Efficiency in customer service delivery is a cardinal requirement to attain customer loyalty and satisfaction. Indeed, this should be the overriding objective of any business or organization that seeks to take compete relatively well within the market which it operates. The key to attaining the requisite levels of efficiency is ensuring that an organization is properly structured and managed. Additionally, the organization should ensure that it significantly reduces unnecessary bureaucracy and red tap since such things hinder efficient service delivery. All programs adopted and implemented by an organization must aim at promoting productivity, accessibility and efficiency not only for specific sectors or individuals, but more significantly, for the entire organization. An organization that carries its duties and mandate with superb efficiency impresses its customers, which in turn reflects positively in the organization’s profits.
The management of an airport and its peripheral activities are always an extremely vital activity which must be handled with extreme care, dedication and efficiency. For an airport of Fort Lauderdale (FLL) caliber, the threshold is even higher. This is because tourism is a significant pillar and the primary economic generator for Fort Lauderdale and Broward County. FLL is the primal gateway for the thousands of tourist who flock the county every year into the county. It is, therefore, desirable if not mandatory, that all activities relating to the airport or collateral to them should be streamlined to ensure they offer the best services to the tourists. This will encourage more tourists to visit the county thus enhancing economic growth. This paper, based upon independent research of the manner and organization of taxicab services that ferry tourists to and from the airport to their desired destinations, will provide a more sustainable solution. The paper seeks to recommend a more elaborate plan that will significantly ameliorate the accessibility and efficiency of the airport taxicab services to arriving and departing patrons.
The constant amelioration of management strategies and policies is critical and significant in order to ensure that an organization continues to perform well. The structural design of an organization is also illustrative to how successful businesses perform. Currently, the taxicab services at the LAA can be termed as an industry operating in chaos. The taxis are not organized in a way that would ensure efficiency and productivity of the industry. Additionally, there are some nuances between taxis owned and managed by Broward taxicab operators and independent contractors. The legal framework needs to be crafted that will ensure that all legal entities carrying out the taxi business are accountable to a single authority. This is why this paper recommends the establishment of the Broward county taxicab board. This board will be tasked with the sole responsibility of managing and overseeing the operation of taxis throughout the county, and in particular the services rendered at the LAA. The board shall also have the requisite regulatory power, which shall be used to adopt and implement rules, regulations and guidelines that affect taxicabs and their drivers. This will instill some sense of sanity into the industry by ensuring that taxi drivers are accountably to a public entity. Furthermore, the board shall grant and suspend licenses issued to taxi drivers and their taxis. In a nutshell, the board shall have all the requisite powers to ensure that the industry is run in an effective, accountable and transparent manner.
The board will then register companies and independent contractors who own taxis. All taxis will be required to a have an identical logo and a specific number assigned to the taxi. The identical logo will ensure that tourists do not confuse private cars for taxis and are able to easily identify a taxi whenever one is in need. More significantly, the unique number written both outside and inside a taxi will enable easy identification of a particular cab and its driver by passengers. This will be crucial in case of misbehavior by the driver or any incident that the local authorities are supposed to handle. It is fundamental that passengers, be it tourist or not, are able to identify taxis using the numbers. The numbers will also be useful in the administration and management of the taxis.
The companies that own the taxis and the independent contractors will be required to sign a contract with the board. The contract will stipulate a number of obligations and responsibilities that both parties are supposed to carry out in order to ensure that the industry runs smoothly. There should be stiff penalties for any party who contravenes the terms of this arrangement. This could include the termination of an operator’s license to operate a taxi business in the county. Additionally, the board should have the name of every driver and their taxi numbers. This will facilitate a streamlined administration. The board will keep a principal register of all taxis and their drivers and arrange them in an orderly manner. The opportunity to ferry customers will be given to the taxis on first-come-first-serve basis. This will be subject to accessibility of the driver and their taxis. A particular number of taxis will always be required to be stationed at the airport to provide a constant supply to the arriving tourists.
