Improving Bid Taxi Services: Recommendations for Ministry of Public Transportation

This report provides an overview of the business operation of Bid Taxi and recommendations for improving the services offered by the Ministry of Public Transportation. The report suggests incorporating a drivers’ training program and implementing a safety management system to improve customer base.

Running head: IT MANAGEMENT ISSUE
IT Management Issue
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
IT MANAGEMENT ISSUE
Table of Contents
Answer 1..............................................................................................................................2
1.1. Introduction...............................................................................................................2
1.2. Overview of the Business Operation........................................................................2
1.3. Recommendations.....................................................................................................4
1.4. Conclusion................................................................................................................6
Answer 2..............................................................................................................................6
References............................................................................................................................8

2
IT MANAGEMENT ISSUE
Answer 1
1.1. Introduction
Bid Taxi is a taxi service that is managed by the Ministry of public Transportation. Bid
taxi improves the ride sharing services by enabling the passenger in choosing the services with
the lowest bid. Rather than a pre fixed rates which are based on the distance and time, Bid taxi
makes use of the bidding services for rides. In this system, a passenger at first needs to specify
the beginning and the end point of the journey along with the time for pick up and number of
passengers. This information is broadcasted to all the available drivers, who in turn bid for the
service. The driver with the lowest bid is generally selected for the ride. The estimated cost that
is provided to the customer is based on the route, distance, toll cost and the estimated time for the
journey. The response of the drivers can be tracked by the passengers in real time basis and once
the customer selects a bid, the cost is locked in. The payment for the services offered will only be
released to the driver provider after the end of the journey (Bai, Atkin & Kendall, 2014).
Locating a taxi, passenger or its driver will be easy as the entire journey will be tracked. The
report gives an overview of the business operation and provides certain recommendation for
improving the business.
1.2. Overview of the Business Operation
With the Bid Taxi services, the Ministry of Public Transportation has developed a web
and mobile platform for booking a taxi. This is done with an aim of improving the ride sharing
services and replacing the existing taxi booking services which are mainly based on some pre
fixed rate. In order to achieve the goal of providing an on demand taxi service to the clients,
Ministry of public transportation has designed their business operation in such a way that it will

3
IT MANAGEMENT ISSUE
deliver maximum profit. The overview of the business operation of Ministry of Public
Transportation is discussed in the following section-
1. Bid Taxi boards on the certified drivers in service. The vehicle is checked thoroughly
for the worthiness and whether then insurance is paid for the vehicle. This is an important
business operation to gain the customers’ trust in the service as the including only the certified
drivers will infuse a sense of security in using the Bid taxi services.
2. One of the major implications of this service is that, taxi can be booked with the help
of a mobile application. Majority of the people now a day has an access to the Smartphone and
therefore, it is very easy for the passengers to book the taxi services. Furthermore, the people
who do not have an access to smartphone can use the website of Bid Taxi in making a booking
for a ride. One of the intelligent business implication undertaken by the Ministry of Public
Transportation is to enable a star rating system where both the passengers and the drivers can
rate the services received and the services provides respectively. The star rating system will
appear both to the customer and the drivers against their verified IDs.
Another intelligent business operation undertaken by the Ministry of Public
Transportation is to ensure a safe and secure option of payment. Passengers can make a payment
for the services availed by Bid Taxi with the help of their credit or debit cards. The passengers
can make use of Osko, which is one of the mostly used payment application. The Osko payment
will be held in the Bid Taxi office. The passenger who does not have access to any of this
payment method can purchase the gift cards from supermarkets for making the payment.
Providing the customers with an easy option of payment encourage more passengers in availing
the Bid taxi services (Weng et al., 2017).

4
IT MANAGEMENT ISSUE
In order to target a wide range of passengers and encourage the service loyalty, every
customer is given a status point at the end of his/ her journey. This status point can be put to use
as a discount to the future trips, can be given as tips to the drivers and can be donated for charity
as well. This is an intelligent business strategy as well as it will engage more passengers with the
system. This service will therefore not only enable the passengers in sharing a taxi in much lower
price but also will provide them a cause for engaging with the service more often (Lucas & Lau,
2012). This is very beneficial for the Ministry of Public Transportation in business point of view
as well.
Not only the customers, the driver providers of the bid taxi services are also rewarded for
the services they are offering to the customers. The driver providers who complete a set target of
time and distance will be generally rewarded with some fuel discounts and the gift cards offered
by the company. This will encourage more driver providers in engaging with the services offered
by Bid Taxi (Maciejewski, 2014). This is a major business operation of ministry of public health
in flourishing the business of bid taxi. More driver provider is expected to the engage with the
Bid Taxi services in order to obtain the rewards.
The bid taxi services have therefore planned an excellent business operation targeting the
people who have an access to internet. The Bid taxi services will provide a hassle free service to
the passengers (Seesan, Rungkasiri & Cooharojananone, 2012). However, the business operation
of Bid taxi can be improved by bringing certain changes or by improvising certain business
operation.
1.3. Recommendations

