Mobile Data - From Strength To Strength

From booking to doorstep, data is critical for modern taxi firms. From broadband and telephone lines, through to smartphones and mobile data connections, technology can be the difference between success and failure for taxi firms today.

That’s why York Cars turned to Northern Telecom for their telecoms and technology needs. Mohammed Iqbal, owner of York taxi powerhouse York Cars, explains: “We were introduced to Northern Telecom two years ago. We’d had awful problems with data SIM cards from previous suppliers. One supplier hadn’t been paying their bills to the network and got disconnected, leaving us without any data at all. We had to solve that problem by going out and buying 150 pay-as-you-go SIM cards. It cost us thousands in lost income and extra data charges."

“With another supplier, we had problems with their ‘APN’ not working, and they kept switching us to different systems to try to resolve the problem. It was a massively frustrating experience, until we received a recommendation to contact Northern Telecom.”

Jon Graves, Managing Director of Northern Telecom takes up the story: “Mohammed at York Cars contacted us and explained his problems. We were able to offer reliable and competitively priced data SIM cards on the O2 network, which has great coverage in the York area. For us, it’s about more than coverage and price though, it’s about service. I’ve worked with the taxi industry for over ten years now - and I understand just how critical telecoms and technology are to the taxi industry. It’s why we pride ourselves on really caring for our customers and their business and will go the extra mile to solve any problems that they experience”.

Not that York Cars have had many problems, as Mohammed Iqbal says, “The difference between Northern Telecom and their competitors has been like night and day. It’s just been easier to deal with and more reliable.”

It’s not just data SIM cards that Northern Telecom provide to York Cars though. As Mohammed explains, “Our experience with BT for leased lines has been awful. The BT service is appalling and overpriced. We’ve been able to switch one of our lines to Northern Telecom already and have saved over £400 per month, a massive saving to the business. Unfortunately, we’re locked in contract with BT on another leased-line but we’ll definitely be moving it to Northern Telecom as soon as we can.”

Jon Graves adds, “I’m not surprised to hear Mohammed’s comments. We know that BT rip-off the taxi industry with excessive prices and lengthy contracts. Taxi firms frequently ask us to analyse their telecoms bills with BT to understand what they could save. It sometimes seems that the bills and telecoms set-up has been made over-complex to hide how much a customer is really paying - with multiple different bills. When we’ve unpicked this, we’ve been able to save some customers tens of thousands of pounds a year.”

Perhaps that’s why, when asked if he’d recommend Northern Telecom, Mohammed Iqbal from York Cars had the simple two-word answer of, “Without hesitation.”