MDI Technicians counting down the last few seconds before going live
April 29th 1989 and Tom Carter - then with MDI and now with DAC - makes final adjustments before the data switch is flicked.
DIAL-A-CAB -TEN YEARS OF DATA |
1989April29 |
|
| Ten years ago, on April
29th 1989, then-Chairman Ken Burns ordered a switch to be flicked and sent
Dial-a-Cab on a one-way trip to the future. Data Despatch had arrived and DaC became the
third taxi company in the world behind one in Houston Texas and another in British
Columbia, Canada to dispose of voice and start using data transmissions. It now seems very
commonplace to see data terminals in cabs - and even in minicabs - but in 1989, there were
a lot of people sweating on the outcome. The previous November (1988) had seen a |
similar DaC attempt fail when it
was found that, while the system could handle infinite amounts if work, no one at MDI in
Canada had thought to test the effect of so many drivers signing on together! Throughout
the day the system became slower and slower until it had to be taken down. Then on that fateful day five months later - this time early on a Saturday morning - DaC went live again. There was little ceremony involved as Ken Burns had given a small speech over the air prior to the November switch-on and on this occasion he was far more matter-of-fact! He told drivers to stand-by and was even cool enough to actually call a last job on voice that |
came in. Off air, he told
telephonists to put their lines on "busy" and then said: "Ok, let’s
go." The switch was pulled and the rest is history… It now seems unlikely that our current terminals will see their 11th anniversary. New ones will be fitted sooner rather than later incorporating the very latest in technology and picture quality. One thing that will definitely vanish are the familiar buttons on the terminal. The latest terminals are all touch screen displaying only the buttons that you are likely to need according to your current status. But the basic, very successful system, will remain in an updated form. Congratulations to Dial-a-Cab… |
MDI Technicians counting down the last few seconds before going live |
April 29th 1989 and Tom Carter - then with MDI and now with DAC - makes final adjustments before the data switch is flicked. |
 |
Powered by NetXPosure |
Copyright © 1999 Dial-A-Cab Ltd, All rights reserved.