TaxiCaller. Mandatory steps to get started

Transcription

1 TaxiCaller Mandatory steps to get started

2 Table of content Introduction...3 The first view of the admin panel...4 Creating your company profile...5 Entering billing information...6 Setting up the dispatch [Settings - Dispatch]...8. General...8 Id and Time and units...9 Permissions and Appearance...0. Assignment... Auto dispatch Operating hours...5 Setting up the dispatch [Settings Companies]...7 Add users (dispatch operators and drivers) to the system...9 Add vehicles to the system... Complete the mandatory steps and log on to the app and the dispatch central...4 Frequently asked questions...5 Contact details if you need more information...6 /6

3 Introduction This is the fastest way to start using TaxiCaller's dispatch solution. For some parts of the setup procedure you will probably have to look at the more extensive instructions in our complete configurations manual. To get started we recommend that you follow these simple steps described in this document. After that you can continue with the more advanced features of the system like: zone queues, tariff schemes, report generation, the caller id feature, customer accounts, the text back feature, etc.. Log on to the admin panel to configure the basic company and dispatch settings, and adding users (dispatchers and drivers) to your account. Please note that most pages in the admin panel requires that you press on an Update or "Save" button to save your settings.. Download the TaxiCaller Driver app to your iphone or Android device and log on to the app as a driver. 3. Log on to the dispatch central as a dispatch operator. Go to Instructional videos that showcase some key functions of our system can be found here: Please, note that you need need to complete the mandatory steps in the owner section before you can log on to the driver app and the dispatch central. The mandatory steps follow on the next pages in this quick start manual. 3/6

4 The first view of the admin panel The image below shows the first view you will see in your new account - the dashboard. On the right, you see the setup steps. Start by clicking the green "New company"-button. It's important to remember that all the items in "Setup steps"-list will also be accessible through the menu on the left hand side once you have completed the setup. So if you have completed a step in the list, you can still edit that item by accessing it through the menu on the left hand side. Start here 4/6

5 Creating your company profile. Start by filling in the company name, country, phone number, etc. in the input fields in the center of the window under "Company information". The phone number and address must be correct, because if TaxiCaller needs to contact you and the contact details are false, the account may be terminated. The company name you enter here will be displayed on your cars on the public maps. Tip! When you place the cursor in one of the input fields you will see a help text just to the right of that input field.. Here you set which currencies you accept. When you have selected a currency, remember to press the "Add"-button, otherwise your selected currency won't be saved. 3. Finally check the boxes at the bottom next to the icons to specify which payment options you accept and to specify the properties of your vehicles. If you set the mouse pointer over an icon a help text will be displayed to tell you what that icon represents. 4. The next step is to draw your company's pickup area on the map. First zoom in the map to your location, either by double clicking the map or by using the + sign in the upper left corner of the map. Then click on the button "create pickup area" at the bottom of the map. Then you draw the pickup area on the map by clicking on the map to set the borders. Double click when you add the last point. In the upper right hand corner on the map you will find more detailed instructions. 5. When you are happy with the details you have provided, press the submit button at the bottom of the website and confirm in the pop up that this is a legitimate taxi company /6

6 Entering billing information The next step is to enter billing information. The reason for why we require billing information is so that we can verify that you're an actual person. Start by clicking on the "provide billing information" in the list of setup steps. Click on this link. 6/6

7 Here you will enter your billing information. Registration number (sometimes also Business number or Organization number) is only necessary if your country uses this a system for this. For people registering accounts from countries within the European Union, you're also asked to enter your VAT number.. Start by entering your billing address.. If needed, edit any of your contact information. 3. Press "Save" to save the information you've entered. 3 7/6

