Taxi fleet management software: how a taxi fleet's day gets into order
Say «taxi fleet management software» and most people picture a map. PlakaPro has one — yet what shapes the day at a taxi rank or in a fleet is not the map but the question who is in which car, on what terms, and who owes whom how much this week. This article lists the jobs that repeat every day in a taxi fleet of 5 to 300 cars and shows, screen by screen, how PlakaPro handles them.
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What happens in a taxi fleet every day?
In Istanbul the cap on taxi licences (the «plaka» system) makes a commercial taxi plate both scarce and expensive; in most fleets the plate owner, the operator and the driver behind the wheel are three different people. In Ankara, Izmir and Antalya the picture is a little looser, but the routine is the same: a car turns two shifts a day (day / night), the driver works either for a percentage of takings or for a fixed daily or weekly rent, and every Monday the fleet owner adds up who paid what.
The jobs that repeat in this cycle are well known: keep the schedule, record driver changes, work out what is owed at the end of the week, book the money into the cash desk, document damage and fuel when a car is handed over, charge traffic fines and motorway toll passes (HGS/OGS, the Turkish electronic toll tags) to the right driver, and never miss an insurance renewal, a TÜVTÜRK inspection (the mandatory periodic vehicle inspection) or an MTV instalment (the motor vehicle tax). With ten cars this runs on a notebook and a WhatsApp group; with thirty the notebook becomes two and the WhatsApp groups five; with fifty nobody can answer «who has this car right now?» without looking it up.
Read the word «software» in this article as: the one place where the fleet's records live. The taximeter, the ride-hailing app and the accounting package keep doing their jobs; your GPS tracker now feeds PlakaPro's map. PlakaPro fills the gap between them — who, which car, on what terms, how much, on what date, where.
Five jobs the software has to do
1. The schedule
The schedule is the backbone of the fleet: every car a row, every day a cell. Who is in the car, on what terms, is the car in the workshop, in an accident, idle — all of it must be visible at a glance. The week is the default view, but click two dates and you open any period up to 62 days. In Excel this table lives in one person's head; when that person goes on leave, so does the table.
2. Driver terms
Three different arrangements can coexist in one fleet: a percentage on the night shift, a fixed daily rent by day, weekly rent plus a fuel share for a long-term driver. The terms should be written on the schedule event, not on the driver's card — the same driver may work car A on a percentage this week and car B on rent next week.
3. Week closing and collection
On Monday morning there is only one question: «who pays what this week?» The week closing takes the terms from the schedule, counts the days, deducts fines and advances, adds bonuses and produces one figure per driver. That figure must reach the driver in writing — a verbal reckoning is where the argument starts.
4. The cash desk
Money collected is booked into the cash desk; every lira that leaves it (tyres, oil, paying a fine, an advance) leaves through a request and an approval. Fleets with branches have a cash desk per branch and head office sees them all. Suppliers are kept as contractors; the cash form suggests the name. When the accountant asks at month end «how much came in, how much went out», the answer comes from the record, not from memory.
5. The handover report
When a car passes from one driver to the next, the state of the bodywork, the mileage, the fuel level and any missing equipment must be written down; otherwise the argument about a scratch is inevitable. A good report has photos, a diagram, a signature and a timestamp; a fuel shortfall on return goes to the driver's account by itself at the day's price — see the vehicle handover report article for the details.
How PlakaPro does it
- Schedule: every car a row, every day a cell. Click a cell to open a new event from that day: driver changed, car went to the workshop, was in an accident, is idle. Handovers without a report stay flagged on the row.
- Terms: a percentage (it can be tiered — the rate changes as takings grow) or a weekly rent; a tax share and a fixed bookkeeping fee can be added to the terms. The terms are written inside the event; the driver's card keeps the history.
- Week closing: takes the terms from the schedule and produces what each driver owes; fines, advances, bonuses and the fuel difference are deducted or added on the same screen. Details: driver settlement software.
