TaxiCaller Newsletter - July 2015
Update regarding SIP softphone
As some of you might have seen, there's been a popup message appearing when you log in to the TaxiCaller dispatch console when using Google Chrome, saying “This site uses a plugin (Java (TM)) that will soon be unsupported”.
The warning only appears for users using Google Chrome, but not when using Mozilla Firefox.
We're working on an update to the softphone which will make it run outside of the web browser as a stand alone program. It will still be connected to the system and will continue to be operated from within the web-based dispatch console, but the application will run separately, outside of the web browser.
We will be giving more information about this closer to the release of it, but we're currently aiming at releasing this update in the middle of August.
More details regarding the issue with NPAPI and Java can be found here below.
Short explanation: Google has decided to soon stop the support for the type of plugins in Google Chrome that the TaxiCaller softphone relies on. Because of this we will release a new version of the softphone which will run outside of Google Chrome as a stand alone application.
Detailed explanation: Google recently announced that they will soon stop the support for the plugin architecture NPAPI, which the Java plugin relies on. Since our softphone runs as a Java applet in the web browser, it relies on Java plugins being functional.
Because of this, we will be releasing a softphone that runs as a separate Java application, outside of the web browser. It will still be connected to the system and operated from within the TaxiCaller dispatch console.
Recent releases
We have recently added some new features to the system, primarily regarding the payment options. We'll go over each of these here below to give you more information.
- Payment options
A whole new set of options related to specifying payments has been added. This development is done with the idea to create a more complete system.
The features added allows your drivers to specify which payment method was used for charging the passenger for the ride. The driver's selection is then saved on the job and allows you to run reports on jobs and filter them based on payment methods (e.g. only cash jobs).
There are currently five different payment options available:
– Cash
– Credit card (card present-payments)
– Account
– In-app payment (card not present-payments)
– Not settled
Cash
This option suggests that the passenger paid with cash. This is the default method used unless the driver is given options to select a different method (configured in the admin panel), or if the job is an account job. This option also comes up as a selectable option on all types of jobs if it has been enabled in the admin panel.
Credit card
This option suggests that the passenger paid with a credit card. The option is only available for the driver to choose as payment method if it's enabled in the admin panel, if the card preset payment provider SumUp has been configured on your account and the car has been setup to have a cardreader installed in the vehicle (option found in the vehicle profile).
More details regarding this can be found under the section “Card present payments – SumUp” further on in this newsletter.
Account
The account options suggests that the it was an account job and that the charge should go to the account, to later be invoiced. The option is selected by default (and only available) for the driver to choose as payment method if the job is booked as an account job.
In-app payment
This option suggests that the passenger selected to pay with card when making a booking through the passenger app. To have this come up as a selectable option, it requires that you have signed up for in-app payments and that it's a passenger app booking in which the passenger selected to pay with a card.
Support for in-app payments is not yet available in all markets, but please contact us if you would be interested in this.
Not settled
This option is only available for the driver to choose as payment method if it's been enabled in the admin panel. It allows you to submit the price charged for the trip, but signal that the payment was not settled in the vehicle.
It's also possible to configure if the fare should be hidden to the driver for specific payment methods, e.g. hide all fares for account payments, making the driver unable to specify the price charged for account jobs.
In addition, it's also possible to configure whether a driver should be able to submit the price “zero” for a trip, or if he is required to input an amount.
Finally, the payment option “Not specified (Skip)”, if enabled, gives the drivers the ability to hit “Skip” in the payment option view. This action will then not record any price on the trip.
Please find more information about the payment options and their set up below.
- Admin panel updates
Payment options
Settings for configuring the payment options has been added to the admin panel. These settings allow you to control which payment methods should appear to the driver as selectable options at the end of the ride, when specifying the price and payment method used to charge for the ride.
For example, if you have the setting "Show option" checked for Not settled, the driver will have the ability to select "Not settled" and then specify the price, when delivering the job. When generating reports later, this job will then appear under the payment method “NOT” (in the reports Car jobs, Driver jobs and Dispatcher jobs).
These settings can be found in the admin panel under Settings – Dispatch – 1. General – Payment options here: https://admin.taxicaller.net/admin/settings/dispatch.php
- Card-present payments
Support for card-present credit card payments has finally been launched. We're able to offer this functionality, currently within Europe, through the payment provider SumUp (https://sumup.co.uk/). Support for the North American market will be added in the near future.
You can see which countries SumUp is currently available in by going to their website (link above), scroll to the bottom of the page and look on the right hand side under “SumUp worldwide”.
If SumUp is available in your country and you would be interested in being able to accept card present-payments through TaxiCaller by using SumUp, please contact us for further details.
If SumUp is not available in your country but you would still be interested in this functionality, please contact us as well and we'll see what we can do for your market.
- Android Driver app update (version 1.9.35)
New payment option view
A completely new payment option view has been introduced. This new payment option view allows the driver to specify the payment method used when charging for the ride. The options available for the driver is configured in the admin panel and is explained earlier in this newsletter.
Support for accepting in-app payments
The driver app has been updated to include support for initiating and accepting in-app payments in the payment options view, appearing when you deliver a trip.
This requires that you have signed up with a third-party payment provider currently supported by the TaxiCaller system. This functionality is not yet available in all markets, but please contact us if you would be interested in this.
Support for accepting card-present payments
Support for initiating and accepting card presentpayments in the payment options view, appearing when you deliver a trip, has also been introduced. This is made possible through the provider SumUp. Additional details can be found earlier in this newsletter.
As usual, we recommend that your drivers make sure that they have updated to the latest version of the driver app (version 1.9.35). All features with the new payment options requires that you have the latest version installed.
Feature highlight
-Driver pictures
Passengers really appreciate having the driver's photo on the app. It gives them that extra sense of security to get to see who their driver is in advance when booking through the passenger app, and to make sure they're getting into the right taxi.
Upload a profile picture into a driver's profile here: https://admin.taxicaller.net/admin/users.php
Once an image has been uploaded and saved, the passengers will automatically see the picture of the driver as soon as the trip has been assigned and a car dispatched.
For the passenger, it looks like this:
Tracking view Clicking image
Contact
If you have any questions or would like to learn more about something in this newsletter, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Skype: firstlinesupport.taxicaller
Telephone: US (NY): +1 646 583 0590
US (CA): +1 805 626 8268
UK: +44 208 123 1441
INT: +46 8 5592 1950