Taxi booking system: how a booking gets from the call to the car

Follow one booking through a taxi booking system and you'll see what the software is really for. This guide walks a single airport run from the moment the phone rings to the record that sits in the system months later, and shows where the law, the passenger and your drivers each need something from it.

Example: a passenger rings at 9pm on a Tuesday to book a 5am pickup on Thursday, home to the airport, two people and two cases.

How does a taxi booking system work?

A taxi booking system moves each job through the same eight steps, whatever the size of the firm:

1. The booking comes in.
2. The system works out the price.
3. The booking record is written.
4. The passenger gets a confirmation.
5. The job goes to a driver.
6. The driver picks the passenger up.
7. The passenger pays.
8. The record is kept.

A phone and a booking sheet can do all eight. The software does them without anyone retyping the details, and leaves a record that stands up when the council asks to see it.

Step 1: how does the booking come in?

Bookings arrive by phone, through an app or website, or by WhatsApp, text or email. Good taxi booking software puts all of them in one list, so the 5am airport run booked on WhatsApp sits next to the one booked by phone and nobody books the same car twice.

Every channel needs the same answers: pickup address, destination, date and time, how many passengers, luggage, and any needs such as a child seat, a wheelchair or an assistance dog. On the phone your controller asks. On a website, the form asks. If an AI phone agent takes the call, it asks the same questions and saves the answers into the booking.

The guides to WhatsApp taxi booking and online booking for a taxi website cover those two channels.

Step 2: how is the price worked out?

The system looks the fare up in your price list: a fixed price between zones, a mileage rate, or a set price for a route such as the airport. For our example, the airport run comes straight from the fixed airport price you've set.

Two laws limit what you can charge. If a hackney carriage does a pre-booked job in its own district, section 67 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 caps the fare at the council's table of fares. And section 167A of the Equality Act 2010 makes it an offence for a private hire operator to charge extra for the help a driver must give a disabled passenger.

In London, regulation 11 of the operator regulations asks you to record any fare quoted or estimated, so the quote has to be saved with the booking. The guide to taxi zone pricing explains how to set zones up.

Step 3: what goes in the booking record?

The booking record is written before the journey starts. Outside London, section 56 of the 1976 Act requires a record of every private hire booking in the form your council sets, and the Department for Transport's Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards list what councils should ask for.

Here's when each field gets filled in:

So a booking record isn't finished until the job has a driver. A system that stamps every change with a time and a name gives you a clean trail if a booking is ever questioned.

Step 4: how does the passenger get a booking confirmation?

The system sends a booking confirmation by text, email or both as soon as the booking is saved. A clear one repeats the pickup time and address, the destination, the price and your phone number, so the passenger can spot a mistake on Tuesday night instead of at 5am on Thursday.

Keep confirmations and marketing apart. The ICO's rules say you can't send marketing texts or emails to individuals without their consent, unless the soft opt-in for your own customers applies, and every marketing message has to give them a way to opt out. The guide to booking confirmation texts and emails has wording you can copy.

Step 5: how does the job get to a driver?

Allocation gives the job to a driver, and the driver's app shows the pickup details. Some systems let the controller pick the driver; others use rules such as zone queues. Either way, you should be able to give the job to a driver by hand and change it later.

Only a licensed driver in a licensed vehicle can do a private hire job. Section 46 of the 1976 Act makes it an offence for an operator to use a vehicle without a current private hire vehicle licence, or a driver without a current driver's licence. The system should refuse to give the job to a driver whose licence has run out.

You can also pass the job to another licensed operator. Section 55A of the 1976 Act has allowed that since 1 October 2015, and the record should show which operator carried it out. The guide to private hire dispatch software covers those rules.

Step 6: what happens at pickup?

On the day, the driver marks the job as on the way, arrived and passenger on board. Systems that follow the car can send the passenger a link to watch it arrive, which saves a call to the office at 4:55am.

The arrival time matters later. If the passenger isn't there, it's your evidence for a waiting charge or a no-show fee, so the system should save it against the booking.

Step 7: how does the passenger pay?

Passengers pay cash or card in the car, by card when they book online, through a secure payment link, or on a business account you invoice later.

Taking card numbers over the phone is the risky option. The PCI Security Standards Council, which sets the card industry's data rules, says no payment card data should be stored unless the business needs it, and recommends tools that keep staff from handling card details. A payment link sent by text or email keeps the card number off your call recordings and out of your office.

Card payments cost money too. Stripe's published UK rate for standard UK cards is 1.5% + 20p a payment, so check whose account the fees come out of. The guide to card payments for taxi bookings compares the ways to take them.

Step 8: what happens to the record afterwards?

The booking stays in the system as the record your council can ask to see. Section 56 says you must produce it on request to an authorised council officer or a police constable. The DfT standards suggest keeping booking records for at least six months, and in London, regulation 16 sets twelve months for bookings and for driver and vehicle records.

The same history shows you which customers book most, which hours are busiest and which jobs ran late. The records are passengers' personal data as well, so your supplier's contract should say how they're kept and how you get them back if you leave.

Where does Dispatch AI fit in a booking's life?

Dispatch AI is booking and dispatch software for taxi and private hire firms. It answers your phone, WhatsApp, texts and emails, books the jobs at your prices and sends them to your drivers on your own app. The passenger gets a text and an email to confirm, a secure link to pay by card, and a live link to track the car.