Taxi Software Case Study

Keys Please™ and TranWare Enterprise™ Success Story

Operating under the trade name, “Keys Please®”, The Driving Alternative® is North America’s only full service designated driving company, providing a valuable service that helps keep our roads safer. The Driving Alternative originated in Calgary, Alberta in 1997 to provide a safe solution to an age-old problem. "What do you do when you have had a few drinks and really should not be driving but it is imperative that you have your vehicle home for the next day?" The company addresses this problem by actually sending out two people in a vehicle. One person will drive the customer home in the customer's vehicle and the other person will follow and pick up the driver at the destination.

Responsible drivers use the service as a means to get themselves and their vehicles home safely. The cost is not much more than a one-way taxi ride. However, when compared to the cost of having to pick your vehicle up in the morning or the cost of losing your license or worse yet, creating an accident, Keys Please® provides a highly practical and cost-effective alternative. The average cost for a first-time alcohol related driving conviction exceeds $7000.00 and the intangible costs can be much greater. Better to be safe than sorry…

The success of the company’s unique business model has resulted in rapid growth, with multiple franchise locations now operating throughout North America. When company management approached Future Quest in 2004, they were looking for an automatic dispatch system that would allow dispatching to be centralized out of a single city, thereby eliminating the need for new franchise locations to establish and maintain costly dispatch facilities and personnel.

“Commented Keys Please President, Mr. David Dick, “We knew that to be successful on a larger scale, we needed to reduce the entry barriers for our franchisees. It really came down to reducing start-up costs and simplifying daily operations. We recognized that by centralizing call taking and dispatching, we could take that weight off their shoulders and really accelerate the ROI for our franchise partners. At the same time, we felt we could increase the consistency and experience for our customers across all markets.”

Adds Mr. Dick, “We completed an extensive analysis of the type of capabilities we required in a centralized dispatch system in order to take our model to the next level and then looked at all the available solutions. We found that there were very few companies with the capabilities that we needed, most of which were cost prohibitive. We discovered Future Quest Wireless through a web search and they were able to demonstrate an economical system which had most of the basic requirements we had laid out.” More importantly, explains Ms. Ginger Greenwood, Director of Operations for Keys Please, “Future Quest was willing to work closely with us to mould their system to fit those needs that were unique to our operation.”

Future Quest President, Mr. Gord Walsh comments, “When Keys Please originally approached us, they had an extensive list of requirements laid out. Fortunately, we had just introduced TranAir® into the taxi dispatch market, which we had co-developed with TranWare.” (An established and well respected application provider in the North American transportation dispatch market)

“TranAir®,” Mr. Walsh explains, “Is an innovative wireless dispatch service that works with TranWare Enterprise, an industry-leading transportation dispatch solution. TranAir takes full advantage of the multi-dimensional capabilities of the Motorola phones used on the Sprint-Nextel and Telus-Mike® cellular networks (Java, Push-to-Talk, GPS and Packet Data) to provide digital dispatch and GPS vehicle tracking functionality at fraction of the cost of traditional dispatch hardware.”

The Keys Please® TranWare Enterprise system provides fully automatic job assignment to the closest available vehicle in several cities from a single dispatch centre. The system also incorporates integrated vehicle tracking, using the TranTrac® module to keep dispatch centre staff fully informed on current vehicle and job location and status. The TranAir java application running on driver’s Nextel-type phone greatly simplifies the job of the drivers. For example, trip pricing is automatically calculated and sent electronically to the driver’s phone. In addition, drivers can enter waiting time, credit card and account billing information directly from the handset. TranAir empowers the drivers to increase their earnings by enabling them to see where additional vehicles are required to service waiting clients. Upon arriving in the area, the driver can then book himself available and the system will automatically assign the appropriate trip to him.

Comments Mr. Steve Furniss, President of TranWare, Inc. and co-developer of TranAir: “The Keys Please system really does a nice job of showcasing the entire TranWare Enterprise Suite. While we had previously developed all of the various modules and functions for many other clients, the Keys Please system really brings them all together in a completely integrated package, with some unique twists.”

Capabilities of the Keys Please System

Rapid call-taking with multi-line Caller ID, landmarks, pop-up passenger trip history
Account billing and receivables with authorized callers and passengers by account
Multiple time zone capability on booking trip reservations
Automatic digital dispatch to the closest available vehicle across multiple cities
Integrated vehicle and job tracking capability with city-selectable fleet zoom
Automatic trip pricing based on the mileage of each trip, with waiting time entry
Color coded indication of the live status of all reservations and vehicles
Indication of vehicles waiting for customers, both at pick-up and while en-route
Ability to establish call priorities, time calls and standing orders
Multi-company, multi-fleet, multi-dispatch screen capability
Driver cashiering with trip and lease reconciliation, driver commissioning
Quickbooks integration with custom GL account synchronization

The success of their designated driving system, coupled with the efficiencies created by TranWare has allowed Keys Please® to streamline their business model. New franchise locations can now be added faster and operate more efficiently. As a result, the company is now actively investigating other potential franchise locations.

To view more information on TranWare Enterprise and how Future Quest can help your company in the way that we've helped Keys Please, click the button below.