Lack of Taxi Drivers in the cities.

[Primetime92]

Lack of Taxi Drivers in the cities.

Hi, my character's Michael Bailey and I'm currently in the recruitment process of becoming a EMS. At this stage, I fear that my criminal cases will play against me and therefore might pass by the opportunity to contribute to the improvement of the server and constraint it from my good range in time availability. So far, I've been arrested twice due to the lack of means to go around the city, especially when my cars are impounded or at the insurance company for there is a considerable lack of Taxi Drivers presence in the cities. The unfortunate result of this lack in driver leads to increased rates of unnecessary GTA crimes thorough the city and thousands of dollars fines to the citizens, citizens that are doing their possible best to avoid having to resolve to those actions.

My character is now guilty of 2 GTA cases, which now gives him criminal history and could limit my access to several RP opportunities despite the fact that I was planning on playing a Legal character when I first created him.

[Choppa25]

Follow the format tho'.

edit: My bad then lol the others looked different? xd

[Primetime92]

This was the format for this exact section @Ic3BoxTheSuspect.

Please describe and elaborate on the topic as much as possible

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[Mastro12345]

We are recruiting people 24/7, so we are doing our best to have active taxi drivers. We are talking about a semi whitelist job however and we are not that strict when it comes to activity, same as accepting (got some requirements of course). We don't want to. One thing we surely can't do is ''force'' someone to clock in though. It's up to them. It's not fun when you are obligated to do something. Fortunately or unfortunately for most a fully whitelisted job is higher priority. And it's fairly reasonable.

So how does activity improve?

What we can do is motivate more people to apply for the job, or even clock in more often. Indirectly. And that is through some updates, perhaps. We have already proposed a lot of changes (more ranks, paycheck rises, more vehicles, more ways to receive money), major and minor ones, to increase interest. They are still left to be looked at. It takes time for the developers to work on them so it makes sense. I can definitely say from personal experience that current conditions are not ideal for taxi drivers, especially because of the whole pay-with-cash thing which demotivates people a lot, both drivers and customers (most don't have money on them - high risk of being robbed/all stores accept 'credit cards' etc). Worth pointing out; at times we might not receive calls for up to 30, 60 minutes. Maybe more. So there is often nothing to do and I am not quite sure how to 'fix' that.

I just have to agree with you about something, the city really needs taxi drivers, same as other jobs. I have a feeling that people undermine it occasionally. Especially with the changes regarding legal/illegal characters. Stealing a car is a huge risk, and I have found myself many times debating whether I should do it or not. Leading to either calling a friend who is probably busy doing something else, or having to run all the way.

But nonetheless, correct me if I am wrong; I personally don't believe taxi activity lacks, at least that much. It's pretty decent as of now but could definitely be a lot better, sure.

However you don't seem to be suggesting something. Do you have anything in mind?

[NiftyLad]

May be the wrong place to put this but i think a solution to this issue which has existed every since i can remember (New players not having ways around) would be to add vehicle rentals . Simply have them operate like “job vehicles” where you pay a certain amount to get them and once you return them , you get your money back . This then gets rid of the need of the cheaper taxi drivers to always be clocked on .

How: Place vehicle rentals around the map that have bicycles for very cheap and cheap cars . You go the circle and rent the vehicle and when youre done with it you return it for a full refund just like any work vehicle .

[Primetime92]

@NiftyLad I could just buy a bike at that point, the problem is when you want to retrieve another vehicle.

@Mastro12345 I play on City2 most of the time and I barely see any Taxi drivers online to be honest. I'm not trying to put a blame on anyone or pointing fingers. I'm just saying that the lack of drivers leads to people doing GTA, which leads to unnecessary jailing and might put in jeopardy people trying to legal RP. I haven't thought much of any solution beside hiring more drivers, I don't see how to improve the situation in any other manner. I also do get that, as a driver, you might be waiting on duty for hours without any calls, which can become boring and unpleasant.

Maybe the way plates are run by the PD needs to be revised…. (Ever walked from the prison to Legion Square?)

