Strange but interesting problem to solve!

vfafou

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Hello!

I have written a taxi dispatching app, consisting of 4 separate software kinds:

1. The server (B4J)
2. The call centre (B4J)
3. The Driver App (B4A)
4. The Passenger App (B4A and soon B4i)

The issue I have been called to solve is the following:
My customers are not Taxi Companies with drivers as employees. They are associations of taxi license owners.
The drivers may serve customers that called the call centre or random passengers from the road.
When a driver serves a customer, he has to press the Busy Button of the Driver Application in order to inform the call centre that he cannot serve another route.
The problem is that specific hours of the day, most of the drivers have the Busy Button pressed even they are not serving any customer in order to avoid the road traffic of these hours, so it's very difficult and some times impossible for the call centre to serve its customers!
Does anyone have created a similar system and have this problem solved?
If not, does anyone have any idea how to trap the cheating drivers?

Thank you in advance!
 

NJDude

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If you have only 1 busy button then there's the problem.

You should have at least 2:

1- Busy with a fare (customer)
2- Busy/time off

If you are trying to efficiently track the driver's activities then you should consider several options e.g. On break, Lunch, Being Lazy etc.

That's in a nutshell what I would do.
 

vfafou

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Hello NJDude!
Thank you for your response!
Your idea is very efficient and correct, but I have to confront non professional behaviours of low to non educated drivers, so they could press the "Busy with a fare" instead of "Busy/Time Off". The problem is how to trap them having the button pressed without having a customer embarked!
 

Star-Dust

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Evaluate to take advantage of the GPS or the location from the network to understand if the vehicle is moving or not
 

NJDude

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Hello NJDude!
Thank you for your response!
Your idea is very efficient and correct, but I have to confront non professional behaviours of low to non educated drivers, so they could press the "Busy with a fare" instead of "Busy/Time Off". The problem is how to trap them having the button pressed without having a customer embarked!
I don't know how your app works, but, one way to prevent that is to log the time when whichever button is pressed, if it's the "with customer" button then the dollars start accumulating, what I'm trying to say is, if a customer is on-board then the driver is getting paid and at the end of the day the earnings reported by the driver should match the ones at the dispatch.

Evaluate to take advantage of the GPS or the location from the network to understand if the vehicle is moving or not
So if I'm on my break and need to grab a bite, I have to walk and not use my car? :D, it's not about moving but activity.
 

vfafou

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Hello Star-Dust!
It's a thought I've done too, but there is another problem:
May the driver temporarily stop, due to customer's request and wait for the customer to return to the taxi. This temporary stop may have a long duration, for example 2 hours, in case of some routes that the customers are employees of a company.
 

vfafou

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@NJDude, this is one more good idea, but the drivers don't give any report to the call centre, so the same to the app, because they aren't employees of the taxi company but associates! They are "freelancers" and the only financial relationship they have with the Taxi Association is a monthly subscription!
It's a difficult to unsolved problem!
 

NJDude

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I see, so basically they just get calls from dispatch and do the runs.

This is an administrative problem, but, it could be solved, in this case a "busy" limit should be imposed, just for argument sake, say 3 hours/day anyone going over that limit won't be getting any more calls for the day, however, you must have like I mentioned in my original post at least 2 buttons to distinguish the activity, if you still insist the drivers are non-educated then I give up :D.
 
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vfafou

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But in all seriousness, how dumb you have to be to not being able to press on the correct button?, and yes, I know stupidity knows no bounds.
The issue is that they are not so stupid but very sly and they want to cheat in order to do everything to work less and benefit more, even if they cheat on their colleagues!
 

vfafou

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Then my solution above applies, you are "too busy" you won't earn.
May I do something, but I'll never solve the 100% of the problem!!!
Anyway, thank you very much for the time you spent for me!!! ;););)
 

Cableguy

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If I may.... I would use a combination of "solutions"...
Giving the driver an option to push a "busy working" or a "busy doing nothing" I think is a no-no... they will push the first without much thought.
A single button to start the run AND also to stop the run... This establishing a start/stop road-trip. If the the start/stop distance is not in accordance then the driver is cheating... penalties should be considered for abusive drivers...
This is the kind of behaviour impossible to completely eradicate but possible to heavely reduce (up to about 95%)
 

vfafou

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If the the start/stop distance is not in accordance then the driver is cheating...
Hello Cableguy!
Thank you for your response!
The problem is more complicated... Most of the suggestions consider that the driver is employee of a company... That's not true!
On the other side, they may serve a customer called from the Passenger app or to the call centre and on the other hand they may serve a random customer from the road!
In case the driver has a customer from the road, how do we know the according route he has to make?
It's very confusing!
 

Cableguy

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I see... in that case, the driver should set some "flag" to inform he's on a "not call center" customer.
One way to investigate the driver to do less "off due to traffic" bails is to set some kind of in-house rating... thus encouraging taking more clients to keep up a good rank
 

vfafou

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There is not a need for a separate flag... The system knows if the driver is busy on route from the call centre, so if he press the busy button himself, then it is another state!
One way to investigate the driver to do less "off due to traffic" bails is to set some kind of in-house rating... thus encouraging taking more clients to keep up a good rank
This idea is very good, but the Association should give some bonuses... It's quite difficult because it's a non-profit Association... Anyway, I'll see! ;)
 

Daestrum

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If the passenger has an app to book the taxi, why not give then 2 extra buttons 'Journey Started' and 'Journey Ended'.
That way you can tie up when the driver is actually busy from the call centre by the customers feedback.
 
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