8 Setting up the dispatch [Settings - Dispatch] When you have saved your billing details, a new tab called "Settings" should have appeared in the menu on the left. Click on this to open the sub-menu, then click on "Dispatch" to start setting up the dispatch. Remember that you will get a help text if you place the mouse pointer on input field or a check box.. General Here we will start with configuring some basic settings which will control the behavior of the dispatch. When it's the first time you enter this page without having entered a company id, you will already be in the "Edit" view (you don't have to click on "Edit" to start entering information). Remember to click on "Save" at the bottom of each page once you have finished setting up. Note: In this quick start manual, we will only cover the four basic parts here; Id, Permissions, Appearance and Time and units. For details and instructions about Prices and Online bookings, please see the extensive manual found here: 8/6

9 Id and Time and units Under the "General" section of the dispatch settings you will want to enter some general details, such as choosing a company id, setting your time and units, as well as some settings for pricing. Note: The "Prices" section is only relevant if you have set up your tariffs, which will be made available to you later in the setup and is explained in the full configuration manual Id. Company id Here you will want to choose a company id. This needs to be a unique ID that the users of your company (your drivers and dispatch operators) will need, together with their username and password, to log in to the system.. Active simply a switch to have the system activated/deactivated. Time and units 3. Timezone select the timezone that you are in. Make sure you also select the city you're in, or the city that's closest to you, to make sure that Daylight Savings time changes gets automatically adjusted in the system (just selecting "EST" for New York will not automatically adjust it, you need to select "EST, America/New_York). 4. Time format choose between using 4h (3:00) clock or h clock (:00 PM). 9/6

10 5. Date format choose in which format you want dates to be presented within the system. 6. Week starts on choose which day the week starts on. 7. Units choose which units you want to use within the system, metric (meters and kilometers) or imperial (yards and miles). Permissions and Appearance In these sections you can control some basic permissions for the users on your system, as well as get some options regarding the appearance of some components in the dispatch console. Permissions. Drivers can add jobs allows drivers to add jobs through the dispatch tool in the Android version of the driver app, even though their user is not also a dispatcher.. Drivers can edit jobs enables drivers to edit the destination of a job, by selecting a zone to which he will be driving instead. Could be used for example if a passenger changes their mind while in the middle of the ride. 3. Allow direct assignment allows dispatchers to manually assign a job directly to a specific driver instead of using the automatic assignment tool to determine the most suitable driver. 4. Edit zone queue allows dispatchers to edit a vehicles' position in the zone queue by moving them to the front. 0/6

11 5. Dispatchers can kick users enables dispatchers to kick drivers off the system. This only kills their current connection but does not prevent the driver from logging back in again. Appearance 6. Dispatch shows controls how far in advance you want to display pre booked jobs in the dispatch. If set to week, only jobs that are coming up within the coming week will be visible in the "Unassigned" tab of the dispatch console. 7. Color code jobs color codes jobs to make them easier to identify. These are the color codes available in the dispatch console: Background colors: -yellow background = a job that is in the auto-assign window in terms of time. -light blue background = a future job (it has not yet reached the autoassign time for the job), -green background = an active job, i.e currently started by driver. Border colors: -red border = the system will not auto dispatch the job. -blue border = the job is currently being broadcast to multiple drivers. 8. Dispatch alerts enables/disables alerts in the dispatch. There are currently two types of alerts; one alert that appears when a job is cancelled (by either party) and one alert that appears when a job is flashed (completed in less than minute or with less than km/0,6miles of driving. 9. Dispatch sound enables sound alerts in the dispatch for various occurrences, e.g. when a job in need of dispatching comes in, when an alert appears, or when a driver uses the alarm feature. 0. Remember to click "Save" at the bottom of the page when you're done with editing your settings. /6

12 . Assignment. Click on the tab ". Assignment" under the section "Settings" "Dispatch", to start setting up the way jobs will be assigned in the dispatch central.. Start by clicking on "Edit" to begin editing the settings. Note: This page is automatically set up with the standard, default values as you go to it for the first time. We only recommend that you edit this page once you have started to familiarize yourself with the system and gotten comfortable with the basic functionality. In this quick start manual, we will only cover the part of Auto dispatch. /6

