Taxi industry stakeholders were invited to a presentation by one of the companies promoting GPS on the Island, yesterday.

But few taxi owners or drivers were present, with Advanced Tech saying the operators have already ?had their chance? to hear about computerised dispatch.

And, despite the plausible benefits to operators, dispatchers, stakeholders and passengers of computerised dispatch; the presenters refused to put a firm price on their system for at least three days.

Cost has been the number one barrier to computerised dispatch for taxi drivers, but Mobile Knowledge, the Canadian company which implements the systems, said it was impossible to name a price, likening it to pricing a car without saying what type of car and what extras are wanted with it.

There are two different versions of the computerised dispatch available from Mobile Knowledge and an array of options that can be added to each one.

Advanced Tech representative Junior DeSilva said the Bermuda grapevine had put the cost at $3,000; a figure which he called unfounded. However, he promised, within three days the company will draw up a system meeting Bermuda?s specific needs ?and give you a price?. Advanced Tech is the local agent for Mobile Knowledge.

Representatives from the Island?s transport, tourism and business sectors, among others, appeared at the Mobile Knowledge presentation yesterday to hear exactly what benefits computerised dispatch could offer.

The benefits were obvious: tracking to allow increased safety for cab drivers and passengers, faster pick-up times and reduced roaming times for operators, and a ?fair fares? system ensuring that dispatchers are unable to show any preference for particular taxi operators.

Features such as GPS-enabled ?mild advertising can send messages on a passengers? screen as they pass restaurants or movie theatres, and businesses can create computerised taxi corporate accounts. Cab drivers can receive information such as flight delays.

Special emergency buttons would allow drivers to send an instant message to their dispatcher or the Police, and text-to-voice technology could translate written information into voice messages for drivers.

With Bermuda being one of the last major taxi hubs in the world with the antiquated radio dispatch system, the technology ? already used in the UK, US, Canada, Europe and Southeast Asia ? is an enormous leap for most taxi drivers, Mr. Scott agreed.

Though most present seemed to feel computerised dispatch was a good move, Chamber of Commerce representative Diane Gordon questioned why the taxi operators themselves were not resent at the meeting.

John Harvey of the BHA agreed, saying the company had to get the word out to operators, say ?come and listen?.

One of the two taxi operators there said ?none of this? ? the benefits of computerised dispatch ? were discussed at a taxi operators meeting on Monday night.

?We have been that route before, and we are going back that route,? Mr. DeSilva said.