A taxi truck service is useful when you want to hire a commercial truck with a driver for a few hours or on a long-term basis. You can use these for deliveries, for moving houses, and for general warehouse purposes. It depends on the rental company whether they have the full range of options or just a few types of trucks. In major cities such as Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, and Melbourne, it’ll be easy to get the most common types of taxi trucks. These include vans, trays, hydraulic tailgates, crane trucks, and taut-liners.
As soon as you realise that your business needs a taxi truck service. The pursuit to find the right company begins. This is where we come in. We have listed down 5 major points that you should look for in a taxi truck hire company.
Variety in taxi trucks
The number one thing that you should consider looking at is whether the taxi truck service has adequate supply for your demand. This means that the company should be able to fulfil all your requirements. A wide range of choices allows you to select the truck/trucks as you need them. Also, hiring a taxi truck should come with some buffer i.e the company should not be stretched thin with your demands. They must always have some extra vehicles for emergencies or in times of surplus demand.
A variety of taxi trucks allows you to operate your business the way you want. It gives you the leeway to execute your logistics and transport appropriately with the right vehicles assigned to the jobs they are supposed to do.
Good pricing
It all boils down to this – a fair price or not. What is good pricing when hiring a taxi truck anyway? How do the standards work? Well, the pricing model for most companies remains the same except for maybe a few. Pricing is usually hourly or contract based in case of long-duration or permanent rentals. Flat rates are a big no no here.
When it comes to a time based rental, hourly rates generally apply but there are other factors that play a role. The weight and size of the items may also determine the pricing in some cases especially when you’re renting moving vans, and commercial trays.
Looking for the cheapest option is also not a good idea. There is more than often a catch here. Request the companies for an estimate and ask them about any hidden charges or taxes. Be open with your queries and feel free to ask even about the minor details. The moderate priced company should be considered most of the time. Get multiple estimates from different companies and compare them before selecting one.
Pricing of a taxi truck depends on the type of vehicle as well and their capacity. Ensure that you have the right vehicle to suit your requirements. There are several different options and it is easy to get confused if you haven;t done it before. Therefore, you must ask the experts or the taxi truck company itself for advice on which vehicles to rent.
Good drivers and well maintained vehicles
The quality of service is even more important than the pricing at times. If you are not getting a satisfactory service, there is no use spending any money, however much it is. Therefore, it is important that you check into this before you go to any company. You can do this by reading online reviews or asking people who have already used the service.
The drivers and fleet operators should be licensed, trained, and qualified to run these vehicles properly. It is crucial that you ask these questions as well and can even request to see the licences held by the staff members. The staff members, drivers, and fleet operators should be willing to help.
Customer support is another added feature that many people miss out on and only realise after they have taken the service. The quality of customer services heavily determines the quality of the company itself. Make sure that you put a pin to this!
Another crucial point that you should check is how well maintained the fleet is. Vehicles that have run their course should be discarded and the company should refresh their fleet from time to time. The existing taxi trucks should be serviced regularly and checked for all pollution protocols.
Make sure that the vehicles you are renting or hiring are in good condition – their mileage should be optimum, their engine health should be good, and overall must be capable of doing the job that they are meant to do.
You can visit the taxi truck service company and do a little bit of window shopping before you choose your vehicle. If you are looking to rent a fleet of vehicles, make sure that the fleet operators and other ground staff are capable and qualified and that all the vehicles are good to go!
Online tracking features in case of deliveries
Taxi truck rentals are not only for you to use these vehicles. You can even hire the company to do deliveries for you much like a courier service. This is ideal when you work in a hyperlocal setting and need to move items quickly and frequently. If this is the case, make sure that the operations of the rental company are backed by good and reliable technological features such as tracking and monitoring. A taxi truck hire backed by these capabilities makes for a good customer experience and overall efficiency.
Most taxi truck hire companies have their own web dashboards meant for use by their customers. You can use these to track the location of your deliveries, their status, as well as any financials involved in the process. A dedicated portal just for your companies allows you to track all previous engagements with the taxi truck company along with the capability of raising tickets from your end.
Online tracking features are also accessible making it easy for you to keep a hold on things. Real time updates allow you to make the right calls at the right times.
Flexibility in types of cargo and round the clock availability
The final thing that you must consider is whether the taxi truck company is flexible on the size and the type of items that you want to transport. Of course, we are not talking about some outlandish deliveries but the general rule states that there must be some buffer here as well. Too many strict policies on the type of items that you can transport is a big no no. If the government allows it, so should the taxi truck company – that’s what we think. Do ask the company about these before choosing one.
Finally, the trucks should be available at your service around the clock. This is really important. This is not about you making last minute demands to the company. It is about the availability of the company even with a reasonable notice period. This means that if you need a courier delivered next week within a few hours from pickup, the rental service should be able to deal with that.