CRM for Taxi Business: What to Automate in Driver, Customer and Money Records
A CRM for taxi business owners is a system that links orders, drivers, customers and money in one place and handles the routine itself: it charges the driver's commission after each trip, keeps their balance, blocks drivers in debt, credits bonuses to customers and builds reports. The main benefit of automating a taxi fleet isn't a "nice database"; it's that the owner no longer has to reconcile by hand who earned what and who owes what. Below we cover which modules such a system should have, how to set them up and where to start the rollout.
Why a taxi company needs a CRM, not a spreadsheet
With five drivers, you can keep everything in a spreadsheet. With thirty, the problems start:
- the commission is calculated by hand once a week, and every other calculation leads to an argument;
- a driver in debt keeps taking orders;
- it's unclear which customers are regulars and why one of them stopped calling;
- corporate clients ride "on credit", and reconciling with them turns into an excavation;
- the owner can't see which shifts and which areas bring in money.
A CRM for a taxi business solves these problems because every order immediately generates the right records: a driver financial transaction, a line in a report, an entry in the customer's history.
Five modules of a taxi CRM system
| Module | What's in it | What pain it removes |
|---|---|---|
| Drivers | Profiles, groups, work terms, rating, suspensions | "Who is working and on what terms" |
| Cash desk | Balances, charges, top-ups, advances | "Who owes what" |
| Customers | Passenger base, discounts, bonuses, organizations | "Who our customers are and how to keep them" |
| Reports | Summary and detailed reports, export | "What's happening in the business" |
| Integrations | Webhooks, external systems | "How to connect to accounting and the website" |
Let's go through each.
Taxi driver accounting: profile, groups, work terms
Driver profile
The profile holds everything needed for work and checks: full name, phone, call sign (which is also the app login), car, driver's license and permit details, group, work terms, requirements (for example, "speaks English"), allowed order types and a photo the passenger sees.
Two fields are directly tied to money: balance and minimum balance. As soon as the balance drops to the minimum, the system blocks the driver automatically: they don't receive orders until they top up. The minimum balance can be negative if you're willing to give the driver a small line of credit.
Groups
Groups divide drivers into categories: "newcomers", "experienced", "night shift", "own cars". Each group has a priority, high, medium or low, which affects dispatch: drivers in a priority group are treated as "closer" to the order. Groups are also used in reward rules and to control access to items in the driver store.
Work terms: automatic commission
This is the key part of taxi fleet automation. Work terms describe how much money the system will charge the driver (or credit to them) and when:
- per order: a fixed amount and/or percentage, with different rules for different price ranges, order types and vehicle types;
- per shift: a flat amount, including one that depends on the number of completed orders;
- daily, weekly and monthly payments: for example, car rental or a subscription fee.
Example (illustrative figures): a driver with their own car pays 10% of each order, while a driver in a fleet car pays a flat amount per shift plus 5% per order. These are two sets of work terms, each assigned to the relevant drivers.
Rewards, penalties and rating
"Condition → action" rules let you automate motivation. Tonotel has more than forty such conditions and more than twenty actions. A few examples of what you can set up:
| Condition | Action |
|---|---|
| Completed an order | Raise the rating |
| Declined more than a set number of orders | Lower the rating or block temporarily |
| Exceeded the shift target | Credit a bonus to the balance |
| Was late for a pickup | Charge a penalty |
| Completed their first order after registration | Top up the balance of the driver who referred them |
| Hasn't done a photo inspection for N days | Trigger a photo inspection |
The rating affects dispatch: a driver with a high rating gets orders earlier.
Cash desk: balances and financial transactions
The cash desk is a log of all money movements for drivers, staff and corporate clients. Each transaction stores the order, type, date, the person who performed it, the amount and the balance after the transaction, so the history reads like a bank statement.
What matters to the owner:
- Automatic transactions are labeled by source: a per-order charge, per-shift charge, daily, weekly or monthly payment, reward or penalty, discount compensation, compensation for cashless payment, a purchase in the driver store. Each shows which rule created it.
- Manual transactions: a top-up or charge with a comment, for example when a driver brings cash to the office.
- Advance payment: a temporary top-up with an expiry date. The driver gets money on their balance, and on the specified date the amount is charged back automatically. Handy when you need to let a driver go online who doesn't have enough balance yet.
- Top-ups through payment terminals: the driver deposits cash at a terminal, entering their call sign, and the money lands on their balance minus the company's commission.
Taxi customer database: passengers and organizations
Passengers
A customer profile is created automatically on the first call or app order. It holds phone numbers, name, the number of completed and canceled orders, bonus balance, personal discount, customer tags and a promo code. Useful tools:
- Discount number: a regular-customer ID.
- Personal discount as an amount or percentage, plus a "Driver compensation" field: you decide who pays for the discount, the company, the driver or both, half each.
- Blacklist: for customers who repeatedly don't show up for the car.
- Blocked drivers: a specific driver won't be assigned to a specific customer if there's been a conflict between them.
- Customer tags: for segmentation, such as "corporate", "airport", "VIP".
Retention programs run on top of the database: discount and referral programs, loyalty rules, a bonus program, promo codes and rewards. Discounts don't add up: only one applies, in strict priority (promo code, then personal discount, then loyalty), which protects you from an accidental loss on a trip.
