Autocab and iCabbi have run UK taxi dispatch for the better part of twenty years. They work, nobody's arguing otherwise. But they're pricey, the interfaces have the unmistakable charm of 2005, and your data lives on someone else's server. When the price goes up, and it does, you pay it, because what's the alternative?
There is one now, and the migration is less painful than you'd think. Here's how to move to a modern platform without dropping a single booking on the way across.
Why operators start looking elsewhere
The same complaints come up again and again. Cost creep is the big one: Autocab starts around £400 a month, then you add per-driver fees, the passenger app module, corporate invoicing, and a mid-size fleet is suddenly looking at £800 to £1,200 a month. Then there's the data, which isn't really yours. Stop paying and you lose access, and getting your customer list or booking history out is awkward by design rather than by accident.
The passenger app tends to be an afterthought, charged as an extra on both systems and looking fairly generic when it arrives. Compliance is left to you, so Working Time tracking, DVSA records and document expiry all fall to manual processes or bolt-on tools. And the modern integrations operators increasingly want, flight tracking, NHS portal links, WhatsApp notifications, either need workarounds or just aren't there.
What a replacement has to get right
Before you look at anything, write down what you won't compromise on. Yours will be specific to your operation, but most lists cover the same ground.
The core is real-time dispatch, and it has to be flawless: a live map of every vehicle, automatic nearest-driver allocation, a 25-second job offer to the driver's phone, and a manual override for when you know better than the algorithm. That's just the price of entry.
Then the driver app, which has to work without a training course. Drivers need to see pending jobs clearly, open navigation with one tap, take masked calls to passengers so neither side shares a real number, and check their earnings at the end of the shift. A pre-shift walkaround built into the app matters more every year as DVSA enforcement steps up, with each check logged automatically and any defect raising a maintenance alert.
A passenger app under your own brand is where legacy and modern really part ways. Book through Uber or Bolt and those customers belong to Uber and Bolt. Book through an app with your name on it and they're yours. So look for full white-labelling, your company name, logo and colours in the App Store, live driver tracking on the map, a loyalty programme to bring people back, and the whole fare landing in your Stripe account rather than the platform's.
Compliance should run itself. The era of the office manager chasing paperwork by hand is over, so a modern platform ought to store every driver document, the PCO badge, insurance, DBS, and fire expiry alerts at 90, 30 and 7 days, suspend a driver automatically the moment a document lapses so they physically can't take jobs until it's renewed, track Working Time Directive hours without a spreadsheet in sight, and log every walkaround while flagging defects to your fleet manager. GridX Dispatcher does all of that as standard, which takes a real weight off the office.
And if you hold NHS patient transport contracts or corporate accounts, the ability to generate accurate monthly invoices automatically is worth hundreds of pounds of admin time every month, so put it on the list.
Moving across without the drama
The migration isn't a single nerve-wracking switch. It's a handful of steps spread over a week or so.
First, get your data out. From Autocab or iCabbi, export your driver list (names, phone, email, vehicle details, licence numbers), your regular customers, any standing orders like school runs or dialysis appointments, and your vehicle fleet. Most systems allow a CSV export. If yours stonewalls you, remember that as a GDPR data subject you're entitled to your data, so ask support directly.
Second, set up in parallel rather than mid-week in a panic. Stand up the new platform in test mode, import your drivers and vehicles, and run it alongside the old system for five to seven days. That window lets you train dispatchers on the new console, get drivers downloading and configuring the new app, push a handful of real bookings end to end, and confirm every compliance document is uploaded.
Third, move your compliance documents over properly. Upload each driver's current PCO badge, insurance certificate and DBS scan, and set the right expiry dates. From that point the new system is your source of truth and handles every future expiry alert on its own.
Fourth, cut over on a quiet day. Monday at 9am is exactly the wrong moment; a Sunday at midnight or some other lull is right. Cancel the old subscription, remembering the notice period, which is typically 30 days with Autocab or iCabbi.
Fifth, wire up the integrations: Twilio for SMS and WhatsApp, Stripe for card payments, and any corporate account portals. With technical support on hand this is usually a two-to-four-hour job, not a saga.
The worries worth answering head-on
"Our drivers are used to the old system and they'll dig their heels in." In practice the new driver app is simpler than what they're leaving. Job offers are clearer, navigation is built in, and they can watch their earnings climb in real time. The drivers who switch tend to become the loudest advocates, because they get paid faster and miss fewer jobs.
"What if something breaks on a busy Saturday night?" Any platform you run will have support, so make sure the new one offers UK business-hours phone support and a status page at the very least. Modern platforms built on Kubernetes with auto-scaling shrug off the peak loads that used to bring legacy systems to their knees.
"Can we keep our number?" Yes. If you already route through Twilio, as many modern systems do, the number comes with you. A traditional landline can be ported to Twilio. Either way your passengers keep calling and texting the same number they always have.
Legacy dispatch made perfect sense in 2010. In 2026 you can own the platform outright, your brand, your data, your Stripe account, for less than you're handing Autocab today, and the move takes under a week. The operators making the switch aren't only saving money. They're building a customer base that's loyal to their company rather than to a platform that can change its commission rate whenever it likes.