AI Receptionist for Taxi Services, Removalists (Movers) and Trucking Companies

Taxi, hire car and chauffeur work is all short calls with the clock running. If someone can’t get through to book a 5am airport run, they’ll just book someone else. Steve takes the booking, reads it back so the address is right, and sends it to you or your dispatcher. He works alongside dispatch systems such as iCabbi rather than replacing them: we send the details to you, and direct integration is quoted on request.

In removals, the first call usually decides who gets the job. People sit down with a cuppa and ring four movers in a row. Whoever answers and asks sensible questions gets the survey. Trouble is, those calls are long, and they come in while your crew is wrestling a couch down a stairwell. Steve gets the whole inventory, so your quote holds up on moving day.

A freight phone rings for three reasons. A shipper wants a rate, a receiver wants to know where their pallets are, or one of your drivers has a problem. Steve sorts them, captures the load details a planner needs, and makes sure a driver with a problem at 2am reaches a person fast. He works alongside a transport management system such as MachShip: the details come to you, and direct integration is quoted on request.

A courier’s phone never really stops. Half the calls are someone asking “where’s my parcel?”, and the rest are pickups, missed deliveries and the odd business wanting an account. When you’re double parked in Fitzroy with a van full of satchels, none of them gets answered well.

Steve picks up every one. For a pickup he gets the addresses, the contact at each end, how many items, rough size and weight, and when it’s ready. For a tracking call he asks for the consignment number first, because that’s what your team needs to look it up.

Here’s the rule we hold him to: he never makes up a status. He can’t see your scanning system, so he won’t say a parcel is “out for delivery” or “at the depot”. He logs the consignment number, the caller’s question and their number, and your team rings back with the real answer. If you’ve already given out a time, he can repeat it. That’s it.

Failed deliveries get the same treatment. He takes the card number, a better day and a safe place, so rebooking takes your dispatcher ten seconds instead of a phone call. He works alongside whatever booking or dispatch system you run: the details come to you, and direct integration is quoted on request.

• Taxi and hire car: pickup address, destination, time, passengers, luggage, child seat or wheelchair-accessible vehicle, account name if corporate.
• Removals: from and to suburbs, move date and flexibility, bedrooms, stairs and lifts, heavy items, packing, storage, parking at each end.
• Freight: pickup and delivery points, pallets or items, weights and dimensions, tailgate or forklift, dangerous goods, delivery window, consignment number for existing jobs.
• Driver calls: vehicle rego, location, load, what happened, whether anyone is hurt.

Each call becomes an SMS and an email within seconds of hanging up, so a dispatcher can act from a phone. The recording, transcript and caller details are kept in your portal. Bookings can also go straight into Google Calendar.

Under the Heavy Vehicle National Law, everyone in the supply chain of a heavy vehicle (over 4.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass) has a primary duty to remove or minimise safety risks, so far as reasonably practicable. That includes the people who schedule loads and take bookings, not just drivers. These chain of responsibility rules took effect from 1 October 2018, as the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator explains.

So Steve is set up to record what the customer wants and leave the timing to your scheduler. He doesn’t agree to a deadline that would push a driver past fatigue limits or speed, and he never pressures a driver who calls in. This is general information, not legal advice.

Dave runs three trucks out of Dandenong South, doing local and country moves. He was the one answering the phone, which meant answering it with a wardrobe on his shoulder or not at all. Quote calls would ring out on a busy Saturday, and he knew from his Google Business Profile that people were calling.

The calls he did grab were rushed. He’d forget to ask about stairs or the piano, quote low, and then have an awkward chat about it on the day.

With Steve answering, every quote call follows the same checklist, and Dave reads the summaries at smoko. Moving-day calls from nervous customers go to the crew leader’s phone by SMS. He quotes from the full picture now, and his evenings are his own again.

Illustrative example based on common patterns. Dave and his business are not real clients.

New to the idea? Our AI receptionist page explains the product end to end. Owner-drivers might also read how we help one-person businesses, and busy depots can see how we catch calls when all your lines are busy. Browse other sectors on the industries hub.