TAXI.com

Hello Taxi, and Others--

I've noticed since early last year that there have been many new listings that have been far more urgent in their turn around times than the "Dispatch" listings. The Dispatch listings have seemed to widened their time frame by a week or two, which appears to have diluted the meaning of "dispatch". Meanwhile, the truly urgent listings (due in less than 5 days) are listed as a New Listings, to apparently throw out a wider net by including the folks who are not subscribed to "Dispatch", perhaps to present as much valid material to the user as possible.

Any thoughts on this, anyone?

Hey Niall,

I think Dispatch listings tend to come in waves - long waves. Seems like they often come in a flurry and then not at all for a while.

I subscribe to Dispatch because it is so reasonably priced (IMO) and I know I'm not going to miss anything, but I can see why others might make a different choice.

I have also noticed that there are often loads of instrumental listings which go to dispatch and then relatively few (if any) in the semi-monthly listings. That has me scratching my head a little bit.

that said - 3 of my 4 bonafide taxi deals have resulted from Dispatch listings, so the extra cost isn't really a big deal, and if you aren't already aware, the Dispatch upgrade is pro-rated - so if you have for example 2 months left in your membership year, and a hot Dispatch listing comes out that you can nail, you can upgrade for 2/12 * $149 = ~$25.00 which is pretty decent.

I think in 2013 there were not nearly as many instrumental listings in Dispatch, but in 2014 it took off again and Dispatch was great for instrumentals.

For the past several months, there have hardly been any instrumentals in the regular listings but more in Dispatch or urgent / special listings.

Jim