AI Booking & Dispatch for Taxi & Private Hire
Beat Uber on local service. Match Uber on technology.
Independent taxi and private-hire operators across Cambridgeshire compete with Uber, Bolt and Free Now on price, but win on local knowledge, reliability, and personal service. The gap that hurts most is technology — a customer who can't book in 30 seconds will use the app that lets them. We build the booking + dispatch + comms layer that closes that gap.
The pain we keep hearing
- Phone-bookings are friction. Customer rings, your dispatcher takes details, dispatcher relays to driver via radio. Three steps where Uber is one tap. Bookings drop on busy nights.
- No-show economics hurt. Driver dispatched, customer not there. Lost trip, lost driver time, lost goodwill. With a confirm-tap-by-customer flow this falls to near-zero.
- Account customers want online booking. Local schools, businesses, hotels increasingly want a portal to book without phoning. You don't have one. They use the company that does.
- Driver dispatch decisions are gut-feel. Closest driver? Best-rated driver? Driver who's about to finish a job nearby? Manual dispatcher juggling = slower assignments + sometimes wrong choices.
What we typically build
Customer booking app + web booking form
Customer enters pickup, destination, time. Fare estimate shown. Confirm with one tap. SMS confirmation. No phone call needed.
Smart dispatch engine
Auto-assigns nearest available driver matched on vehicle type, rating, and ETA. Manual override for dispatcher when needed.
Driver mobile app
Job alerts with maps. One-tap accept/decline. Auto-navigation. Cashless payment integration. End-of-shift summary.
Customer/account portal
Business accounts can book in advance, view billing, manage frequent passengers. Schools book pupil transport. Hotels book guests.
Where it applies
- Cambridge city taxi rank operators. Compete with Uber in tech-heavy market — must have parity on UX.
- Wisbech / Fenland private hire. Rural runs, school contracts, hospital trips — different dispatch dynamics.
- Peterborough mixed operations. Logistics hub, busy station, hotel partnerships.
- Specialist services. Executive cars, airport-only, school contracts, hospital patient transport.
How we deliver — 5 phases
Discovery
30-min call + 60-90 min structured scoping. Fixed-price quote.
Design
Architecture doc, you sign off before any code.
Build
Git from day 1, weekly demos.
Deploy
Shadow mode → restricted live → full live.
Handover
Docs, runbook, training, 30 days bug-fix.
Full methodology at how we build.
Pricing guidance
Basic booking + dispatch £2,500–£4,500. Add driver app + customer SMS £1,500–£2,500. Full operator suite (account portal, dashboards, reporting) £5,500–£8,500. Monthly run £150–£450 depending on fleet size and SMS/booking volume.
Where we're based
Wisbech-based, covering Cambridgeshire and surrounds.
Nearby areas we cover
- Cambridge (CB1–CB4)
- Peterborough (PE1–PE9)
- Wisbech (PE13)
- Ely (CB7)
- Huntingdon (PE29)
- St Neots (PE19)
Real engagement walkthroughs
No fabricated testimonials here. Instead, see what real engagements look like end-to-end:
Related services
Frequently asked questions
We have a few drivers — is this overkill?
No — smallest deployment we've scoped is 4 drivers. The economics work whenever the dispatcher time saved + missed-booking recovery + account-customer wins exceed the monthly run cost.
How fast can drivers onboard?
The driver app is a single screen with 3 buttons. Most drivers onboard in a 30-minute video call. Older driver demographics are not a barrier — we've been intentional about UI simplicity.
Can we keep our phone-bookings working?
Yes — phone bookings come in via your existing line and dispatcher enters them into the same system. They flow through the same dispatch engine. You don't cut off your existing customers.
What about payment processing?
Stripe / Apple Pay / Google Pay built-in for the customer app. Cash still works for phone-bookings. Account customers billed monthly. Driver settlement automated.
What if a driver doesn't have a smartphone?
You can run a mix — drivers without smartphones get jobs via your dispatcher on radio as before. New drivers required to have a smartphone (standard now in 2026).
How is this different from FleetDrive / Cordic / iCabbi?
Those are proven established platforms — if they fit you, use them. We build custom when you need specific features, integrations, or pricing that doesn't fit the off-the-shelf model. Often a hybrid: keep your existing platform for core dispatch, add custom features around it.
Start with a 30-minute call
Tell us about the workflow that's costing you the most time. We'll tell you honestly whether automation pays back for your specific case.