Radio Dispatch
Track how wireless transmitters, central switchboards, and computer terminals brought rides directly to callers.
Inside this collection
Valve Radios
Examine heavy two-way tube transmitters bolted inside trunks during the early wireless era.
Switchboard Rooms
Visit bustling telephone control centres where operators took customer calls and jotted jobs on paper slips.
Call Signs
Learn how numeric and phonetic radio handles let dispatchers identify hundreds of moving cabs.
Relay Towers
Discover high-elevation radio masts built on city hills to beam voice instructions through urban canyons.
Computer Terminals
Trace the early digital dashboard monitors that brought silent automated dispatch into cab cabins.
Voice Codes
Decode the shorthand numerical phrases radio dispatchers used to clear channels quickly.
Paging Beepers
Look back at dashboard buzzers and pocket pagers that alerted drivers to incoming customer bookings.
Direct Lines
Explore private hotline telephones placed inside hotel lobbies and restaurants linked straight to depots.
City stories deserve
a closer reading.
We trace the records behind the ride: drivers, fares, closed associations and changing streets. Evidence comes before the legend.
Our approach