5
IT MANAGEMENT ISSUE
The recommendation for improving the services offered by Bid Taxi and Ministry of
Public Transportation are as follows (Wang, Ng & Chen, 2012)-
1. The star rating system can be improved by setting up a feedback system as well where
the passengers will be allowed to provide a feedback about their ride. This can helps in
redesigning the services offered by Bid Taxi. Along with the feedback system, the presence of a
24*7 customer service is also essential. This is help the customer is solving their queries anytime
anywhere. ‘
2. The bidding time, which is 10 minutes for the current system can be considerably
reduce in order to incorporate passengers who have an emergency on board as well. Furthermore,
presence of a system for pre booking and pre scheduling a ride can be an important consideration
as well (Chen, 2014). The free booking services can be provided free for regular customers,
which will considerably increase the customers’ engagement with the services. This is a major
modification that the business operation can undertake in order to enhance the services offered
by the Ministry of Public transportation (Wang, Cheu & Lee, 2014).
3. Currently the Bid Taxi offers services for a short distance or a ride around the city.
One of the major changes in the business operation of bid taxi can be incorporating the services
of providing taxi for small tours in rent (Pueboobpaphan, Indra-Payoong & Pueboobpaphan,
2018). This will not only improve the business opportunity for the organization but will also
provide an efficient way to the passengers in booking services for a long journey. This system
can work in a similar way the operation of Bid Taxi is proposed. The passengers will have to
provide the details of the destination, number of days for the tours, pick up point and the number
of days for the tour (Lee & Wu, 2013). The passenger will then get the estimated cost of the

6
IT MANAGEMENT ISSUE
journey after which they can pre book a service. This is therefore a possible addition to the
already existing business operation of Bid Taxi in association with the Ministry of Public
Transportation.
1.4. Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the Bid Taxi is capable of
revolutionizing the way of booking and sharing a taxi. The report gives an overview of the
services offered by the Bid taxi and its operation. Bid Taxi provides a hassle free option of
booking and availing a taxi across the country. The aim of Bid taxi is to improve the ride sharing
service. The drivers bid for a particular service on basis of the information provided by the
customers, so that the customer can choose from the available bids. The services of Bid Taxi can
be accessed by a mobile application or from its website. This provides an option of easy booking
of the services thus improving the way of providing taxi services to the passengers. The report
recommends certain changes in the operation of Bid Taxi which is expected to improve the
services provided by Bid taxi.
Answer 2
Bid Taxi improves the ride sharing services by providing an option to the passenger to
book a taxi service online. The Ministry of Public Transportation has developed an efficient
business operation for providing a hassle free service to the passengers. A customer can book for
Taxi through a mobile application thus making the process of taxi booking and waiting for a cab
even easier. However, the services offered by the Bid Taxi can be improved by bringing certain
changes in its operation. The two suggestions for improving the business service of Bid Taxi are
as follows (Agussurja & Lau, 2012)-

7
IT MANAGEMENT ISSUE
1. With the growing size of the business, the Ministry of Public Transportation should
incorporate a drivers’ training program for the people who will choose to engage with the
services offered by Bid Taxi. This will be advantageous from the business point of view as well.
Since the driver who will be trained by the Ministry of Public Transportation will get a job
opportunity, it is expected that more people would like to engage for this service. Furthermore,
use of trained drivers for the service will increase the trust of the customers on the services
offered by Bid Taxi, thus involving more customers to engage with the services. Furthermore,
the drivers who are receiving training from the Ministry of Public Transportation will have more
job opportunities in future. Therefore, it is one recommendation for improving the business
operation of the Ministry of Public Transportation.
2. Customers’ safety should be one of the major considerations in providing the
transportation services. Although the whole journey from pick up to drop will be tracked, there
should be an option for the passenger to abort the ride if they need to (Inquiry, 2012). This is
therefore another recommendation for improving the business operation of Bid taxi. The
customer should be given an option for aborting the services if they sense or face any sort of
discomfort in the journey. The abort option should be present in the application. Customer’s
safety is a very important issue that is needed to be considered. Therefore it is recommended for
Bid Taxi to implement a safety management system in their operation in order to improve the
customer base of the Bid taxi services.
These are the major two recommendations for the Bid Taxi services that are capable of
bringing a change in the major business operation of Bid Taxi.

8
IT MANAGEMENT ISSUE
References
Agussurja, L., & Lau, H. C. (2012). Toward large-scale agent guidance in an urban taxi
service. arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.4849.
Bai, R., Li, J., Atkin, J. A., & Kendall, G. (2014). A novel approach to independent taxi
scheduling problem based on stable matching. Journal of the Operational Research
Society, 65(10), 1501-1510.
Chen, W. (2014). Technical improvements on mobile app based taxi dispatching system.
In International Conference on Computer Science and Service System (pp. 281-284).
Inquiry, T. I. (2012). Customers first: service, safety, choice. Draft Report.
Lee, D. H., & Wu, X. (2013). Dispatching strategies for the taxi-customer searching problem
in the booking taxi service. In Proceedings of the Transportation Research Board
92nd Annual Meeting.
LUCAS, A., & LAU, H. C. (2012). Toward large-scale agent guidance in an urban taxi
service.
Maciejewski, M. (2014). Benchmarking minimum passenger waiting time in online taxi
dispatching with exact offline optimization methods. Archives of Transport, 30.
Pueboobpaphan, S., Indra-Payoong, N., & Pueboobpaphan, R. (2018). Information Effect in
Taxi Service Double Auction with Opportunity Cost: An Experimental
Analysis. Engineering Journal (Eng. J.), 22(1), 77-91.

9
IT MANAGEMENT ISSUE
Seesan, R., Rungkasiri, T., & Cooharojananone, N. (2012). Taxi Friend: Innovation
Application For Taxi Passenger.
Wang, C., Ng, W. K., & Chen, H. (2012, July). From data to knowledge to action: A taxi
business intelligence system. In Information Fusion (FUSION), 2012 15th
International Conference on (pp. 1623-1628). IEEE.
Wang, H., Cheu, R. L., & Lee, D. H. (2014). Intelligent taxi dispatch system for advance
reservations. Journal of Public Transportation, 17(3), 8.
Weng, G. S., Zailani, S., Iranmanesh, M., & Hyun, S. S. (2017). Mobile taxi booking
application service’s continuance usage intention by users. Transportation Research
Part D: Transport and Environment, 57, 207-216.