Taxi Equipment

There is certain basic equipment that taxis require before being able to drive as a working taxi. There are a few basic pieces of equipment that would make the taxi drivers life more difficult if he were not to have most of these items are listed below:

• The meter - If the taxi driver were not to have one it would make it difficult for them to judge the correct amount to charge for a certain distance travelled and the customer would also feel uncomfortable as they would not be able to see how much it will cost them. They were first developed in 1891 by a German inventor and have since been developed and have increased the ease of the job for taxi drivers.
• Two way radios - These are most common in taxi firms with a office where people phone in for a taxi to collect them. Once the person has booked the taxi the operator in the office will then look on the system to see where the nearest taxi driver is to where the person needs picking up. They will then call the person over there radio system and give them the details of the job. These have helped the taxi drivers as they don�t need to go back to the office to find out their next job.
• Top light - Different taxi firms tend to have different coloured or shaped top lights to other companies. The top lights main purpose is for the benefit of the customer as if it is turned on it lets the customer know that taxi is unavailable where as if it is turned off you can hail it down. They are also beneficial to the driver in the way that they help customers realise they are available so creating business for them they may not have got other wise.

As well as these basic pieces of equipment many taxi driver are using more technology in their taxis to make their lives easier such as:

• Navigation systems - There are different types of these systems most of them are GPS (Global Position System) they help the taxi driver find their way around an area they may not be too familiar with. There are so many on the market today it is advised that you look at the reviews of different brands, you can find many of these reviews on the internet.
• Computer communication system - These systems are helpful to the taxi drivers because they arrange different buttons to correspond as different locations so instead of calling in they simply have to press the button for the location they are passing through at that time and it informs the operator on where they are. Also different jobs come up on the screen so if a taxi driver is sent a job through the system he can either accept or reject it.

Due to technology with in car electrical products developing all the time the equipment going into taxis is always improving. For more information on specific products for taxis there are plenty of places online with information, reviews and price comparisons.