How to choose taxi dispatch software
By DispatchMe · Published
Choose taxi dispatch software by watching it run your own kind of work: how it takes a booking, how it picks a driver, and how the money comes out at the end of the week. Then check the price at your fleet size, the contract, and whether you can take your data with you if you leave.
We make DispatchMe, so we have an interest. This checklist is written to be useful whichever system you pick, and we say where DispatchMe fits at the end.
Start with how your office actually works
Before you look at any system, write down how work comes in and goes out today. A page of notes is enough:
- How bookings arrive: phone, website, app, WhatsApp, email, account customers.
- How many jobs on a normal weekday and on your busiest night, and how many are pre-booked.
- Who sits on the desk, and how long it takes a new starter to allocate on their own.
- The work you do beyond street jobs: airports, account customers, school or council contracts.
- How you pay drivers: commission per job, weekly rent, or both.
- What your licence asks you to record, and what your council has asked to see at an inspection.
This becomes your test script. A system that looks good in a demo but can't run your notes is the wrong one.
The checklist
| Area | What to check | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Taking bookings | Phone bookings in a few taps; repeat callers recognised; website and app bookings arriving on the same board. | A phone booking has to be quick while the caller waits. |
| Allocation | How it picks a driver, and whether it tells the dispatcher why. Can a new starter use it on their first shift? | The person allocating is often the newest member of staff. |
| Driver app | Android and iPhone; works on the drivers' own phones; clear accept and decline; hands off to the maps app drivers already use. | Drivers who dislike the app stop accepting jobs. |
| Passengers | Fare shown before booking; live tracking; a link to share the trip. How passengers pay. | Passengers compare you with the ride-hailing apps. |
| Money | Commission and rent the way you run them; driver balances and statements; account invoices with VAT. | Settlement mistakes cost drivers, and drivers talk. |
| Compliance | Booking records in the form your licence asks for; a register of booking and dispatch staff; document expiry warnings. | An inspection is easier when the records already exist. |
| Your data | Where it is hosted, how it is backed up, and how you export bookings, drivers and passengers. | You should be able to leave without retyping your business. |
| Support | Who answers, how you reach them, and what happens out of hours. | Problems happen on Friday nights. |
How is taxi dispatch software priced?
UK suppliers mostly use one of these models, sometimes combined:
- Per vehicle per month. Simple to forecast, but you pay for cars that sit idle.
- Per driver per week. Check whether it counts every driver on your books or only those who worked that week: the first is easier to forecast, the second follows quiet weeks.
- Flat monthly tiers. Predictable, but check what happens when you cross a tier.
- Per booking or a share of each fare. Cheap when quiet, expensive when busy.
- Set-up, hardware and app fees. Branded apps, in-car terminals and onboarding can cost more than the licence.
Compare suppliers on the same sum: your fleet, a normal week and a busy week, over the length of the contract. Ask whether the price is published or only given after a call.
Questions to ask in a demo
- Can I try it with my own drivers and bookings before I sign anything?
- Show me a phone booking from a repeat caller, start to finish.
- Show me what happens when the driver you suggested declines.
- Show me a driver's weekly statement under my commission or rent model.
- Show me the booking records and staff register an inspector would ask for.
- How do I export all my bookings, and in what format?
- What is the notice period, and what happens to my data when I leave?
- Which of the features you've shown are live today, and which are planned?
Warning signs
- A long contract that renews itself unless you give notice months ahead.
- No way to export your bookings without asking the supplier.
- Prices you only get after a sales call.
- Planned features shown as if they work today.
- No trial with your own data, only a scripted demo.
- Driver apps that need specific handsets, when your drivers bring their own phones.
How to run a fair trial
Bring across a slice of your real data: a handful of drivers, your regular account customers and last month's bookings. Run the new system beside the old one on a quiet shift first, then a busy one. Put the driver app on the drivers' own phones and ask them what they think after a week. Check the first weekly settlement line by line against your old one. Only switch fully once a busy night has gone through cleanly.
Where DispatchMe fits
DispatchMe is dispatch software for UK cab offices. You can sign up without a card or a call, and look round a live demo fleet first. It suggests a driver for each job and says why, keeps commission or rent the way offices run it, and writes booking records as you work.
Be clear on what it isn't: passengers pay the driver, not the app; the Android apps are available now and the iPhone apps are coming soon to the App Store; and there are no in-car terminals. The switching guide covers importing from another system, and pricing shows what it costs.