With Taxibank, you can place orders in 4 ways:

• Online
• By e-mail
• By phone
• By fax

When a booking or quotation request is received, it`s placed in a job queue based on priority. Factors that affect the time it takes to place a job include requested pick up time, any special requirements, the location of the pick up, and the number of passengers.

A member of the Taxibank booking team then checks that the correct client information is available, and proceeds to book the journey. If any information is incomplete, he or she will contact the client.

Client Account
The booker will record who has ordered the journey, their contact telephone number, and any cost centre or job reference where applicable.

Cost centres and job references can be either mandatory or optional, depending on the account. The benefit of using them is that costs can be tracked extremely accurately, since invoices are prepared for each cost centre or account. They also help minimise misuse. To save time, cost centre or job reference can be a look-up against a pre-loaded list.

Passenger Details
Next, the booker will check and enter details of any passengers. The lead passenger`s contact details are taken, as are the names of any other passengers. This allows regular passenger details to be accessed at a later date when similar journeys are required.

Special Requirements
The booker then enters any special requirements for the journey. Clients can request the type of car they`d like to travel in, whether they`d like to be met at their destination, if they`d like the vehicle to have provision for a wheelchair, and so on.

These instructions are passed on as part of the confirmation message.

Route details
The booker then enters the pick-up location, any stopping points, and the drop-off location of the final passenger.

The system is able to identify regular users and bookings, agreed fixed price journeys, block bookings and preferred operators. These can be accessed by selecting from a list of regular locations or by entering a postcode, town, city or street.

Once the journey details have been confirmed, an order is generated. Copies of the order are sent via fax or e-mail to both the client and taxi operator, as confirmation.

Once a journey is completed, the taxi operator has 24 hours to inform Taxibank of any amendments to the journey cost. For example for any waiting time or parking expenses incurred.