13 Auto dispatch To start off, we have the section called "Auto dispatch", consisting of settings that manages the behavior of the automatic dispatching in the dispatch console Auto dispatch Enable or disable automatic assigning and dispatching of jobs.. Auto dispatch tries Number of tries the system should try to automatically dispatch a job. If you set an amount higher than the number of cars you have, the system will try to assign the job for all eternity until someone accepts it. 3. Require vehicle accept If you want to give the drivers an option to accept/decline. Uncheck if you want to "hard-assign" a job (not give the driver an option to accept/decline). 4. Job accept timeout How much time the driver should have to accept or decline a job. When a job offer has expired (timed out), the driver will no longer be able to accept that job and it will be automatically offered to the second most suitable vehicle. 5. Automatic job start Automatically start a job after it has been assigned to the driver. 6. Broadcast jobs If all "Auto dispatch tries" have been made, a job can be broadcast to all available vehicles. Enable this option to broadcast jobs after all assignment tries have been made. 3/6

14 7. Jobs when busy The system will consider vehicles that are currently set to "Busy" when looking for the most suitable vehicle to assign a job to. 8. Broadcast to busy The system will also offer broadcast jobs to vehicles that are currently set to "Busy". 9. Jobs when clearing The system will also consider vehicles that are currently set to "Clearing" when looking for the most suitable vehicle to assign a job to. The function "Clearing" is explained on item. 0. Jobs when away The system will also consider vehicles that are currently set to "Away" when looking for the most suitable vehicle to assign a job to.. Hold for unreachable Holds a job offer for a vehicle that is temporarily unreachable (the system cannot establish a connection with the driver's device).. Clearing distance Specifies the distance from the destination from which the driver can set his status to "Clearing". The function "Clearing" allows a driver to signal to the system that he is about to drop off his passenger and will be available for a new job, by changing his current state from "POB" to "CLR" (Clearing), which is made available to him when he is within the distance (that you specify above) from the destination. In conjunction with the option "Jobs when clearing", this will allow vehicles that are set to "Clearing" to be eligible for automatically dispatched jobs. 4/6

15 3. Operating hours. Click on the tab "3. Operating Hours" to set the information about what weekdays and hours your taxis should be bookable (only affects app and online bookings). Start by clicking on "Edit" to begin editing the settings.. In this case we have a company that operates 4 hours a day all days, so we check the open boxes for every day and set the openings hours to 00:00 4:00 for every day.. Click on "Save" to save your settings when you are done. 5/6

16 For now you can skip the settings in the tabs "4. Tags", "5. POIs" and "6. Text back". You can return to this sections after you have finished the mandatory steps. One the next page we will continue with some company specific settings. 6/6

17 Setting up the dispatch [Settings Companies] When you have finished setting up the dispatch, you should move on to the next page under "Settings" called "Companies". In this section, you will be able to set some basic, company specific settings. This page is primarily relevant if you dispatch for several companies and have added individual company profiles for each company.. Start by clicking on the item "Companies" under the "Settings"-tab.. Click on the button "Edit" at the bottom of the page to begin setting up. 7/6

18 . Active this option will let you choose whether the company should be active or not.. Assignment choose which assignment strategy the system should use when automatically dispatching a job, depending on the source of the booking. In our case, the system is set to go through zone queues when there's a manual booking (booked by a dispatcher) in need of assignment. Web bookings (through the online booking tool) should look for the closest vehicle when assigning it and mobile (app bookings) and reception bookings should use the default method you've chosen. 3. Operating hours these are operating hours, the same as you set under "Settings" "Dispatch" "3. Operating hours". These operating hours are company specific and allows you to have different operating hours for the individual companies under your account. If both company specific operating hours are account wide operating hours are set, the company specific operating hours trumps the account wide. If you have not set any company specific operating hours, the account wide will be utilized by the system. 4. Click on "Save" when you are done /6

