iCabbi customer, Reliable Taxi in Mount Vernon, New York now operates with 100% booking automation. In fact, they have done so for over a year. This was a strategic decision made by owner Frank Golinello. We caught up with Frank to find out how he did it and what are the pros and cons other taxi fleet owners should be aware of when looking to go fully-automated.
Reliable Taxi is a 35 car fleet, established in 2003. They mostly do point to point taxi services in the Mount Vernon area. Reliable had 0% booking automation prior to moving to iCabbi in May 2023 and immediately began looking into a complete 100% booking automation model. This is where we pick up the story…..
Q. Why did you decide to try to turn your company into 100% booking automation?
A. Cost. We needed to cut costs to afford various things including running an app, and iCabbi’s automation included with the monthly bill offered a great opportunity to us.
Q. What changes did you make to achieve 100% automation?
A. Massive notification campaign to all existing customers to download our app, and instructing them on how our automated phone system will work. Signs in our office for walk-in customers to dial the number on the phone and use the automated service. Social media campaigns all instructing the same thing. And we cut dispatcher hours little by little over the course of a month until we were satisfied with the automation to go 100%.
Q. What are the pros of 100% automation?
A. Saving on dispatching costs. Getting with the times and catering to young people.
Q. What are the cons/downfalls? What should other fleets be aware of in terms of trade-offs?
A. Customers – especially older ones – may get frustrated and just dial another company that has a person who will answer the phone.
Q. What impact has it had on your business from a measurable perspective?
A. Truthfully, I think it’s kept us about the same and just kept us in business. The automation savings basically cover the cost of iCabbi for us.
Q. What is the best thing about iCabbi?
A. Having automation included with the service has been fantastic, we always had hoped to eventually go without dispatchers one day and it’s great to finally be there.
Q. Would you refer iCabbi to other fleets and are you a happy customer?
A. Yes and yes!
The iCabbi Passenger App and iCabbi Voice are integral to delivering booking automation for our fleets. Check out these products or book a full demo of the iCabbi platform here.