fonaCAB Craigavon

fonaCAB is Northern Irelands biggest taxi company with a sixty year history. We are, and always have been locally owned and have grown over the years to the position where we complete an average of 110,000 bookings per week and almost 15,000,000 passenger journeys per year.

By bringing local taxi companies together within the fonaCAB family we are able to add significant value for passengers and you will see the benefits of this takeover in a variety of ways.

First of all, nothing much will change overnight - this is to allow us to get up and running and gauge demand and assess priority areas. With access now to so many more taxis in one place in the area, booking availability will improve. With more taxis closer to you, dispatch times will come down and with GPS in each taxi, journey times will be as efficient as possible. Our systems learn from your bookings and this makes your next booking simpler as we remember your favourite pick up locations

For the first time in the area, Passengers will be able to book, track and pay using our APP and by calling our new Carn Contact Centre. Passengers will also see improved communication and receive a text message or APP notification to their mobile with each booking with details of the car that is collecting them. The benefits of this are safety and convenience, and for example should a passenger ever lose an item on a journey, this trace ability helps us find if it has been left in one of our cars

The fares that were in place before the takeover are still in place – there has been no increase and we have not adjusted any taxi meters. There are slight fare differences between each of the companies we acquired, so your fare could be slightly more but could also be slightly less depending on the taxi that collects you

We brought some Belfast Drivers to the area for the first few days to support the business while local drivers were being transferred onto new systems and trained. Belfast operates a different fare structure. This was only temporary and very short term and fares have returned to normal as Belfast Drivers are no longer permitted to work locally

The phone numbers for the local depots are all now being answered at our new state of the art Contact Centre on Carn Road. This is much more efficient as we have many more staff able to take your call

All local drivers have been offered a position at fonaCAB. All depot, office and dispatch staff are now working for fonaCAB. We keep all the great local knowledge and you may well find yourself talking to a familiar voice when you ring in. Many of the depot owners have also transferred to fonaCAB and are either driving with us, or working in our Contact Centre

All of the existing depots will remain open and you can book inside using the depot phone and wait inside just as you did before. They have all been refurbished re branded as fonaCAB, just like the one pictured that was recently refurbished in Lisburn

Just like the Drivers, the dispatch staff needed trained and transferred onto our systems and to help while this was happening, we brought staff from our Belfast office. This was again temporary, and our goal is to have our Carn Contact Centre manned solely with existing local staff as soon as possible

All the local depot numbers will continue to work. In addition, we now have a new local number which is 028 38 333 888 which you will see on all our cars. Our recommended way to book however is by using our free APP which you can get from either the Play Store or from iTunes. The App allows you to book your taxi, track its progress and pay using either cash, credit card or you can set up an account. If you call us and all our lines are busy, the call will be answered in Belfast so you can be sure that no matter when you call or book 24 hours a day, there will be someone to talk to.

You can download our App from our website here or directly from Apple ITunes IOS APP and the Google Play Store Android APP

fonaCAB, like all taxi companies, has areas that we provide a regular service to. We can of course provide a taxi anywhere on the Island on Ireland, but booking outside our normal working areas may involve additional time and charges

We limit our working areas to cut down on the amount of inefficient travelling time that the Drivers may incur. Most of our work is in and around the town centres of Lurgan and Portadown and you should be able to book without issue on our APP and by phone (subject to car availability)

We'll use some examples of a taxi to / from / around Armagh to illustrate some issues you may come across

Pick up point inside our zones / Destination outside - If you are booking a taxi from Lurgan town centre to go to Armagh you can book on our APP or by calling us as the pick up point is inside our booking zones

Pick up point outside our zones / Destination inside - If you are booking a taxi from Armagh to Portadown town centre you cannot book on our APP as the pick up point is outside our booking zones, but you can book by calling us

Pick up point outside our zones / Destination outside - If you are booking a taxi from the Armagh Golf Club to the Armagh City Hotel, you cannot book on our APP and if you call to book you will be advised that as both pick up point and destination are outside of our zones, you will incur a radius surcharge (additional fare) as the driver will have had to travel a much longer distance to get to you for a potentially very small fare. You can then choose whether to book or not

If you book a taxi from your mobile phone either by calling or using the APP we send you a confirmation of the booking, details of the car that will be collecting you and a booking reference number on the APP. This means you’ll know better when your taxi has been dispatched, when it is about to arrive, and should you need to ask about your journey (for example you’ve left something in a taxi by accident) we can track your journey more easily

These will all be transferred to fonaCAB and will remain as before. If you are unsure about your booking or account, please call us in the first instance and we can advise on what is happening for you and put your mind at rest

fonaCAB are the biggest sponsors of local sporting talent. Our sponsorship crosses football, GAA, Ice Hockey, boxing and many more for teams and individuals. We also invest heavily in the communities where we work with charitable and community donations. We have a process for selection, and if you would like your idea to be considered, please contact us in the first instance by emailing community@fonacab.com

Simple – in the first instance contact our Fleet Department on 02838 323 409 We can talk you through what’s involved, the great benefits of driving for fonaCAB and what you need to do next. We can then meet you either at our Carn Contact Centre or at our Knock Road Belfast Office and get you up and running – we provide everything you need and at no charge to you. You can find full details on becoming a Driver at www.fonacab.com/newdrivers

We never like to have unhappy passengers, but if you do have a complaint, we’d like to hear about it – After all, if we don’t know about it, we cant do anything about it. Please contact us on customerservice@fonacab.com or call our Customer Services Team on 02890 333 333. Please use the same email address if we haven't answered all your questions here