Hi chaps - long time no work - but I have a potential new client who’d like a site building. He runs a Taxi/Private Hire firm. basically he just wants something prettier than his existing one but also he needs people to be able to book their cab through the site.
As an occasional taxi user I know how frustrating it is when things go wrong so I guess it has to be bullet proof … and I also guess he has several ‘telephone’ operators taking calls, they, will all need pcs in order to look at the emailed bookings … I really don’t want to get into being his IT support when the service falls over.
Hi Roger,
What sort of functionality are you looking for with this? At the simple end of the scale you can simply use something like then PHP Feedback Form Action (http://www.freewayactions.com/product.php?id=019) to collect the form data (pickup address, drop off address, contact name, contact number, date and time of travel etc) and email it directly to the cab office.
Building on this you may want to add in a security check to stop users from booking cabs and then jumping on a bus if one comes along. Many phone ordering services like this will automatically detect the number you are calling from and look up the street address. For the web site you could ask users to register before using the form, or pre-pay maybe.
Another option would be to add an estimator to the site so users can gauge what a trip will cost before they go ahead and book it.
It’s worth asking them what they would charge you for it for the site;
Regards,
Tim.
On 9 Oct 2012, at 13:49, Roger Burton wrote:
He runs a Taxi/Private Hire firm. basically he just wants something prettier than his existing one but also he needs people to be able to book their cab through the site.
Thank you so much Tim … good of you to take the time to answer so fully. I’m thinking he wants something pretty basic as I have a feeling he’s going to want a system that doesn’t involve too much 'technology … or indeed expense.
I’m going to go down the ‘PHP feedback form’ for a start and see where we go from there.