[Zopfco]

Worth pointing out; at times we might not receive calls for up to 30, 60 minutes. Maybe more. So there is often nothing to do and I am not quite sure how to 'fix' that.

Could taxi dispatch generate "local" NPC calls on demand? This would let drivers earn while waiting for player calls by running what would amount to a 2-stop route. If no player calls come in they could keep accepting these NPC routes one at a time until they get a call or clock out.

I'd also agree the cabs should use the debit card like other businesses. The idea of having to collect cash & then safely deposit it without getting robbed makes the taxi job unappealing. Maybe enter the rider's name into a "meter" that invoices them at the end of the trip? The rider would still have the option of tipping with cash but it would make the job seem a lot safer for everyone involved.

[Mastro12345]

Worth pointing out; at times we might not receive calls for up to 30, 60 minutes. Maybe more. So there is often nothing to do and I am not quite sure how to 'fix' that.

Could taxi dispatch generate "local" NPC calls on demand? This would let drivers earn while waiting for player calls by running what would amount to a 2-stop route. If no player calls come in they could keep accepting these NPC routes one at a time until they get a call or clock out.

I'd also agree the cabs should use the debit card like other businesses. The idea of having to collect cash & then safely deposit it without getting robbed makes the taxi job unappealing. Maybe enter the rider's name into a "meter" that invoices them at the end of the trip? The rider would still have the option of tipping with cash but it would make the job seem a lot safer for everyone involved.

This is not a bad idea. I think it was suggested long ago by someone, might be wrong. It surely is not ideal but it adds something instead of just - inevitably - farming paycheck when no calls are received at times.

[Zopfco]

As an alternative to generating the routes on demand via dispatch, I thought it may be simpler/easier to have a taxi stand somewhere logical like the airport. Driver pulls in to the zone, hits E, server generates a local fare to a random location like the other route driver jobs. Seems like it could be less server overhead than what I first suggested.

[Choppa25]

Just a random idea I had. Create a bus driver position. If more than 30 people are in a server, you are able to clock in as a bus driver.

You have checkpoints like the other 'delivery' jobs. They are placed at public 'popular' spots: legion square, legion garage, g6, go postal, alta bank, MRPD, Pillbox, etc. Maybe create 1-2 routes that make more sense time-wise, so two bus drivers can be clocked in and cover two routes. So instead of taking your car to GoPostal lets say, and risk losing it, you take the bus. Of course people won't wait for it, but if the timing it's right, some people would use it.

It could also be 'modern' and have free tickets since it's public transport, or the bus driver can 'sell' [invoice] the tickets himself but that's gonna cost time overall.

[Zopfco]

Just a random idea I had. Create a bus driver position. If more than 30 people are in a server, you are able to clock in as a bus driver.

You have checkpoints like the other 'delivery' jobs. They are placed at public 'popular' spots: legion square, legion garage, g6, go postal, alta bank, MRPD, Pillbox, etc. Maybe create 1-2 routes that make more sense time-wise, so two bus drivers can be clocked in and cover two routes. So instead of taking your car to GoPostal lets say, and risk losing it, you take the bus. Of course people won't wait for it, but if the timing it's right, some people would use it.

It could also be 'modern' and have free tickets since it's public transport, or the bus driver can 'sell' [invoice] the tickets himself but that's gonna cost time overall.

This would be pretty cool, maybe a roughy N-S route & an E-W route.

The idea of bike rentals is cool, too. The Arrow light rail glitches too much to be properly ridden but being able to buy a ticket at the kiosks & fast travel between stations is another option.

[khosty]

Just a random idea I had. Create a bus driver position. If more than 30 people are in a server, you are able to clock in as a bus driver.

You have checkpoints like the other 'delivery' jobs. They are placed at public 'popular' spots: legion square, legion garage, g6, go postal, alta bank, MRPD, Pillbox, etc. Maybe create 1-2 routes that make more sense time-wise, so two bus drivers can be clocked in and cover two routes. So instead of taking your car to GoPostal lets say, and risk losing it, you take the bus. Of course people won't wait for it, but if the timing it's right, some people would use it.

