Bid Taxi Business Operations Analysis

This assignment examines the business operations of Bid Taxi, a unique cab service with a bidding system for passengers. It outlines key processes like booking, dispatch, maintenance, and accounting, highlighting the use of information systems in their operations. The document also includes a literature review with recommendations for improving GPS accuracy, driver training, and passenger safety.

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Question 1: Report outlining business operation for Bid Taxi to the Ministry of Public
Transportation.
In this modern era, advancement in public transport is a critical part of nation’s
economic success. Advancement in this sector is necessary to address growing environmental
concerns ("Public Transportation Benefits", 2018). Bid Taxi will fully comply with the
existing environmental laws in the country and work for a cleaner and greener environment.
Bid Taxi is a unique cab service that comes in two formats. The first format is for passengers
and the second one is for the drivers. Business operation of Bid Taxi is flexible and thus
makes the whole system more efficient. Application of Bid Taxi uses information systems
such as MIS (Management information system), TPS (Transportation Processing system) and
DSS (Decision Support system) (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). Business operations are as
follows:
Booking:
Bid Taxi offers a unique bidding service for the riders. It does not work on the rates
that are pre-fixed based on distance and time. In the application that caters specifically to
customers, customers have to state the starting and ending point, number of co-passengers
and time (Shen et al., 2015). This information is then broadcasted to drivers. Within a period
of 10 minutes, drivers will have to bid for pick up. Customers will be able to see the
responses in real time. Once the customer selects a response, estimated cost will be frozen.
Dispatch:
Dispatch operation of Bid Taxi is unique and includes maximum allowance time. This
is a specific feature and is enabled for the sole purpose of ensuring satisfaction for the

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customers. The taxi must reach the customer’s location within the specified limit or else the
customer becomes eligible for compensation.
Maintenance:
Bid Taxi application receives tons of data such as personal information and
credit/debit card transactions. Bid Taxi utilizes specialized software to handle customer data.
Bid Taxi utilizes command software, which makes the system more robust and reliable. Data
is safely stored in a secured server. This helps Bid Taxi to maintain its reputation.
Accounting:
This business operation of Bid Taxi utilizes automatic accounting system. This part is
mainly responsible for handling client/driver invoice management system, scanned
documents for driver and client invoicing. This operation will bring more transparency in the
system since it displays driver related information to the passenger. In fact, this feature will
help in bringing more customers (Reim, Parida & Örtqvist, 2015).
Literature review with recommendation:
There is a need to bring some improvement in the GPS used by Bid Taxi. It is
necessary to maintain the accuracy the rider’s pickup location. Placing the correct name of a
building in a map will ease the situation (Martinez, Correia & Viegas, 2015). It is very
common for the driver to end up on wrong side of the road or in a wrong building. There are
times when the customer cannot contact the driver and in that kind of situation, driver can use
location tracking for the customer’s phone. The company can also invest in some sort of
proximity sensor. There are also instances when a driver misbehaves with passengers. An
improvement course on quality can be introduced for drivers, which will teach the driver on
how to get a good rating from passengers.

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Question 2: Suggestions to improve business operations of Bid Taxi.
The first suggestion would be to make the drivers more learned on how to remove
distractions. Distractions are a major cause of accident in every nation. Sometimes, the
drivers can get distracted easily for the constant ring on the phone or from the voice
instruction from the navigation ("Three Types of Driving Distractions | DMV.ORG", 2018).
Therefore, it has become an integral part of every cab service to remove distractions. Cab
services can introduce a safety course so that a driver while driving has to adhere to a specific
set of rules. It is imperative that the drivers are trained on basic operations of a car,
maintenance and things to do in an emergency such as breakdown of a car. Additionally,
while the training is in progress the company needs to make sure that the drivers are being
provided with proper guidelines. Proper training will ensure the safety and security of
customers and this will further ensure that the reputation of the company is being maintained.
The second suggestion that can be given is that drivers can get tips from senior skilled
drivers. Any skill can be honed to perfection. Suggestions from experienced or senior drivers
will help new drivers to provide best service to the customers. Additionally, experienced
drivers are well acquainted with rules and regulation and thus new drivers can get a clear
view of existing rules if they consult an experienced driver. A new driver will benefit
immensely if he/she can learn certain skills for senior drivers. A new driver will always get
up to date information if he/she is in regular touch with an experienced driver.

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References:
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2016). Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
Martinez, L. M., Correia, G. H., & Viegas, J. M. (2015). An agent‐based simulation model to
assess the impacts of introducing a shared‐taxi system: an application to Lisbon
(Portugal). Journal of Advanced Transportation, 49(3), 475-495.
Public Transportation Benefits. (2018). Apta.com. Retrieved 9 April 2018, from
http://www.apta.com/mediacenter/ptbenefits/Pages/default.aspx
Reim, W., Parida, V., & Örtqvist, D. (2015). Product–Service Systems (PSS) business
models and tactics–a systematic literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 97,
61-75.
Shen, J., Qiu, F., Li, W., & Feng, P. (2015). Exploring the Effect of the Telephone/Online
Booking System on Taxi Service: Case Study of Suzhou City in China. In CICTP
2015(pp. 1201-1212).
Three Types of Driving Distractions | DMV.ORG. (2018). DMV.ORG. Retrieved 9 April
2018, from https://www.dmv.org/distracted-driving/three-types-of-distractions.php