Daiwa Taxi Co., Ltd. (Daiwa Taxi) based in Sakaide city, Japan has an experience of having entered into the care taxi business second in Japan. Daiwa Taxi is now conducting a study aiming to establish the membership system taxi business in order to support the traffic weak such as the aged persons, pregnant women etc., for their easy movement and cultural life.

      gTaxi dispatching system by the PHSh is one of the objects of such study. By determining the location of the registered members including the aged persons, pregnant women etc., by the PHS terminal distributed to them, automatic dispatching of a taxi becomes available. Automatic dispatching system can reduce the dispatchers and increase the dispatch control efficiency. An additional action such as a talk, information offering over the PHS, may make the location determination easier and increase the utility of the dispatching system as well. And further, Daiwa Taxi is trying for realizing the total life supporting service including such which enables staffs to rush to the spot with the aid of the PHSfs location determination function when an emergency such as a sudden illness or a traffic accident arises.

PiPit Phone

     This time there was an issue of which should be used for this business, a mobile phone or a PHS. Considering the location determination aspect only, a mobile phone with GPS (Global Positioning System) function would really be favorable, however, the PHS which has less influence on medical instruments such as a pacemaker has been adopted because this businessf customer characteristic is the traffic weak.

     Further, public telephones are increasingly being removed as mobile phones spread while still a few aged persons are using that. Such persons who donft carry mobile phone are sometimes unable to call a taxi. This service can provide them with various kinds of security by carrying the PHS.

     DDI POCKETfs gPiPit Phoneh has been selected as the terminal considering the above customer characteristic. gPiPit Phoneh is easy to use even for an aged person because it has only five buttons for three telephone numbers, gCALLh and gDISCONNECTh.

     The above study is being conducted as a part of the gManagement innovation model project supported by ITh by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) toward the new business form establishment.