19 Add users (dispatch operators and drivers) to the system. Click on the item "Users" in the menu on the left to start adding dispatch operators and drivers as users on the system.. Click on "Add User" to start adding new users. 9/6

20 . Start by adding a dispatcher. Check the box "Dispatcher". Add name, username and password. The rest of the details are optional but recommended. The username and password that you choose here will be used when you later log on as a dispatch operator. When you log on as a dispatch operator you will also need the company id that you selected earlier in "Settings" "Dispatch" ". General".. If you in one of the previous steps added user tags you can use them now, e.g. "Female" and "Dogs are ok". 3. This option is to enable the SIP phone. A detailed guide on how to set this up can be found in the complete configuration manual. 4. Click on "Submit" to save the new user /6

21 The next step is to add a driver.. Click on "Add User" at the bottom of the list of users.. Check the box "Driver". Add name, username and password. The rest of the details are optional but recommended.the username and password that you choose here will be used when the driver log on in the TaxiCaller Driver app. When the driver logs in to the driver app he/she will also need the company id that you selected earlier in "Settings" "Dispatch" ". General". The phone number and name will be displayed to the passengers after a successful booking on the internet and in the mobile apps. 3. If you in one of the previous steps added user tags you can use them now, e.g. "Male" and "Dogs are ok". 4. Click on "Submit" to save the new user. 3 4 /6

22 Add vehicles to the system. Click on the tab "Vehicles" in the menu on the left to add vehicle profiles that your drivers will use to login to the system.. Click on "Add Vehicle" to start adding new vehicles. /6

23 . Start by setting a unique id of the vehicle and set an appropriate callsign for the vehicle (both will be displayed on the public map).. Set the number of passengers, bags and wheelchairs the vehicle can serve. 3. Set the remaining (optional) properties of the vehicle: make, type, color, license plate, phone number (if the in-car device is installed in the vehicle) and chassis number. 4. Select if this vehicle is going to be reserved for a particular driver and make sure the "Enabled" box is checked. 5. Select which company (if you have several) that the vehicle belongs to. 6. Select which companies (if you have several) that the vehicle drives for. 7. If you have added vehicle tags (in "5. Tags") you can use them now, e.g. "Can carry bikes". 8. Finally, check which properties you want the vehicle to have. "Hireable" means that a vehicle is eligible for jobs from the dispatch and "Hailable" means that a driver is able to click on "Busy" and signal that he picked up a street job. Disable the "Hailable" if you only want your drivers to be able to take jobs from the dispatch. 9. Click on "Submit" to save your vehicle. 0. To add more vehicles just click on "Add Vehicle" on the left hand side below the menu /6

24 Complete the mandatory steps and log on to the app and the dispatch central Now you have completed all the necessary steps to be able to start using the dispatch central. There are more features to set up in the menu on the left hand side. Some of them are probably very useful for your taxi company, e.g. setting up zones, different tariffs, schedules and accounts. But if you first want to start testing the dispatch solution and later return to set up the other features, just complete the steps in the following list.. Download the "TaxiCaller Driver" app to your Android mobile phone or tablet. Go to "Google Play" in your Android mobile phone or tablet and search for "TaxiCaller Driver" and download and install.. Log on to the "TaxiCaller Driver" app in your phone/tablet. When logging on, you need to enter the company id you entered under "Settings" "Dispatch" ". General" in the category "ID". 3. You also need the the username and password for the driver when logging on to the app. The user name can be found by clicking on one of the users you have added. If you have forgotten the password for a user, just click on "Edit" on the user and set a new password. 4. When you have logged on to the app click "Start Shift" in the app to make your car visible on the maps. When you are done for the day, remember to end your shift and to log out. 5. Now you are ready to log on to the dispatch central as a dispatch operator. Go to or just click "Sign in" and then "Dispatcher" at the top right of To log on you use the same company id as mentioned in paragraph just above. Log on with the username and password you previously chose for the dispatch operator. Users that are dispatch operators have an image of a headset next to their name. There is a separate manual for the dispatch central. support@taxicaller.com if you haven't already got it. 3 4/6

