Yesterday I had a conversation with a cab driver about his GPS. It was interesting to get an opinion from a heavy user. His unit was a new one, about 6 months old.
When I worked as a cab driver (prior to the invention of GPS) it would have helped in fleet management and monitoring, but not in route finding.
I worked that job long enough to get reasonably good at it, but my priorities were maintaining a high cruise speed with paying passengers on board and reducing empty time. It's basically a cargo operation a lot like an airline, with associated overhead costs (fuel, insurance, maintenance, etc).
The biggest surprise was his observation that the GPS was terrible at finding the shortest or fastest routes. The GPS tended to route via major highways even if the route was roundabout. He mentioned that he had heard the same complaint from other drivers.
It's in the maps and algorithms. The above average experienced cab driver working with a good dispatcher in a given area of operation will be far more efficient unless the GPS is combined in a command, control, and communications model that leverages its benefits. That translates from a mangement perspective to deploying your assets effectively. ABC cab company wants to put its cars in front of the customer faster than XYZ cab company. GPS is just a tool, unless it's used effectively it's just a bell and whistle accessory.
His favorite feature was the traffic congestion information with routes marked in red or green. This was from two sources. Information from a traffic service displayed with a dotted line. The better information is displayed with a solid line. It is obtained by tracking the progress of other GPS users in the area.
I think I would have benefitted from that. It sucks to be trapped in traffic because some unforseen event occurred. The passengers don't like it. Luckily I had professional dispatchers a radio call away to help route me around trouble spots. And after a while I knew the territory like the back of my hand. I didn't work there long enough to become a real pro, but I could appreciate what the real pros could do with the tools they had. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