At the arrival termination, the board will establish an office where arriving tourists can request for a taxi. The request will be quickly processed and the passenger given the taxi number of the taxi which is next in line. The tourist will also be given the name of the taxi’s driver. The taxi driver will then be notified and be required to pick their passenger at the exit terminal. No payments will be made to the board by the tourists. The board will only be concerned with the administration of the industry. Tourists will pay directly to the driver when they arrive at their destinations. The board shall avail its customer service numbers to all passengers being ferried by the taxis. This will provide an avenue whereby customers can air out their complaints or compliments towards specific taxis or the entire system.
The system should also be designed to serve the interest of tourists who desire to travel from point A to the airport or from point A to point B within the county. This is why this paper strongly recommends that the board be granted jurisdictional control all over the county and not only to the taxis carrying tourists from the airport. Indeed, this will also promote accessibility of these taxis throughout the county. To facilitate this, taxi drivers will be required to notify a service station that they are available to work and where they are stationed at the moment. Passengers or tourists who call the service station to request for a cab will then be given the number of the taxi and the name of the taxi driver who is coming to pick them and transport them to their preferred destinations. Immediately, the service cab controller will call the driver giving him the address and location of the passenger that requires transportation. As presented above, this arrangement will be subject to a first-come-first-serve basis and the proximity of the taxi to the passenger in need of transportation.
The legal framework characterizing this organization between the board and the taxi companies or independent contractors shall be premised on contracts of service. This means that the taxi drivers are employees of the companies owning the taxis and not the board. Therefore, any liability occasioned by the taxi drivers is incurred by their employers. The independent contractors will also be held liable for any acts of negligence or tortious acts on their part. Moreover, the county should also pass a legislation that criminalizes negligent acts by a taxi driver which puts the tourists at risk. Therefore, drivers who drivers carelessly, recklessly or negligently, thus causing an accident, should be face both criminal proceeding against the county and civil proceeding against the injured passenger. Their employers should also be sanctioned. This can be in form of momentary fines or the concerned taxi should be confiscated by the local authorities. In more drastic measures, the board may terminate the driving license of the driver or the taxi license belonging to the taxi company if other measures have failed to deter them from conducting their business in a professional manner. A suspension can also be an alternative to the harsh penalty of terminating a driver’s or company’s license.
The board should also develop a website which will contain all taxis under its administration. The website should contain the location of all routes and locations of the taxis. As soon as a driver confirms that there are available for work, the service operator should update their location on the website and the taxi driver’s contacts. This will enable passengers to easily locate taxis even without calling the service center. It will also significantly guarantee the accessibility concerns and the efficiency with which a customer is able to trace a taxi. Additionally, the board should also commission the development of a mobile application which can be synchronized with the content displayed on the board’s website with regards to the location of the nearest taxi and the contacts of its driver. Passengers with smartphones will make good use of this mobile application. Customers should be encouraged to download the application from the board’s website for self-service purposes. A potential passenger will only need to open the mobile application and type their location. The application will display the available number of taxis within a particular radius set by the board. The passenger can also elect to use the application to view the map of the county, all the taxis available and their locations and contacts.
This service will give customers a chance to make their own decisions which will increase the efficiency of the industry. Further, the service gives the passengers a sense of choice and the freedom to request taxis at their own convenience. In fact, even passengers on board a plane can still use this application to elect which taxi their desire to hire. It will also create a sense of customer loyalty. Passengers, who receive exemplary service from a particular taxi driver, will be able to trace the driver and possibly call them to transport them again if they are not far. This will encourage, and indeed motivate, drivers to respect their clients and offer them the best services. Furthermore, it will reduce the traffic of calls requesting for taxicabs from the service operator.
This paper’s recommendations seek to fundamentally alter the way the taxi business is run in Broward County. Research shows that the current system is ineffectively and incapable of offering exemplary service. If the county is to realize its economic potential by promoting the tourism sector, which is the backbone of the county’s economy, a lot of fundamental changes are required. One of the changes is a complete overhaul of how the taxi business is managed and controlled. Therefore, this paper has prepared and developed a feasible plan that would solve this critical problem. The paper recommends that all the taxi management be put under a single management, a public board. This board should be given the requisite powers to streamline the sector. Additionally, the board should put up measures to reduce bureaucracy and red tape in getting services. Innovation and creativity should be at the center of this new plan. A mobile phone application should be developed which will provide tourists with the information they require about taxicabs including their security.
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