It could also be 'modern' and have free tickets since it's public transport, or the bus driver can 'sell' [invoice] the tickets himself but that's gonna cost time overall.

tbh i was thinking the exact same thing before, this seems like a really good rp addition to the server

[Zopfco]

As far as payment for public transport goes, maybe a "transit pass" that's good for something like an IRL week so there aren't as many individual transactions being processed.

"Bus Driver" sounds like a lot of fun but would probably need to be whitelisted to keep random people from constantly driving them off cliffs.

[Mastro12345]

While it is a nice idea, I believe something like bike rentals will render taxi job nearly useless.

Right now we receive perhaps one call every 15-25 minutes, on average. It depends, but that's roughly the average, you get what I mean.

The main reason why people call for one is because they don't want to steal a car and get caught by the police. If no cops online the calls become even more rare.

Reasons:

Potential customers:

• Almost every single store accepts 'debit cards' so you never get the chance to have money on you
• All job paychecks go straight into your bank account
• The process of going to the bank, withdrawing then calling for one is time consuming and demotivates a lot of customers, including me, if I had to put myself in their shoes
• High chances of being robbed if money on you - risky

Then a few more things like taking time to go to customer's destination but there is nothing to be done about this considering taxi drivers ought to obey by the traffic laws.

Now reasons why Taxi drivers might not be interested in clocking in as often (lack of drivers in the city):

Drivers:

• Low paycheck (800$/10mins). Why clock in as a taxi when every other non whitelisted job makes seven times more the money you make in the same amount of time? (keep in mind they offer 0 interraction).
• High chance of the customer not having money on them - ends up being scammed at times (80% of the calls come from extremely new players)
• High risk of being robbed since you always have money on you
• No option to in-voice
• Lack of more ranks - Your interest increases when you have to 'fight' for a higher rank, coming with more benefits too (e.g higher paycheck)
• Lack of company vehicles (not that much of an issue however, it has low impact plus it consumes server resources)
• Main reason: Lack of calls - Driving around doing nothing and/or inevitably farming paycheck (can boost that if we do what is mentioned above)

We need to keep in mind however that this is a game and people prefer fast gameplay. If you had the option between stealing a car without being caught and waiting 4-5 minutes for a taxi, plus another 4-5 minutes to go to your destination, plus paying them, you would probably choose the former knowing no cops are online or nearby. So what I am saying is that the activity can be improved, but to some extent. As NiftyLad said it has always been like that pretty much.

The initial suggestion of driving to NPCs is not bad. It can actually help a tad. The Bus one could do too but I am not quite sure about it. I think best is to take small steps at first and see how things go.

[Zopfco]

While it is a nice idea, I believe something like bike rentals will render taxi job nearly useless.

Right now we receive perhaps one call every 15-25 minutes, on average. It depends, but that's roughly the average, you get what I mean.

The main reason why people call for one is because when they don't want to steal a car and get caught by the police. If no cops online the calls become even more rare.

Reasons: [snip] I think best is to take small steps at first and see how things go.

Good stuff.

The cash-only thing keeps coming up. A meter where you can enter the PID and automate the billing via debit would be cool but might also remove the option of taxing someone extra if they're out in the boonies or trying to get picked up in a sketchy location.

As far as ranks, limo service or even offering a chartered party bus for hire might increase interest in the role? I saw that Unicorn did something like this & I could see other people wanting to roll out the red carpet for VIPs or parties & so on if given the option to reserve a driver or two. This has the advantage of being an RP solution that AFAIK could be implemented without much (if any) coding.

[Mastro12345]

As far as ranks, limo service or even offering a chartered party bus for hire might increase interest in the role? I saw that Unicorn did something like this & I could see other people wanting to roll out the red carpet for VIPs or parties & so on if given the option to reserve a driver or two. This has the advantage of being an RP solution that AFAIK could be implemented without much (if any) coding.

We already have that. People can basically hire some Limousine/Bus drivers for events or whatever. Their choice. We are often advertising it on instagram/twitter.

It's however limited. No all Taxi drivers have access to those vehicles, they can request it though.

[sbdonslaught]

Not really for feedback, but more so the lead of the department.