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i have used mercury taxis for years always reliable and friendly simply the best.

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I would have said Mercury until very recently. Have used them for years and always good but they have let me down twice in the past month. I always book the night before if I have get a train in the morning and as they advise book it for an hour ahead of the train. Twice in the last month they have not been able to get a taxi to me and I have missed the train. They have said they have been "struggling with drivers". I don't understand this when I have booked the night before.

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I would have said Mercury until very recently. Have used them for years and always good but they have let me down twice in the past month. I always book the night before if I have get a train in the morning and as they advise book it for an hour ahead of the train. Twice in the last month they have not been able to get a taxi to me and I have missed the train. They have said they have been "struggling with drivers". I don't understand this when I have booked the night before.

 

I have said this many times before.

 

"Booking" with the major taxi companies in Sheffield no longer has any meaning.

 

As with any other request, they simply put it out over the radio at the time of need and hope that a driver will take the job. Pot luck.

 

There used to be a time when "bookings" were given to drivers on rotation as a condition of their contract with that company. No longer.

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I have said this many times before.

 

"Booking" with the major taxi companies in Sheffield no longer has any meaning.

 

As with any other request, they simply put it out over the radio at the time of need and hope that a driver will take the job. Pot luck.

 

There used to be a time when "bookings" were given to drivers on rotation as a condition of their contract with that company. No longer.

 

And I have said many this times before. This system is unreliable. It doesn't account for traffic, change of destination, change of time, customer forgetting their wallet, or notes, unexpected events (like accidents).

 

They don't simply put it over the radio and hope for the best. Each time slot and area in each time slot has a warning if the number of bookings goes above what the average number of drivers available over a long period of time.

 

If there is something that will affect these figures, for example bike races, Eids, major road closures, then customers are warned about it.

 

Your suggested way is how smaller companies do things, and a consequence of that is that they ring up (at least one that I know) of the big two to cover their bookings when time runs out on their booking strategies.

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I prefer city taxis, personally, I like that they text you with car make and the.reg No., I prefer my daughter to travel with them for this reason and she forwards me the text.

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Cobblers.

 

When the company accepts my advance "booking" (the night before) do they guarantee my pick-up by ensuring that a driver is given the job?

He is then expected to manage his work around that confirmed "booking"?

 

No they do not. End of.

 

"has a warning"? So what ... when my booking gets ignored and no car turns up.

 

And I have said many this times before. This system is unreliable. It doesn't account for traffic, change of destination, change of time, customer forgetting their wallet, or notes, unexpected events (like accidents).

 

They don't simply put it over the radio and hope for the best. Each time slot and area in each time slot has a warning if the number of bookings goes above what the average number of drivers available over a long period of time.

 

If there is something that will affect these figures, for example bike races, Eids, major road closures, then customers are warned about it.

 

Your suggested way is how smaller companies do things, and a consequence of that is that they ring up (at least one that I know) of the big two to cover their bookings when time runs out on their booking strategies.

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I prefer city taxis, personally, I like that they text you with car make and the.reg No., I prefer my daughter to travel with them for this reason and she forwards me the text.

 

Mercury do that.

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And I have said many this times before. This system is unreliable. It doesn't account for traffic, change of destination, change of time, customer forgetting their wallet, or notes, unexpected events (like accidents).

 

Ash -- thanks for the explanation, it explains a lot.

 

Don't know if you're a taxi driver, but you seem to have a lot of knowledge and insight. Do you think occasional (but still significant) no-shows are inherent to the system, or is there a way to design a better system? I have to admit that after being let down a few times a decade ago, I gave up using taxis a to get to the station, and I take trains around 6 times a month.

 

That's bad for the taxi drivers, bad for the environment, and bad for me as I don't like driving or paying the ridiculous car parking charges. But I can't risk being late as often as late taxis and no-shows made me.

 

But maybe it's the reality of the system?

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i prefer me lol

 

Made me laugh! How do we book you?

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Cobblers.

 

When the company accepts my advance "booking" (the night before) do they guarantee my pick-up by ensuring that a driver is given the job?

He is then expected to manage his work around that confirmed "booking"?

 

No they do not. End of.

 

"has a warning"? So what ... when my booking gets ignored and no car turns up.

 

It is not cobblers just because you say it is.

 

Cobblers.

 

When the company accepts my advance "booking" (the night before) do they guarantee my pick-up by ensuring that a driver is given the job?

 

The guarantees are as much as anything can be guaranteed. Can you guarantee a train is going to operate on time tomorrow?

Can you guarantee that your bus will be on time tomorrow?

Can you guarantee that your car will start tomorrow?

 

The stats show that missed trains are almost non-existent, and almost always missed ones are because of people not giving enough time for unexpected occurrences.

 

Someone rings and says can I have a taxi tomorrow at 0500 in Sharrow for a 0515 train, 'well it only takes 10 mins', can they guarantee that the train station traffic queue won't be rammed in the morning?, or that a car won't be broken down at the end of London Road causing traffic queues?

 

All risks. Lots do this actually, and most of the time they catch them - but they risk it knowing there is a fall-back option of a slightly later train.

 

He is then expected to manage his work around that confirmed "booking"?

 

No, that's exactly the problem that group-planned journeys create.

 

 

"has a warning"? So what ... when my booking gets ignored and no car turns up.

 

They have despatchers who overlook the bookings coming up, and they work to cover all of the jobs. It's not just automation. The only automation is car-job matching (or auto-pilot system as it's called).

 

 

No they do not. End of.

 

"has a warning"? So what ... when my booking gets ignored and no car turns up.

 

Why would they ignore your booking?

 

Ash -- thanks for the explanation, it explains a lot.

 

Don't know if you're a taxi driver, but you seem to have a lot of knowledge and insight. Do you think occasional (but still significant) no-shows are inherent to the system, or is there a way to design a better system? I have to admit that after being let down a few times a decade ago, I gave up using taxis a to get to the station, and I take trains around 6 times a month.

 

That's bad for the taxi drivers, bad for the environment, and bad for me as I don't like driving or paying the ridiculous car parking charges. But I can't risk being late as often as late taxis and no-shows made me.

 

But maybe it's the reality of the system?

 

Systems are always being updated, but not always for the better I would say. I would like to get my hands on the softwares, but as it is, I make recommendations, some of which are used on all the systems that use the same equipment.

 

I'm not sure what context you mean 'no-shows'. A no show for a driver is when the customer isn't there. The percentage of which alters throughout the day. On average though it is about 7%.

 

If someone gives a reasonable amount of time for station pre-bookings, then missed trains rate is about 1 or 2 per week, out of a total of 35,000 bookings.

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