"On-Call" headache

[Sweets250]

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a company for "on call" phone answering, dispatching? I currently operate "in office" hours of 8a-6p. My headache lies from 6:01-8:00am the following morning. I'm having a constant battle to find employees willing to do these on call shifts (I understand why) its a constant thorn in my side not to mention the overhead associated with doing so. I also wonder if the calls are being handled as they should be handled when it's 1:00am and nobody is around to hear etc. We currently operate with "odyssey/GT3" platform (if this matters). I'm not looking for an answering service who simply takes messages.Any advise or suggestions would be much appreciated. I have found browsing online:Limolive24.comwww.limoansweringservice.comI have not contacted either company as I just found them this evening.Thank you all very much.

[Steve W.]

So when you say "on call" does that mean you have people in your office from 6pm on? Or is it a call forwarding situation? Wierd you would call it that. are you doing hourly pay or pay per call?

[Limo Wire]

You really need to provide more information about your company before someone can give you proper advice. Do you have one vehicle or 20, how many chauffers do you have out after 6pm etc..

If you are talking about 5 phone calls between those hours or 100. You really need to provide much more detail before anyone can provide something that might help.

[Bigsteve]

I would recommend Pro Reservations (www.proreservations.net) they have very cheap plans and can use your reservation system. Good luck.

[Sweets250]

So when you say "on call" does that mean you have people in your office from 6pm on? Or is it a call forwarding situation? Wierd you would call it that. are you doing hourly pay or pay per call?

The office staff leaves at 6pm, the office phone is then forwarded to the "on call" persons cell phone. That person is responsible for answering all inbound phone calls and fulfilling ride requests and creating reservations until 8am the following morning when the office staff arrives. We are paying $25 per on call shift and $50 on the weekend. The amount of work while on call varies as you can imagine, it could be only 1 hr of work or it could turn into 3+ hours of work per shift.

[Sweets250]

You really need to provide more information about your company before someone can give you proper advice. Do you have one vehicle or 20, how many chauffers do you have out after 6pm etc..If you are talking about 5 phone calls between those hours or 100. You really need to provide much more detail before anyone can provide something that might help.

We probably get about 20-60 calls during this shift.The fleet is 40 vehicles ranging from limos, sedans,SUVs, vans, vanterras, busses. As far as the chauffeurs go, I try to space their trips in the evening so that if a trip arises after office hours the on call person usually has a "go to" person or two at their disposal.

[Steve W.]

40 vehicles and you cant pay some one to sit in your office and give your company a professional image? Better take a closer look at your costs. At 7 vehicles this usually begins to be an issue if you are doing airport work.Services have not impressed me over the years. Nothing beats a person that knows your customers and drivers and can be a stable presence at your company. Gotta pay for it though. And not by breaking federal labor laws.

[Cedar Mill Limousine]

40 vehicles and you cant pay some one to sit in your office and give your company a professional image? Better take a closer look at your costs. At 7 vehicles this usually begins to be an issue if you are doing airport work.Services have not impressed me over the years. Nothing beats a person that knows your customers and drivers and can be a stable presence at your company. Gotta pay for it though. And not by breaking federal labor laws.

I was thinking the same thing. I would find someone to do busy work in between calls - work on marketing, paperwork, cleaning shop, etc.

[Karl]

I thought it as well... running a GDS back-office and a fleet of that size, should be capable of sustaining a 24-hour environment... operations wise.

[Limo Wire]

Running forty vehicles being staffed 24/7 would be a must, I can't see anyway of doing that with the office closed at 6PM.

I can only assume most of those vehicles are IC's.I would think with that many vehicles you would have to have dispatch around the clock.

[Vintage Limos]

We probably get about 20-60 calls during this shift.The fleet is 40 vehicles ranging from limos, sedans,SUVs, vans, vanterras, busses. As far as the chauffeurs go, I try to space their trips in the evening so that if a trip arises after office hours the on call person usually has a "go to" person or two at their disposal.

You're telling us that you run 40 cars and get 20 to 60 calls per night from 6pm to 8am, which is between 1 and 4 calls per hour all night long and you pay that person $25 for the entire night on a weekday or $50 on a weeknight? And with that volume, you can't generate enough revenue to afford to hire someone to staff the office 24 hours a day?

This post just doesn't add up.

[Limo Wire]

My crap detector went off as soon as they replied to my post.

[Sweets250]

It was an approximation of calls I could be off, and based of your remarks I assume I am.I did not create this post to waste my time or yours. A suggestion to maybe have a more accurate idea of the call volume is I assume what I really should do."Crap detector" etc. is not what I would of come to expect to read. I appreciate the insight some have provided. Thank you.

[Limo Wire]

Don't mean to insult you but honestly very little of your question makes even a bit of sense, I can't even imagine any operation with 40+ vehicles being able to shut down at 6PM every night. Let alone any company being able to grow to vehicles and close at 6PM. Why would you not just hire someone to work in your office over night. With 40 vehicles I can't imagine not having at least a dispatcher overnight. Someone to check in vehicles when your chauffeurs return to office, get paperwork ready for the next day make sure vehicles are clean and ready for the next day. Who is doing this now?