A small fleet does not need a smaller version of a big fleet's dispatch system. It needs a different one: the owner usually drives, the phone is usually the office, and nobody is paid to sit at a console. Software that assumes a dispatcher on shift will fight you from day one. Here is what to look for instead.
The three jobs the software must do for a five-car firm
- Take bookings while nobody is at a desk: a web booker on your site and an app for regulars, so a booking at 11 p.m. does not depend on a phone being answered.
- Get the job to a driver fast: an offer on the nearest free driver's phone, with a timer, and the next driver if the first does not accept.
- Settle the money: who collected cash, what card payments came in, what each driver owes or is owed at the end of the week.
If a system does those three things without a dispatcher, the rest is a bonus. If it needs someone watching a screen to do them, you are buying a job as well as software.
What you can skip at this size
Zone-by-zone tariffs, time-of-day bands and surge rules are tools for fleets with pricing problems you probably do not have yet. Corporate billing matters the day you sign your first account customer, not before. Call-centre telephony and IVR are for offices with call volume. Set up the basics, run a month, and switch the rest on when a real situation asks for it — a good system lets you leave features off.
The minimum-charge trap
Most dispatch platforms carry a monthly minimum, and for a small fleet the minimum is the bill. TaxiDex's is published: £79, about $100, a month. Five drivers at the Starter rate of £11 comes to £55, so the minimum applies and you pay £79. Seven or more drivers and the per-driver rate takes over. Ask every vendor the same question — what is the minimum, and at what size does the rate start to matter — because many do not publish one, and the answer changes which platform is cheapest for you.
Growing from five cars to twenty without changing system
The cost of outgrowing a system is the migration, not the licence. Per-active-driver pricing scales in the direction you want: add a driver, pay for a driver; lose one, stop paying. On TaxiDex the first twenty drivers sit on Starter and the twenty-first moves the fleet to the Professional rate, with nothing to reinstall and no new contract. Whatever you choose, ask what changes at the next size up: a new tier, a new product, or a new negotiation.
A one-week setup plan
- Day 1 — drivers and vehicles in, with the documents and expiry dates your licensing authority asks for.
- Day 2 — fares: your flag fall, per-mile or per-kilometre rate and waiting time; a fixed price for your two or three regular runs.
- Day 3 — the web booker on your website, in your brand, with a fare quote before the passenger books.
- Day 4 — drivers install the app and sign in; book a test ride to each of them.
- Day 5 — run real bookings alongside your current method and compare at the end of the day.
- Week 2 — switch the phone line's bookings over; keep the old method available for a fortnight as a fallback.
Where TaxiDex fits
TaxiDex is built so a small fleet can run without a dispatcher on shift: web booker and passenger app for direct bookings, timed offers to drivers, cash and card reconciled to one ledger, and settlements per driver. It is billed per active driver with the published £79/$100 minimum and a 14-day trial on real jobs. The passenger app and web booker carry your brand; the driver app is the TaxiDex app. If that fits, start the trial; if you need the driver app under your own name, we will say so on the first call.
For a five-car firm the question is not which system has the most features. It is which one still works when the owner is driving.