Pro-GPS cabbie predicts disaster - and so do I
As your blogging guru .. or punching bag … I feel it’s my duty to go out on a limb at time, after all, Will Rogers said that is where the fruit is.
Well, here I go … GPS tracking and dispatch systems don’t work.
Hmm, “Mr. GPS” claims the technology doesn’t work? Well, not exactly. The underlying infrastructure, the GPS system works great. Most of the hardware (GPS receivers and fleet tracking systems) sold to interface with the underlying system work well too,
But people? ” Ah”, said Willie, “There’s the rub.” here we have what ought to be a logical and beneficial system proposal. If all the taxis are tracked and dispatched via a system based on their GPS location then lots of benefits should accrue. Safety, efficiency, satisfied customers, driver costs per passenger reduced, the list can easily go on. Yet, as the guy interviewed in the story predicts, I think this system is going to fall on it;s face. Since it is partly a government boondoggle it may eventually struggle along, at the cost of much more tax payer money than was originally envisioned, but it will not be pretty for some time to come.
So, what is Bermuda doing wrong? Here’s my view (this advice is worth about $10,000 USD ($1,000,000 if you hire one of the big three Beltway Bandits instead of me), but I’ll give it away in the aftermath of the holiday season.
First: Mandating the use of a system is stupid, and it’s wrong in both a political and a business sense. If a proposed system can not be shown to provide increased profit then government has no right to force it upon individual citizens and corporations. It’s push versus pull. If the system has any merit drivers should be lining up to get it.
Second: The human factor of how a driver gets dispatched, how competing companies share available business, the basic facts of how much business there is, how much each dispatch call is worth, and other basic business metrics are separate and unique from any GPS questions. It seems obvious from the article I sourced that the drivers, the taxi companies and the government have no idea. therefore, it’s impossible to tell how much a GPS system will affect the companies’ and the driver’s bottom lines.
Third: Sharing or “co-opetition“. is always a challenge, but it could be made to work. The problem to face up to though has nothing to do with GPS. If you plan to consolidate dispatch centers you first need to get the numbers mentioned in my second point (above). Each passenger has a cost. Each passenger has a profit potential. The process of taking a dispatch request from a passenger, finding him or her a cab and making sure the driver gets the passenger to a destination, collects the fare and follows the law is a legitimate cost of doing business. It’s not free, no matter who is doing the dispatching and control function. If a business knows the cost of those functions they can easily make a determination of costs and benefits involved in outsourcing the function or keeping it in house. Sadly, most companies can’t give you that information today, GPS-dispatched or non-GPS dispatched. If they don’t know those costs they can’t make a sound decision .. seems I’ve said this before … You can’t manage what you can’t Measure.
So, Bermuda or you in your own business, learn your costs and how to measure them _before_ you start the process of deciding if a GPS tracking system is or isn’t a good thing for you. GPS is great, but it’s no panacea. If you don’t have the intimate knowledge of your business you need today, don’t rush off to buy a GPS to solve your problems. Find out you costs and profits first and then you can make a knowledge-based decision.