- Cash desk, contractors and payment requests: collections are booked into the cash desk; expenses leave through a request → approval → payment flow, and it is clear who approved. Suppliers sit in the contractors ledger, branch cash desks are separate, head office sees them on one screen.
- Handover report: body diagram, photos, fuel level, finger signature via a one-time link, PDF output. The driver does not need an account.
- Car and driver cards: chassis number (VIN), registration (ruhsat), purchase date, fuel type and tank size; policies, inspection, MTV, servicing, repairs, fines, reports — the car's whole history and documents on one page; the driver's licence and SRC certificate (the professional driver qualification) with their expiry dates on the driver's card.
- Live map: cars with a tracker on the map as moving / stopped / no signal, a live dot next to the plate in the list. Details: fleet tracking software.
- Reports and recurring tasks: utilisation, revenue by service type, branch finance — summaries refreshed every night from your own records. Monthly recurring jobs (the MTV instalment, rent, a notification) sit on a list with their owner, close when done and reopen next month.
Documents and dates: insurance, Kasko, inspection, MTV, servicing
A commercial taxi must carry Trafik insurance (the compulsory third-party policy); Kasko (comprehensive cover) usually comes at the plate owner's request; the TÜVTÜRK inspection is annual for commercial vehicles, and a missed appointment means a day off the road; MTV is paid in two instalments, 31 January and 31 July. In PlakaPro you upload a photo of the policy, the system reads the insurer, the plate and the dates and writes the expiry to the car. A warning appears 14 days ahead; overdue items turn red. An MTV instalment turns «paid» by itself from the cash-desk payment; if unpaid it shows in the «Car deadlines» table. Servicing is planned by mileage. The logic of this section is explained separately in the fleet tracking software article.
Who it is for: from 5 cars to 300
| Fleet | Daily pain | What the software should give |
|---|---|---|
| 5–10 cars | The owner does everything; the weekend is reckoning night | Schedule and week closing; time won back |
| 10–50 cars | There is a «tracker», but the information lives on their phone | Records stay with the company; report and cash-desk discipline |
| 50–150 cars | Several ranks / branches, two or three cash desks, mixed terms | Branch permissions, approval flow, a single view from head office, the map |
| 150+ cars | Separate companies, settlements with plate owners | Each company its own workspace and database, custom processes — set up together |
In a five-car business the software may look like a luxury; but even with five cars the Monday reckoning and the policy tracking take a few hours a week. Beyond fifty cars the software is no longer a convenience but a condition for the business to keep running. Where exactly Excel breaks is shown with numbers in Excel or software?.
Let's be honest: what it does not do
Pricing in brief
The price comes in three plans by number of cars; every module and unlimited users are included in every plan, the first 30 days are free and you get hands-on help with setup. Current figures and invoicing questions are on the pricing page.
Frequently asked
Is there a connection to the taximeter or a ride-hailing app?
No ready-made one. Takings are entered by the driver or the shift supervisor; on percentage terms the week closing uses that figure. The REST API is open: your own bot can write the takings through it. We do not promise a ready integration with Uber, BiTaksi or Bolt today.
Two drivers work one car, day and night — does that work?
Yes. Each driver's event on the schedule carries a shift time (for example 06–18 and 18–06); the two events sit side by side on the same car, and each driver's terms and balance are calculated separately.
Does it keep the settlement with the plate owner too?
The car's card holds its income and expense records; you open the plate owner as a contractor and post the payments there. There is no separate «plate owner account» module.
Do drivers need to install an app on their phone?
No. The driver opens the handover report from a one-time link in the browser and signs it; no account, no app download.
How do we charge fines and HGS/OGS toll passes?
You enter the fine with its date and plate; the schedule knows who had the car that day, the fine lands on that driver's account and shows up at the week closing.
How long does setup take?
Your workspace is set up as a taxi fleet; we load the plates and drivers together on the first day, terms and the cash desk settle in during the first week. We do the first week closing with you.
See it on your own fleet
Fill in the form and we call you the same day; we show the system with your own plates and drivers. 30 days free, hands-on help with setup.