A1 Cabs, Grande Prairie: Why They Moved from TaxiCaller to Cabica
The Short Answer
A1 Cabs, a taxi firm in Grande Prairie, Alberta, moved from TaxiCaller to Cabica, mainly because of cost. Cabica runs their dispatch, the driver app and their own passenger app, priced in Canadian dollars and kilometres. Two features were built at their request and are now open to every firm on Cabica: flag trips, so a driver can start a job for someone who waves them down in the street, and a meter reset. The owners check on the cars from their phones with the Cabica Admin app.
A1 Cabs is run by Sumit and Sam in Grande Prairie, Alberta. Canada is a long way from where Cabica started, but a taxi office there has the same day as one in Preston: calls to answer, cars to place, drivers who want work and a bill at the end of the month.
Why they moved
TaxiCaller was costing them more than they wanted to pay, and that is why they started looking. What made them stay is what happened when they asked for something.
“We came over from TaxiCaller, and honestly the cost was the main reason. What surprised us was how quickly Cabica built what we asked for — flag trips for street pickups and a meter reset for our drivers. And with the Cabica Admin app we can check on the cars from our phones instead of being stuck in the office.”
— Sumit & Sam, Owners, A1 Cabs
What was built at their request
- Flag trips. Some of A1’s work starts in the street. A driver can now start a job for a passenger who flags them down, the meter runs as on any trip, and the office sees FLAG TRIP against that car on the board, so a street job is never mistaken for a free car.
- Meter reset. For a firm that switches it on, a stopped meter offers *Reset Meter*, on its own row away from *Complete* so a thumb cannot land on it by mistake, and it asks before it does anything. It is hidden on an agreed price.
Both went out to every firm on Cabica, not only to A1. That is how most of the product updates start.
A Canadian firm on the same software
Nothing was forked for Canada. Each firm on Cabica has its own currency, distance unit, time zone and tariffs, so A1 prices in dollars and kilometres on its own clock, and its passengers book in an app with A1’s name and colours, published for iPhone and Android.
And the owners are not tied to the office. With the Cabica Admin app on their phones, they can see where the cars are from wherever they are.
What another firm can take from this
- Ask what happens to a request. A system that cannot change for you is a system you will work around for years.
- Count the yearly bill, not the monthly headline, at the number of cars you really run. Our taxi dispatch software pricing guide shows the sums.
- Look at how your own work is shaped, street hails, accounts or airport runs, and make the vendor show you that, not their standard demo.
Running a firm like A1? See your own zones and tariffs in a 20-minute demo.
Book a DemoWritten By
Chief Executive Officer, Cabica
Muhammad Gulfam Asim leads Cabica. He worked in the taxi business for six years as a controller and dispatcher, and now builds the dispatch and booking software independent taxi and private-hire firms run on, working on pricing, product direction and the operator conversations that shape both.
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