A1 Cars in Bury St Edmunds implement Sherlock Taxi to increase automation, reliability and customer satisfaction
- Increased driver and customer satisfaction
- Enhanced fleet efficiency through accurate automated allocation
- Increased automated bookings
Background
A1 Cars, the largest taxi and private hire operator in Bury St Edmunds, recently completed a successful launch with Sherlock Taxi as part of the business’ 50th anniversary. Founded in 1975, A1 Cars has long served as a key transportation provider in the Suffolk region of the United Kingdom, offering both on-demand bookings and serving a range of account services including local government, businesses, councils and hospitals.
When Adrian Sandu took over ownership of A1 Cars, he quickly found that challenges with the existing dispatch system would inhibit his ability to grow and expand the business.
Business requirements
To modernise operations, he identified four key objectives that a new dispatch platform would need to fulfil:
- Enhance the customer/user experience
- Increase automation, particularly related to dispatching
- Provide more reliable dispatch with accurate ETAs (estimated times of arrival)
- Simplify managing pricing with clearly structured tariffs
As part of Adrian’s evaluation of providers on the market, he downloaded and tested various passenger apps for other UK companies to review the features available, user-experience and reliability. This led to the selection of Sherlock Taxi. Its sleek, intuitive passenger app—powered by real-time Google traffic data—offered the reliability and operational efficiency Adrian was looking for.
Implementation & Results
“the automation and allocator are excellent—they perform exactly as expected. When we're at our busiest, the system makes the fleet more efficient and keeps jobs moving smoothly. It's clear that the automation is doing what it was designed to do, helping us handle high demand whilst giving customers the lowest response times and ensuring drivers are working efficiently.”
A1 Cars was already using Yestech for telephony services, and Sherlock collaborated with Yestech to develop a seamless integration. Adrian noted: “I personally think Yestech and Sherlock together are the best combination; you’ve got the best dispatching software and the best telephony system at a fair price.”
Since the launch, he has gone on to say, “drivers are really happy with the system, they think the app is great and like that it is available on iPhone as well as Android. It is also making them more efficient and able to complete more trips.”
Through the addition of IVR that can give updates on driver statuses and the addition of live driver tracking links as part of SMS push notifications, there was an immediate reduction in call volumes from passengers requesting status updates.