Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 09/02) - A small revolution is taking place at City Cabs.

The company is in the process of computerizing its dispatch system. And the new system is so effective, you wonder how the business ever coped without it.

To fully appreciate this, you must understand how the old system worked.

Under the old system, you call a cab and someone takes down your address.

Then, this person writes the address on a little slip of pink paper and hands it to a dispatcher.

The dispatcher is keeping track, by radio, of where all 51 City Cabs are in the city and must have the entire city map memorized in order to quickly figure out which cab is closest and assign the job by radio.

Dispatchers have to make sure drivers -- whose first langauge isn't always English -- understand the directions. And this must be done quickly or the little slips of pink paper pile up and customers have to wait longer and longer.

The dispatcher keeps track of what jobs she gives to which cabbies by putting the little slips of paper in tiny cubby holes.

Not exactly high-tech.

Using this system, customers might have to wait a full hour for a cab on a cold, busy day said City Cabs general manager Shirley McGrath. But the computerized system -- so far installed in five of the company's 51 cabs --- streamlines the entire process. "We don't have to rely on a person's memory and little pieces of paper anymore" said McGrath.

Instead when a customer calls, the dispatcher punches the address into a computer which keeps tracks of where each cab is and automatically offers the job to the closest cab.

Cabbies get the job offer through mini computers in their cars and accept the job by pressing a button. The computer system can also pre-book cabs, give priority to emergency calls and even knows what cabs are smoke-free and which cab drivers don't mind if customers bring pets.

And the system also authorizes Visa credit cards. All told, the new system simplifies operations for everybody involved.

"We'll be able to handle far more phone calls particularly in busy periods," said McGrath. It will also make money for the drivers because they'll be able to take more fares each hour.

"The main goal of the system is to provide better customer service and to increase efficiency and increase business volume," said McGrath.

"It's an investment in technology."

Wayne Maki of Calgary-based company Global Dispatch Technologies Inc., the company that sells and installs the system, declined to say exactly how what the price tag was.

"But it spells significant investment with a capital S," he said.

Kosta Todorovski is a City Cabs driver and vice-president of the company.

He said the new system has improved his job -- and not just financially.

Before, he talked to a dispatcher by radio about 140 times a shift. Now, it's more like once or twice.

"It's peaceful without the constant yak, yak, yak of the radio," he says. "It's much nicer."