I have developed a taxi automated booking system (TABS). It is now being runned in simulation mode. A taxi company is likely to use this system with a fleet of 600 taxis. The simulation will reflect the real life situation quite closely. The booking fee is cheaper than the normal booking service.
A customer who wish to book a taxi will send a SMS to the server. You can try this service by sending a SMS as follows:
- Starhub mobile: Send "CAB " to 82028866
- M1 and Singtel Mobile: Send "CAB pppppp " to 82028866
Note: pppppp is the postal code of your location (not required for Starhub customers).
If a taxi is available within 2 km of your location, you will receive a SMS to call the mobile phone of the taxi driver. If no taxi is available, a SMS will be sent to you, saying that you have been placed in the taxi queue.
Please join this trial. During the simulation run, you will get a simulated mobile phone number (i.e. not a real number) of the taxi.
FEEDBACK FROM USERS
Hi Mr Tan
If the passenger accidentaly left his/her valuables in the taxi, who do we call?
Reply: You can call the taxi driver as you already have his mobile phone number! You can also call the taxi compnay but it is likely to take a much longer time.
Reply: This is great! No more figuring out who is the driver of the taxi which you left the valuables in. If you lost something you can contact the taxi driver immediately.. unless you lost your handphone.
Mr TKL
I tried it. It is quite fast. When will this service start? I like to try it for real!
Reply: Tentatively, it will start from 1 August with 300 real taxis (i.e. not a simulation).
Mr Tan,
Its a great system. I have one concern though.
I may not know the postal code of the location that I am in.
If I am at Lim Chu Kang near the Police Academy, I would not know the postal code.
I am along River valley road near Delta Sports Complex.. I do not know the postal code.
Hope there is a solution to this.
Otherwise I have to ask people or remember postal codes.. other people may not give reliable information. How about bus stop numbers?
Reply: You can ask someone to tell you the postal code of the place that you are at. If they live or work there, they can tell you. It is also on their businss card.
If you have a Starhub mobilephone, you do not need to send the postal code. I am now working with M1 to offer this same facility to their customers. I am also willing to work with Singtel, if they are interseted.
Later, I will work with the apps provider to allow a request to be sent by a smart phone with GPS factility. There is no need to send the postal code.
Your suggestion of bus stop number is Excellent. I will build it into the TABS system.
Hi..
Just tried it a while ago. The SMS reply is very fast, within 30 seconds. Impressive ! It will definitely save us a lots of time comparing present way of booking via telephone. Why can't the rest of us think of this cheap, better and faster way ....
Hi
Great idea! If the taxi drivers can register directly with your company, it will bypass the booking systems of the various taxi companies, thereby lower booking fees, it has a potential good business model.
Jimmy Ng said...
Nice idea and hopefully that we don't have to face those rediculous taxi surcharges for using this sytem.
In HK, were it is a lot more crowded and has a lower taxis per capita, I get a 15-20% for calling taxi. Only thing to this is that the fare has to be above HK$50 / S$8.
Hi
I have tried it, its fantastic.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Pays of CEOs
Hi Mr. Tan,
Here's an article from BusinessWeek that you might be interested in:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_28/b4186014341924.htm
It speaks about the salary disparity between CEOs in Japan vs. other developed countries.
JD
Hi Mr. Tan,
What is weird about this statistic is that Japan is known to have relatively high entry and mid-level salaries. If they have a much lower high-end salaries, it means that the ratio of lowest-to-highest salary will be very low. Of course, there are many other factors to consider (low supply of manpower, high cost of living, etc.) but they apply both ways.
JD
Here's an article from BusinessWeek that you might be interested in:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_28/b4186014341924.htm
It speaks about the salary disparity between CEOs in Japan vs. other developed countries.
JD
Hi Mr. Tan,
What is weird about this statistic is that Japan is known to have relatively high entry and mid-level salaries. If they have a much lower high-end salaries, it means that the ratio of lowest-to-highest salary will be very low. Of course, there are many other factors to consider (low supply of manpower, high cost of living, etc.) but they apply both ways.
JD
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Space in MRT trains
Hi Mr. Tan
Recently there is a debate going on whether the SMRT trains in Singapore are overly crowded or not. The SMRT doesn't think very much of it as evidenced in their CEO's untactful remarks, whilst practically everyone blogging on the internet curse and swear at how bad the situation had become.
Looking at the case again, I just discovered that everything hinges on a statistic which is provided by SMRT Quote:...This averages 3.8 passengers per sq m, lower than that of major cities like London..... Unquote.
So 3.8 passengere per sq m is the agreed benchmark. I have no problem with that. But look at the word AVERAGE. Therein lies the solution to the puzzle. It's not about the number 3.8 neither is it about the techie word crushload. It's about AVERAGE.
AVERAGE is a very dangerous concept if not properly managed. If the annual salary of the PM is $3 million and the annual salary of the rest of the 9 ordinary workers in the PMO (PrimeMinister's Office) is $50,000 then mathematically the average annual salary of the people in the PMO is $305,000 per person? In statistical theory there are median, and mode, standard deviation, etc to refine the imperfect concept of averaging. In the real world, we also need to know more about the model used for "averaging".
How does SMRT calculate its AVERAGE crush load? Is it over time average between peak period and non peak period per station basis? How many stations are selected? Which are the stations selected for the averaging? Are newer stations which have lower load factor bundled together for averaging?
Statistics is a powerful tool which can often lead to wrong conclusions. Sometimes it is so powerful that it can be used as a tool to make one feel complacent and look good. And those who ignore the possibly distorted conclusions might be told to make other choices because the sysem is just doing fine - on "average".
rex
Recently there is a debate going on whether the SMRT trains in Singapore are overly crowded or not. The SMRT doesn't think very much of it as evidenced in their CEO's untactful remarks, whilst practically everyone blogging on the internet curse and swear at how bad the situation had become.
Looking at the case again, I just discovered that everything hinges on a statistic which is provided by SMRT Quote:...This averages 3.8 passengers per sq m, lower than that of major cities like London..... Unquote.
So 3.8 passengere per sq m is the agreed benchmark. I have no problem with that. But look at the word AVERAGE. Therein lies the solution to the puzzle. It's not about the number 3.8 neither is it about the techie word crushload. It's about AVERAGE.
AVERAGE is a very dangerous concept if not properly managed. If the annual salary of the PM is $3 million and the annual salary of the rest of the 9 ordinary workers in the PMO (PrimeMinister's Office) is $50,000 then mathematically the average annual salary of the people in the PMO is $305,000 per person? In statistical theory there are median, and mode, standard deviation, etc to refine the imperfect concept of averaging. In the real world, we also need to know more about the model used for "averaging".
How does SMRT calculate its AVERAGE crush load? Is it over time average between peak period and non peak period per station basis? How many stations are selected? Which are the stations selected for the averaging? Are newer stations which have lower load factor bundled together for averaging?
Statistics is a powerful tool which can often lead to wrong conclusions. Sometimes it is so powerful that it can be used as a tool to make one feel complacent and look good. And those who ignore the possibly distorted conclusions might be told to make other choices because the sysem is just doing fine - on "average".
rex
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