06/18/2010
Taxi with the bid for the client
I suggest a new business idea for the market of road transport. The main point is that the taxi drivers fight for the customers, offering their own prices for the trip.
How it works...The client calls the dispatcher and makes the order providing such details as vehicle class, time, his / her location and the destination. The dispatcher sends this order to all the drivers proper to the requested car class. All drivers have the Java-based application installed on their mobile phones to view the orders which are also duplicated by SMS-messages. The driver receives the SMS, and if he is satisfied with the order he defines the price either via the program / SMS or call to the dispatcher. Then the dispatcher announces the tender results to the client, who selects the most appropriate proposal. The cheapest option is not the most likely as the business class is often a little more expensive than the economy class. I.e. price depends both on the order "convenience" for the driver (location, route) and his desire to make money.
The advantages of this approach:
- A fixed trip price which does not depend on the situation on the roads, trip time, time of day;
- A price is set after the competition between the drivers. It can be half as much as ordinary taxi drivers' price;
- A customer is free to choose the car class and model;
- There is no minimum order price;
- Drivers are interested in reaching the destination as soon as possible as they earn money not for the time spent on the road or miles but for the number of orders.
In addition, there can be a couple of bonuses for the client:
- Card for the unlimited trip or, in fact, a personal driver with a car. In this case, the client buys the necessary amount of hours a day and the driver waits him / her near the house, office, club, etc. The customer does not care about the gasoline, insurance, parking place. The rates below can be used:
a. Unlimited ordinary - for trips from home to the office, to meetings, etc;
b. Unlimited local - for trips in a certain area;
c. Unlimited clubs - the driver takes the client and his / her friends to the club, waits for them, takes them to some other place and at the end takes everybody home.
- Free information inside a car - schedules for cinemas, theaters, exhibitions, flight schedules, political news, and sport news.
- The service of fellow traveler. If multiple clients are returning from the same place, they can reduce their cost of trip proportionally to the distance area sitting together in one car.
The on-line order can be also activated for new clients' solicitation.
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