Who we are
A&B Taxis' journey to becoming the best taxi service in Basildon over the past 40 years can likely be attributed to several key factors:
1. Customer Service: A&B Taxis has probably prioritized excellent customer service, ensuring that passengers have a pleasant and reliable experience. This includes friendly drivers, punctuality, and responsiveness to customer needs.
2. Experienced Drivers: Hiring and retaining experienced and professional drivers can enhance the overall service quality. A team that knows the local area well can navigate efficiently and provide valuable insights to customers.
3. Innovation and Technology: Implementing modern technology, such as an easy-to-use app for bookings and real-time tracking of taxis, can significantly improve customer experience. This ensures convenience and transparency.
4. Fleet Quality: Maintaining a diverse and well-maintained fleet of vehicles can cater to various customer preferences and needs, from standard taxis to larger vehicles for group travel.
5. Community Engagement: Being active in the local community, supporting events, and engaging with residents can build a strong brand reputation and loyalty among customers.
6. Safety Standards: Ensuring high safety standards for both drivers and customers can build trust. This includes proper vehicle maintenance, background checks for drivers, and following health protocols.
7. Feedback and Improvement: Regularly seeking feedback from customers and using it to improve services shows a commitment to quality and responsiveness to customer expectations.
8. Competitive Pricing: Offering fair and transparent pricing can attract and retain customers, ensuring that they choose A&B Taxis over competitors.
Through a combination of these strategies, A&B Taxis likely established itself as the go-to taxi service in Basildon, earning a strong reputation with all its regular clients..
A REVOLUTIONARY APP AT YOUR SERVICE
24hrs a day , 7 days a week,
365 days a year.
We are always on the move in Basildon to help you reach your destination on time..
150 +
Highly maintained vehicles with professional drivers.
A&B Taxis can provide you with a fast, friendly and reliable taxi & private hire service
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year.
Explore the different services we can offer, from executive vehicles to specialist airport transfers and courier service. Our promise is to provide all our services by the highest standards and always hassle-free, customer satisfaction is at the heart of our business.
A&B Taxis implemented the Sherlock Taxi Management System (developed by Haulmont Technology) in August 2021 to fully automate and modernise our end-to-end fleet operations across Basildon and South Essex.
The transition replaced legacy dispatch setups with an enterprise-grade platform tailored for high-volume local, corporate, and airport transfer work.
Key Operational Highlights of the Sherlock System
Sherlocks auto-allocation: Uses intelligent dispatch algorithms (built on the core logic behind Addison Lee’s dispatch engine) to automate job assignments based on driver position, efficiency, and dead mileage reduction.
Dedicated White-Label Passenger App: A&B Taxis launched a branded iOS/Android mobile app that gives passengers instant quotes, live GPS vehicle tracking, pre-booking options, and multiple payment methods (card, cash, corporate account).
Seamless Multi-Channel Booking: Integrates bookings coming through phone/IVR, the passenger app, web portals, and corporate accounts into a single automated dispatch pool, maintaining uniform ETAs across all channels.
Driver App & Workload Autonomy: Provides drivers with a dedicated mobile app to manage job acceptance, view real-time earnings/statements, bid on upcoming shifts, and navigate routes.
Automated Corporate & Account Management: Simplifies back-office administrative tasks by streamlining client invoicing, custom travel policy rules, and automated job reporting for local corporate clients.
Sherlock taxi dispatch and management software
A&B Taxis: Scaling Efficiency and Solving Decades-Old Dispatch Challenges with Sherlock
The Vision
Since 1998, Managing Director Gary and the A&B Taxis team have grown their operation from a local taxi firm into a major fleet of 180 vehicles through strategic acquisitions and a commitment to modern technology. To support continuous growth, performance, and long-term profitability, A&B needed a dispatch engine capable of matching their scale and operational vision.
The Search for True Advanced Dispatch
Having relied on a long-standing legacy system for many years, Gary actively evaluated the market for a platform that could deliver higher levels of automation. After touring Addison Lee’s head office and seeing the sophisticated dispatch algorithms behind their bespoke setup, Gary recognized that Sherlock Taxi offered the exact same caliber of advanced configuration.
With no other software on the market providing the same level of automated efficiency, A&B made the strategic decision to move to Sherlock.
Navigating Post-Lockdown Demand & Driver Shortages
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, A&B anticipated two major shifts once restrictions lifted: a surge in pent-up customer demand coupled with an industry-wide shortage of drivers. To capture market demand without compromising service standards, A&B needed a system that could maximize driver efficiency through automation. Sherlock provided the operational backbone required to manage peak demand seamlessly.
Co-Innovating the Solution: "Supermarket Logic"
For over two decades, Gary had searched for a software provider that could solve a specific high-volume operational challenge: managing busy pick-up points such as train stations, venues, and supermarkets.
In high-density locations, legacy systems often fail to ensure customers are picked up in the exact order they booked. After discussing the requirement with Sherlock’s engineering team, Sherlock collaborated with A&B to scope, build, and deploy custom "Supermarket Logic" directly into the dispatch engine.
"I’ve wanted the supermarket logic feature for 24 years and every provider has told me that what I wanted wouldn’t be possible, but Sherlock developed it, implemented it, and it works exactly how I want it to. I think it is one of the single biggest changes in dispatch logic for the past 20 years."
— Gary, Managing Director, A&B Taxis