Starting Your Own Taxi Company: Things You Will Need (Other Than Cars!)
Taxis, especially cities where other modes of public transportation are not as reliable, are invaluable. If you want to start your own taxi company, you can easily do this from home. In fact, your center dispatch can actually be a home office! You do not need to rent an office to do this kind of work, but you will need lots of other things. After cars, here is the short and immediate list to get started.
An Explorer MSAT G3 System, or Something Like It
Explorer MSAT g3 are two-way communication devices with push-to-talk handsets. One set goes on the dash of each cab, and the other in your home office. The frequencies can be set so that each office set communicates only with the corresponding cab set. This way, you know exactly where each of your cabbies and cabs are all day. It also helps you keep track of who drove which cab on what day and during which shift, in case there is an altercation, an accident, or other issue that needs to be addressed.
Payroll and Accounting Software
Every business needs to keep track of the money coming in and the money going out. You have to pay your drivers, or you do not have a business. If you are unfamiliar with how to use this software, you may either want to take an introductory course in accounting or hire an accountant to make sure your financial accounts are all in order.
Cellphones and E-Payment Devices
If you cannot go high-tech to install payment machines in your cabs (and not too many cab companies can!), then you will also need cellphones for each of your cabbies and e-payment devices. You can select a square, a triangle, or a rectangle, all of which capture the customer's payment info from his/her debit or credit card. You will need smartphones, not just regular cellphones, to do this because the devices only work in conjunction with a corresponding company app.
Room to Park Your Cabs
There are a couple of ways to manage this. You could assign a cab to each driver and have the drivers take the cabs home with them every night. You could park all the cabs on your long driveway or plot of land in the country, and then the drivers select a cab in the morning, too. Finally, you could rent public garage space for the cabs, and park them there for the drivers to pick up and rotate each day. No mater what, you will have to park your cabs somewhere when they are not in use.