they are going shopping (carrying only a wallet) and get a taxi home (with their shopping).

If you have a call out system, do you risk people being charge the €2 call out charge all the time?

Perhaps it could be in the contract with whoever provides the call system that there would be no call out charge.

There are a couple of ranks in Dublin which have phones installed for locals to call taxis to their doors. As calls into them are virtually untraceable the rates of fake request for taxis from them are quite high plus there is no obligation on a drive to take a call from them. A buzzer system would be no different plus it would require a driver to physically stand at it in order to listen out for calls; not nice on a cold or wet day. Also, who will pay for this system? It will need some hardware, installation, phone connections, etc and maintaining it. You may suggest that local drivers chip in but any driver in the county is entitled to use the ranks plus it defeats the purpose of having a taxi plate over a hackney plate.

You should bear in mind that a taxi rank is an amenity for your town and it's something that makes life easier for locals and cabbies alike. While it may be a nuisance for you and others in some respects it's benefits are there for all to gain from and it makes things a little handier for the town as a whole.