25 Frequently asked questions Q: When I try to log on I get an error message saying that my browser is not supported. A: We recommend that you use Google Chrome as your web browser in the dispatch central, since it offers the best performance. Follow the links in the error message to download Google Chrome or go to Currently, we don't support Internet Explorer, because it's not developing fast enough and it doesn't support all the functionality that is required. Q: I forgot my password, how can I get a new one? A: If you are a company owner who forgot their password, you can go to this link and follow the steps: If you are a driver or dispatch operator who forgot their password, please reach out to the company owner who can give you a new password by selecting your user in the owner panel dispatch setup and then pressing "New password". Q: How do I change my password for the owner console? A: Click on "profile" at the bottom of the menu on the left hand side. Or just follow this link: Q: I get the message "Failure" when I try to add a job in the dispatch console, why is that? A: You likely have the "Active"-button unchecked in the dispatch setup under the "Company settings. General". Or just follow this link: Q: Why are things sometimes not saved in the dispatch setup? A: It's likely that you forgot to press "Update" before switching tabs or closing the page. Try going back to the owner panel dispatch setup, edit the settings you want to and then press "Update". Q: It says that my account/company is in state "pending verification". What does it mean? A: Your company (account) will be in the state "pending verification" when you are testing the solution. When you become a paying customer this will disappear. However, you can still test all the features of the system while in "pending verification". Q: When I place a test booking in the mobile apps and on the internet I don't receive the booking, why is that? A: To be able to receive direct passenger bookings from the internet and our mobile apps, we need to approve your company. Please, sales@taxicaller.com if direct bookings haven't been enabled for your account (remember to tell us which address your account has been registered on). 5/6

26 Q: How do I add internet booking to my website with the same map as can be seen on A: Click on "integrate" at the bottom of the menu on the left hand side. Or just follow this link: More detailed descriptions are available in this manual under the section "Add internet booking to your own website". Q: My customers can't pre book a taxi on the website, why is that? A: First off, at least one driver needs to have been logged on to the system in the last three days for a customer to be able to make pre bookings. This is to make sure that customers don't risk to not have a driver showing up when they have booked a taxi. You also need to make sure that your pick up area is large enough and that it covers the addresses that you want it to cover. Your company must also be varified, e.g not showing "pending verification" under your company in the owner panel. This must not be confused with "pending verification" on a change request (a change in company details). Q: What requirements is there on the computer I for dispatching? A: For smaller to medium sized companies (less than 00 vehicles) a "normal" PC will suffice. We recommend GB of RAM and at least a GHz dual core CPU, so it doesn't have to be very powerful. Q: I have a flat rate between zone and 3, but it still gives the price from zone to when entering a job in between zone and 3, why is that? A: The reason for this is most likely because zone is within zone. Flat rates uses a rank system, so the higher the rank, the system will prioritize it. So if you created the rate for zone to 3 before you created the rate for zone to zone 3, the first rate will have a higher ranking and the system will present the rate for a trip from zone to zone 3. An example for this is: You have the city center in zone and the Airport in zone, and a flat rate of $40 between these places. If you have a zone 3 within the zone, at the other side of the Airport (closer to the city center) you might want to have the $30 flat rate for the trip between zone and 3. So the zone 3 is a zone of its own, but it's within zone. If you then book a taxi from zone to, it will still give you the $40 price for the trip (zone to ), even though you have set it to $30. Fix this by creating flat rates in order of priority, i.e. the zone to 3 flat rate should be created before the zone to. Q: I have a private hire business and I only accept pre booked jobs, can I disable the "now"-button in the integratable booking form? A: Yes, there's an option for this in the "integrate"-section of the owner panel. You can choose to enable or disable immediate bookings. Contact details if you need more information Phone: support@taxicaller.com Address: TaxiCaller Nordic AB Teknikringen A Linkoping Sweden 6/6