Nakhonchai Air to expand its IT system to taxis
More than 10,000 cars to be lInked vIa central command, generatIng Bt3,000 daIly
After introducing information technology in its interprovincial bus business, Nakhonchai Air is now repeating that feat in its new All Thai Taxi service with the aim of running 10,000 taxis in the future, each generating sales of Bt3,000 per day.
“IT is the key success factor for our business. We set IT investment as one of the priorities,” Kruawan Wongrukmit, chief executive officer of Nakhonchai Air and All Thai Taxi, said.
“All buses and taxis will be embedded with technology and linked to command centres. Passengers will get convenient and safe service when travelling with us,” she said.
The concept of All Thai Taxi is to deploy 500 hybrid cars that come with a control unit, GPS, Wi-Fi, closed-circuit TV both inside and outside the vehicle, tablet and printer.
The control unit will act as a black box collecting all driving information such as speed, location and route, while the GPS will let the vehicle be tracked.
The system will give passengers more choices of payment besides cash – debit or cash card, and credit card. It will also print a receipt for the passenger.
The company spent Bt700 million to prepare 500 cabs for this year and to set up the management system at the taxi command centre located with the bus command centre at headquarters. The service will be launched next month.
It plans to release an app to allow passengers to easily hail a taxi, track their trip in real-time and share their location with friends and family.
It has partnered with Kasikornbank to provide mobile banking by the launch date for passengers to pay their fare.
“Passengers will have more choices to get a taxi, via the 1624 call centre, mobile app and website, besides getting a taxi at the roadside.
“Initially, we will recruit and train 1,200 more drivers for 500 taxis to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” she said.
All Thai Taxi is an extension of the company’s bus service. It will copy the successful model of the bus business and the same service standard.
Nakhonchai Air is well known as the premium bus service in the country. A decade ago, it became the first to allow passengers to buy tickets online.
It has been adding technology to its bus services to increase passenger satisfaction and safety.
In its bus fleet, 350 coaches are equipped with the control unit, GPS and CCTV, and some have Wi-Fi. All buses are always monitored since all vehicles are connected to the bus command centre at headquarters.
She said Nakhonchai Air aims to increase its revenue this year by 5 per cent to Bt1.7 billion.
“Normally, we spend Bt5 million annually on IT. This year, besides having the taxi service, we also added three more bus routes,” she said.
The company plans to go paperless in both ticketing and internal operations in two years. Now, it is less than 5 per cent ticketless. Tickets will be available but it plans to provide a ticketless system in order to reduce paper while increasing convenience for passengers.
