Unified Dispatch Inc. (“UDI”) was founded in February 2001 as a spin-off of 1-800-TAXICAB, the nation’s largest taxi referral network.  In late 2002, UDI completed its first product, UniBook, an automated call taking system utilizing speech and/or touch-tone recognition for placing an order for taxicab service.  UniBook was pilot tested at San Francisco Yellow Cab and quickly generated automation rates in the high 30%’s allowing them to reduce six call center shifts a day and decrease their abandoned call rate by 25%.  Today, San Francisco Yellow Cab automates 45% of their daily trip volume via UniBook and has crossed over the 50% mark several times.

With the success at San Francisco Yellow, the company began to sign on other clients.  Large fleets with major North American influence such as Calgary Checker (520 cars), Alberta Co-op (520 cars) and the Texas Taxi chain (1,500 cars) of companies signed on and are currently using UniBook.  Today the company has over 20 customers currently running UniBook on many different dispatch platforms and phone systems as well as a strong backlog of installs for the future.

In June 2005, Unified Dispatch Inc. became Unified Dispatch LLC when long-time senior executive Dan Tamkin partnered with ZCapital, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm dedicated to investing in technology firms.  The $50mm fund has deployed $30mm of their capital to date.  The change has allowed Unified Dispatch to bring more ownership to its employees as well as enable new business opportunities by partnering with other companies in the ZCapital portfolio.