20 questions to ask a taxi dispatch software supplier before you sign

A dispatch system is hard to leave once your bookings, drivers and account customers live in it. So ask the awkward questions before you sign, and get the answers in an email you can find again. These 20 questions to ask a taxi dispatch software supplier work for any system, with AI or without, and each one says what a good answer sounds like.

What should you ask about the contract and notice period?

Ask how long you're tied in, how you get out, and what can change while you're there. A dispatch software contract is easy to sign and slow to leave, so read it with the exit in mind.

1. Is there a minimum term, and how long is it?

You want a number of months, written in the contract, not "it's flexible". Check whether the term renews by itself at the end, and for how long. A long term isn't wrong in itself, but you should know you're agreeing to one.

2. How much notice do I give to leave, and how do I give it?

A good answer is a number of days and a method, such as an email to a named address. Watch for a taxi software notice period that has to land a set number of days before a renewal date. Miss that window and one month's notice can turn into another full term.

3. Can you change the price or the terms while I'm signed up?

Ask how much warning you get of a price rise, and whether you can leave without a penalty if you don't accept it. "We'll give you written notice, and you can leave if you don't like it" is the answer you want.

4. What happens when the system goes down on a Friday night?

Ask who you ring, at what hours, and how quickly someone picks up. Ask what you do with the phones while it's down, and whether you get anything back for the hours lost.

A supplier who has never thought about it will tell you so by the pause.

What should you ask about your data?

Ask who owns your bookings, passengers and drivers, who can see them, and how you take them with you. Those records are the business.

5. Who owns the bookings, passengers and drivers in my account?

The answer should be "you", in the contract, not just on a sales call. Ask whether the supplier can use your data for anything else, such as marketing to your passengers, approaching your drivers or setting its own prices. Our guide to who owns your taxi booking data goes into the detail.

6. Will you sign processor terms under UK GDPR Article 28?

You're the controller of your passengers' details and the supplier is your processor. The ICO lists what the contract between you must contain as a minimum: processing only on your documented instructions, a duty of confidence, appropriate security, rules on sub-processors, help with people's data rights, what happens at the end of the contract, and audits and inspections. Ask for the supplier's data processing terms and check each point is there.

7. Where is my data held, and can anyone outside the UK open it?

Ask for a list of sub-processors: the companies that run the supplier's servers, phone lines and AI. If a separate organisation outside the UK receives your data or can open it, the ICO calls that a restricted transfer, and it needs its own safeguards. A good supplier can name the companies involved and say where they are.

8. Can I export everything, and will you keep my records as long as my council needs?

Ask for a sample taxi booking data export: bookings, customers, drivers and accounts, in a spreadsheet or CSV file you can open. Then check how long the system keeps booking records against your licence conditions. Derby City Council and Calderdale Council both require operators to keep booking records for at least 12 months. In London the regulations require 12 months, and 12 months for any recording of a booking call. You still need those records after you leave, so ask how you'll get them.

9. Will the system ever contact my passengers or drivers itself?

Some systems send review requests, offers or reminders on your behalf. Ask what goes out, in whose name, and whether you can switch it off. For marketing the rules are strict: the ICO says you must not make an automated marketing call unless the person has specifically agreed to that type of call from you.

What should you ask about set-up and training?

Ask what the supplier needs from you, who does each part of the set-up, and how long it takes before real bookings go through it.

10. What do you need from me, and when can it take real bookings?

A clear supplier gives you a short list: your zones and prices, your drivers and vehicles, your account customers, and access to your phone line. Then a time in days, not "it depends". Ask what has to be true on your side for that date to hold.

11. Who sets up the zones, prices and phone divert?

Find out whether the supplier loads your price list or hands you a blank screen. If calls will divert to the system, ask who sets up the divert and how quickly unanswered calls move across. Check with your own phone provider how its diverts work, because providers differ.

12. How do you train my controllers and drivers, and does it cost extra?

Ask how training is given, whether by a call, a video or someone in the office, and whether it's in the price. Ask what your drivers need to do on day one, and who they ring when the app won't log in at 5am.

Who will you actually deal with?

Ask who you're signing with, who answers when something breaks, and whether anyone on the supplier's side will touch your bookings.

13. Who exactly am I signing with?

Ask for the company's legal name and number, then look it up on Companies House. The search is free and shows the registered address, the date the company was formed, its current and past officers, and the documents it has filed. A trading name on a website isn't your contract partner; the company behind it is.

14. Who do I ring when something goes wrong, and when?

Get a name or a number and the hours it's answered. Ask what happens outside those hours, and whether the person who answers can fix things or only log them.

15. Will any of your staff take or dispatch bookings for me?

The answer matters for your licence. The Department for Transport's statutory standards ask councils to require operators to keep a register of everyone who takes bookings or dispatches vehicles, each with a basic DBS check. The same standards say you can outsource booking and dispatch, but you can't pass on your duty to protect children and vulnerable adults. If the supplier's people will take your calls, ask how they'll go on your register.

What works today, and what's only planned?

Ask for it in writing, feature by feature. Every supplier has a roadmap, and the gap between a demo and a working system is where buyers get caught out.

16. Which features are live today, and which are planned?

Send a list of the features you need and ask the supplier to mark each one live, being built or planned. Anything not live is a hope, not a feature. If something you need is planned, ask whether you'd be paying for it before it works.

17. Can I try it on a real line, not a video?

Ask for a test line you can ring, or a trial on your own overflow calls. Book a job, change it, cancel it and look at the record it leaves. Our guide to choosing the best AI taxi dispatch system has a test plan you can run in one afternoon.

What will it cost beyond the monthly price?

Ask what's in the price and what's billed on top, because the monthly figure on a website isn't always the whole bill.

18. What's in the monthly price, and what's billed on top?

Go through the dispatch software running costs one by one: call minutes for a phone agent, text messages, maps and address lookups, card payment fees, and the Apple and Google developer fees for your app. Maps are a real cost to suppliers: Google prices its Maps Platform per billable event, counted monthly, so a supplier either includes it or passes it on. Ask what happens if you go over any allowance: a charge per minute, a bundle, or calls handed back to your office.

19. How does the price change as I add cars or calls?

Ask for the price at your fleet size now and at the size you hope to reach. Check what counts as a car, whether that's every licensed vehicle or only the ones that did a job that month, and whether busy months cost more. Our guide to taxi dispatch software in the UK explains how suppliers price.

Whose name goes on the driver app store listing?

Ask whose name your drivers will see in the App Store and Google Play, and what happens to that driver app store listing if you leave.

20. Whose developer account will the app be published from?

Apple's App Review Guideline 4.2.6 rejects apps built from a commercial template unless the provider of the app's content submits them, and says template companies shouldn't submit apps for their clients. The other route Apple accepts is one app holding many firms. So an app in your own firm's name goes out from your firm's own Apple developer account, which costs 99 US dollars a year or the local equivalent, and Apple asks organisations for a D-U-N-S number. Google Play charges a one-off US$25 registration fee.

Ask which route the supplier uses, who pays which fee, and whether the listing stays yours if you move on. There's more in our guide to publishing a taxi app on the App Store and Google Play.

How do you compare the answers?

Send the same 20 questions by email to every supplier on your list, Dispatch AI included, and put the written replies side by side. A phone call is fine for the first pass, but only what's in writing, ideally in the contract, counts when something goes wrong.

If you're already on a system and thinking of moving, our guide to switching taxi dispatch systems covers the move itself.