Organizations (corporate accounts)
A corporate client rides on post-payment. The organization has a balance and a minimum balance, a list of phone numbers allowed to book, allowed order types and billing details. Its employees can be issued printed ride vouchers, and the organization itself can get an account portal with reports on its trips. Settlements go through the same cash desk.
Taxi company reports: what to look at and how often
Reports in a taxi CRM aren't "export everything"; they're answers to specific questions. In Tonotel reports are built in a report builder: you choose the report type, columns, filters, totals and sorting. There are summary reports (drivers, users, orders, orders by hour, corporate accounts, driver and operator shifts, customers, phone lines) and detailed ones (orders, financial transactions, calls, SMS, ratings, card payments, bonuses, store, referral program, vouchers, photo inspection, rewards). Some summary reports can be shown as charts.
| Owner's question | Report | How often |
|---|---|---|
| How many orders, and for what total? | Orders (summary), orders by hour | Daily |
| What has each driver done, and what do they owe? | Drivers (summary) with balance | Daily |
| Why was money charged to a driver? | Driver financial transactions | On request, in disputes |
| How are dispatchers performing? | Users, operator shifts, calls | Weekly |
| How many canceled and overdue orders? | Orders filtered by status | Weekly |
| How are bonuses and referrals working? | Bonus balance history, referral program | Monthly |
| How much do organizations owe? | Corporate accounts, account financial transactions | Monthly |
Reports export to CSV with no row limit, which is handy for accounting. There's also a separate event log: shifts, declined orders, driver status changes. It helps sort out disputes.
Integrations: connecting the CRM to other systems
Webhooks send data to an external system when something happens: an order is created, accepted, completed or canceled; a driver opens or closes a shift, their balance changes, or they press the panic button. You can also add a custom button to the order form for dispatchers (for example, "Send to accounting") and a button in the app for drivers. This opens the way to integration with an accounting system, a website or your own analytics.
Checklist for choosing a CRM for taxi business
- [ ] The driver's commission is charged automatically: per order, per shift, on a schedule.
- [ ] There's a minimum balance and auto-blocking of drivers in debt.
- [ ] Every financial transaction shows its source and rule.
- [ ] You can give a driver an advance with automatic repayment.
- [ ] Drivers top up their balance without visiting the office (terminals or card).
- [ ] The customer base builds itself from calls and the app.
- [ ] Discounts, bonuses, promo codes and referrals are configured without a programmer.
- [ ] You can manage corporate clients on post-payment.
- [ ] Reports are built around your questions and export to a spreadsheet.
- [ ] Access rights are separated: dispatchers don't see the cash desk, accountants don't change fares.
- [ ] There are webhooks or an API for connecting to other systems.
If your taxi CRM is part of a single system with dispatch, data doesn't have to be moved between programs.
A 4-step rollout plan
- Finances. Define work terms for each driver category, set minimum balances, and create a suspension reason for auto-blocking. Check with a test order that the commission is charged correctly.
- Drivers. Create groups, assign drivers to them and set up a few simple reward rules: rating for a completed order, a penalty for repeated declines.
- Customers. Decide who pays for discounts, set up the discount program and promo codes, and add organizations on post-payment.
- Reports. Put together 4–5 reports you'll open every day and every week, and give staff access only to the ones they need.
If you plan to accept card payments, think in advance about how money for cashless trips will get back to the driver: the payment type has a driver compensation setting, and the company credits the trip cost to the driver's balance. With zero compensation, the driver is effectively driving for free.
Frequently asked questions
How is a taxi CRM different from a regular CRM?
A regular CRM tracks deals and customers. A CRM for a taxi business is tied to orders and drivers: it charges the commission after every trip automatically, keeps the driver's balance, blocks drivers in debt, and tracks shifts, customer discounts and bonuses, and settlements with organizations. A general-purpose CRM would need heavy customization to do this.
What should a taxi company automate first?
Start with the money: automatic commission charges per order or per shift, the driver balance and a minimum balance with auto-blocking. Then reports on orders and drivers, a customer base with discounts, and settlements with corporate clients. Add driver motivation through reward rules once basic accounting runs smoothly.
Can a taxi CRM be connected to accounting or my own system?
Yes, if the system supports webhooks or an API. For example, in Tonotel webhooks send order and driver events to an external system, and reports export to CSV, which opens in spreadsheet editors.
How do I control drivers' debts to the taxi company?
Set a minimum balance for each driver and configure automatic blocking when it's reached. A driver in debt then stops receiving orders until they top up their balance, and the dispatcher doesn't have to watch this manually.
What reports does a taxi company owner need?
The minimum set: orders for a period broken down by status and payment type, a driver summary report (orders, amounts, balance), driver shifts, driver financial transactions, and a report on operators and calls. For loyalty programs, reports on bonuses and the referral program.
Summary
A CRM for a taxi business pays off not through features but through the routine that disappears: the commission calculates itself, drivers in debt are blocked automatically, and answering "how much did we make yesterday?" takes a minute. Start with the financial side, then add customers, reports and motivation. In Tonotel all these modules work in one system with dispatch and the apps, so data from every trip goes straight into both the cash desk and the reports.