Taxi Booking System

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Hi all, this is kind of a cross between software and networking.

My brother in law owns a taxi firm and has 24 cars on the rank, if he was to go over 25 cars he would have to be VAT registered, about 3 weeks ago he bought another taxi firm that has 3 or 4 cars on the rank which takes him over the 25 car limit. Now, according to his accountant, if he shares the cars out between the 2 sites then the tax man will class each rank as having less than 25 cars and he gets round the VAT registration issue, thats fine, not a problem, however, he phoned me last night and asked if it would be possible to have a computer at each site that will enable them to update bookings etc so that each site can see who is doing which pickup, basically so that the work load is shared across the 2 sites, both sites can input jobs/bookings and either site can send a car depending on who is closest/free at that particular time and the other site can see which car is doing the jobs etc.

He is looking for a piece of software that will sit on a server and the machines at each of the sites connects to it.

If anyone knows of any software that would do this that would be a help but the main thing i need to know is what would be the cheapest way to set this up?............He has asked me to talk with a couple of sleeping partners the next time they get together about this so I could do with a few different senarios.

thanks

 

thanks AJ, thats what I was thinking but I too have never setup a VPN so anyone who could give me some advice will get some expert points

 

By the way, this has to be a system that is easy to use for the staff as none of them have much computer knowledge so a system that can just be switched on click on an icon and off you go would be great

 

We use a piece of software for booking learners in that is called Easy Resource Planner and has been made by a guy called John Buckley. Not sure if this would work for what you have described but maybe you could contact him and see ([email protected]) - he lives in America I think but is always very responsive to us and we bought this 3 years ago.

http://www.patrena.com/planner.htm

 

Thanks for that Rosy, I have sent him an email with a few details so hopefully he will get back to me soon

Thanks again

 

No probs Nelix - just hope that he can help you

 

Well I emailed him and he responded REALLY quickly, unfortunately he said that the software is not multi-user but is thinking of makeing it that way in a future release, thanks anyway.

Anyone else got any ideas

 

I asked a similar question a while back Neilx, in the end they went for http://www.taxi-pro.com/ not seen or used it as only posted the question here as a favour.

HTH

 

Must have missed that one Si, that anyway.

I have taken a look at the software and downloaded the Evaluation copy to show them, I will let you know how I get on.

But the way, if anyone has any documentation or Links (Que Trip) on how a VPN works and how to set one up I would be eternally greatful.

 

They do not have any computers at the moment so I would be responsible for selecting machines and OS for them, I will by recommending Win2000.

 

Thanks alot mate, I have downloaded it and will read it tonight when i get home

 

Derek,

I know of one piece of Taxi Software, have a look at it here. As for VPN's, if you will have more than one PC on each site I would consider brodband routers with the capability built in so that the vpn is established between the routers. I've used sonicwall's like this before but I'm sure most other broadband routers will provide some vpn capability as well.