Taxi surveillance help

[sbu22]

Greetings all.

To those with camera experience. I've been approached by my local taxi association>, to help provide an in-taxi surveillance solution.

It seems they are having alot of issues with drivers stealing and customer abuse ( they didnt mention the horrendous driving) and want to curb this issue. They apparently losing about 300/500 a day due to theft.

Question is, would the normal dashcams that I see being discussed here fit the bill?

If yes, which do you guys recommend?

These taxi owners have no clue as to what a memory card is, so if I decide to undertake this job, im gonna have to provide on-going support and issue them with videos on disk.

They are willing to trial this out for a year or two.

256 taxis in total.

Am thinking that if possible, I could have a decent second income from this.

Do you guys think its worthwhile or too much trouble and how much would you think is fair to charge monthly for a service like this? bearing in mind the number of taxis.

Please help and offer alternatives if there are any

 

[boxerulez]

Dashcams will be stolen.

 

[crackersa]

Dashcams will be stolen.

Or disabled.

 

[sbu22]

Hehehehe thats what I thought too,

 

[sbu22]

Thing is they really wanna implement this. Been hounding me for weeks now.

Any spy cams that we can fit with a decent resolution?

 

[TEXTILE GUY]

These taxi owners have no clue as to what a memory card is,

Dont think thats the only thing they are clueless about .....

 

[sbu22]

Hehehehehe too true

 

[medicnick83]

Something that is fixed to the roof and maybe in the front, both facing in towards the taxi.

The MyCiti buses here in CPT have a camera near the back looking in if I'm not wrong.

 

[mike156]

How much are they looking to spend per taxi?

A proper working solution isn't going to be cheap.

There are covert ip camera solutions with local sd card storage which may work but it really depends on what they're looking to achieve with this.

Drop me a pm and I may be able to put you in contact with the correct people.

 

[boxerulez]

Start with Rev limiter and govern the top speed.

See how much maintenance money they save... then worry about drivers stealing.

Or simply move your drivers onto a rent the vehicle basis.

They rent the Quantum at X amount. Fill their own fuel.

Fund then for 2 weeks and at the end you will have an exodus of unteliabke drivers/ thieves and abusers. You will be left with drivers who saved and looked after the minibus and economy able to afford the new system.

 

[FNfal]

Just fit tracking devises .you can also fit mini pinhole cams (3 mm hole for the lens)and solid state DVRs .
I would not put dash cams in they will soon sort those out, go covert .

 

[sbu22]

Just fit tracking devises .you can also fit mini pinhole cams (3 mm hole for the lens)and solid state DVRs .
I would not put dash cams in they will soon sort those out, go covert .

Yeah, the plan is to go covert.

 

[naeem]

Start with Rev limiter and govern the top speed.

See how much maintenance money they save... then worry about drivers stealing.

Speeding isnt always the problem. Its the ****ty driving habits.. The lane switching, stopping all over, hooting and thats just the part the effects other drivers. They often have horrible attitudes to the passengers.


A 'thinking out the box' option would be to have mystery passengers.

So lets say you have 250 taxi's. 5 mystery passengers, they travel, monitor and record 10 taxi's a day, and ticking off each taxi from a list. Within a week you'll have ample evidence of the guilty drivers and leave it up to the taxi boss to discipline them?


Less hardware to worry about, and drivers will never know when they are recorded.

 

[HavocXphere]

Not sure how you're going to hide that tbh.

Also...who the hell is going to review all that video footage?

 

[Hemi300c]

I personally wouldn't get involved with the taxi business. You'll be the one with (hopefully only) egg on your face.

 

[HavocXphere]

I personally wouldn't get involved with the taxi business. You'll be the one with (hopefully only) egg on your face.

If memory serves OP has experience with government contracts...so he's a battle hardened veteran of shenanigans I reckon.

 

[Nerfherder]

Yeah, the plan is to go covert.

I think thats the way to go but don't think these guys are stupid. They will notice something is different.

Some of the suggestions here are good though... there is probably a better way to track passengers thats way more low tech.

For example a simple system with a GPS and switch that counts when a door opens and closes. Not accurate but gives you an idea of the foot traffic.
If you want to go a step further then get a GSM sniffer that log cellphones that in the vehicle and for how long, then with the GPS data you can accurately track the people who get on and how far they ride for.

For a camera solution you could get a dashcam for a few grand. Someone was importing them for R1500 here.... but realistically you looking at R2500 upwards.
Trick will be to hide it, perhaps at the back of the taxi.... facing forward. Less likely to get noticed.

 

[sbu22]

If memory serves OP has experience with government contracts...so he's a battle hardened veteran of shenanigans I reckon.

Hahahahaha , I know how to swim with the government sharks yes but these taxi lords are a different kinda animal;-)

Hell even zuma fears them lol

 

[Venomous]

@OP,

walk away....

the taxi bosses need to inform their staff that they are being monitored or else their drivers can take them to court/ccma.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Yes, Africa has very 'unique' challenges.

The problem is that after going through all the trouble of installing covert cameras a simple piece of gum over the lens renders that useless. The taxi driver will know something is up once he realizes the owner has information he could not have gotten by any other means.