Strange but interesting problem to solve!

[Lucas Siqueira]

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!

the idea of two buttons, busy with client and the button busy without client, is very good .... Now what would prevent them from being even without customers, it would be you to increase the commission of the drivers in the schedules of greater requests, thus they would encourage they perform the service ...

 

[ilan]

Maybe when passenger enter the taxi you connect driver and passenger via bluetooth after connection is closed you know he brought the passenger to his destination and is now available for another passenger.

 

[vfafou]

Hi Ilan!
Thank you for your response!
Your suggestion is very good considering that the passenger is carrying a mobile with Bluetooth connectivity and the Bluetooth unit is active... What if we have to do with older people without such devices?

 

[Dabzy1978]

The truth is that most of the drivers are really non-educated

Bit of an irony in your post there... They are that non-educated apparently... But they've got you stumped!

Never under estimate people, they may just be taxi drivers, but they are people, and people... Are cleverer then you obviously think!

What if we have to do with older people without such devices?

I wouldnt worry, plenty of old people have smartphones now anyway, my mam has one and she's 65... The top and bottom of it is that you'll never eradicate "fiddle" entirely, if there was a solution, the taxman would of been nailed to it now.

All you can do, reasonably, is try and lower the number of chances people can get away with it, you will never ever stop it, and if you do try to put up an iron fist at it... People will just get around it anyway... Especially uneducated ones! hehehe

Dabz

 

[udg]

I wouldnt worry, plenty of old people have smartphones now anyway, my mam has one and she's 65..

OMG, at 65 we're considered old?
Luckily, I am still an ex-teenager having turned 50 not for long..eheh

 

[vfafou]

Bit of an irony in your post there... They are that non-educated apparently... But they've got you stumped!

Hello Dabzy1978!
It seems a little ironic but during the 16 years I’m making apps for this sector, I’m pretty sure that my words are valid!

About the Bluetooth case, how do we know that the passenger has the Bluetooth on?

 

[LucaMs]

OMG, at 65 we're considered old?

Yes, very old.

Do not listen to statistics that say that the average life is 80 years, they only serve to avoid giving you a pension.

You (we all) should die at age 50 or so!

having turned 50 not so along..eheh

 

[Dabzy1978]

It seems a little ironic but during the 16 years I’m making apps for this sector, I’m pretty sure that my words are valid!

Fair do's, though I personally like to treat people as equal myself, makes the world a better place I reckon, I cannot really stand the "us and them" mentality of the world if I'm honest!

About the Bluetooth case, how do we know that the passenger has the Bluetooth on?

If they are running your app, you can obviously check, and if they havent, maybe entice them to turn it on (In app) so they can say... Watch the meter on their phone (So the drivers app can talk to the passengers app via bluetooth), offer little easter eggs like that... It all checks out, happy days!

If its a random off the street, the best you have is probing for devices using the drivers app, set the GPS location, and keep tabs on it... If the driver is busy, and there's a bluetooth device called "Daves Phone", and it's travelled 10 miles before the connection broke... You know the driver hasnt been sitting in a cafe having a cuppa!

Its workable, yeah, they can say "I saw a mate and took him home", but the records say they are doing this, every day at times you mentioned, and dropping their "mate" off at different points... And whos Bluetooth are called "Dave", "Barry", "Karen" etc etc

You'll have them!

Still... You will not catch everyone or every illicit fare , you do have to let some go... That's the reality, but overall... It will help you build up a case against a driver who is fiddling!

Dabz