Messaging service targeted at vehicle owners

PETALING JAYA: You're in a hurry to get out of the carpark, but some double-parking so-and-so has blocked your way with his car, and there's no way for you to contact him.

Not anymore.

Local content provider Worldwide SMS Network Link Sdn Bhd is offering vehicle owners a way to communicate anonymously with each other using a unique messaging service known as Driver-to-Driver SMS (short message service).

“The service allows vehicle owners to send text messages to one another via their mobile phones, using their vehicle registration numbers,” said Manjit Singh, Worldwide SMS Network Link managing director.

“If a driver wants to tell another driver to move his car, all he has to do is type ‘D WAA888 your car is blocking mine. Please move it’ and send it to 39888. He doesn’t need to know the name or mobile number of the other driver,” he claimed.

According to the 28-year-old former telecommunications engineer, Driver-to-Driver SMS can also come in handy in other instances.

“For example, you can use it to inform other drivers if their rear lights are defective, to find out the cause of a traffic jam, to warn a driver that someone is trying to break into his car, or even to make friends,” he told In.Tech last week.

The big drawback to the service is that both sender and recipient must be registered with the service, which gives Worldwide SMS Network Link a helluva big first hurdle -- a critical mass is needed before the service can really be useful.

Security feature

The ability to send messages anonymously, without having to know the other party's name or cellphone number, makes Driver-to-Driver SMS not only convenient but safe as well, Manjit claimed.

For added security, it also comes with a special blocking feature that allows recipients to block abusive messages from particular senders.

“If a driver has been receiving abusive messages from vehicle WAA 888 for instance, then all that driver has to do is type D BLOCK WAA888 and send it to 39888,” he said.

“As soon as the system processes the message, all SMSes from that sender will blocked, and the sender will be penalised.”

This penalty would be based on the number of offences he has committed.

“For the first offence, the sender will be penalised RM1; he will be penalised RM2 for the second offence, RM3 for the third, and so on. After the fifth offence (RM5), the sender will be blacklisted.

“In addition, we are also currently working on creating a list which can be used to filter abusive messages from senders,” Manjit said.

Imported idea

Driver-to-Driver SMS is actually based on a messaging service currently being offered by Textjam.com, an opt-in directory and communications network in Britain.

“I came to know about the service two years ago while hiking up Mount Kinabalu with some tourists from Britain,” Manjit said.

“We started talking and they told me about Textjam.com. When I came back, I immediately contacted the company and started discussing possible ways of carrying out a similar service here.

“Driver-to-Driver SMS is actually the localised, modified version of that same service," he said.

According to Manjit, Driver-to-Driver SMS is available to all prepaid and postpaid Maxis, DiGi and Celcom mobile phone users.

“Each SMS costs 50sen. We will receive a percentage of that income from the respective telcos,” he said.

As noted, for Driver-to-Driver SMS to work, all owners must first register their vehicle registration numbers and mobile numbers with the company’s database.

“We charge a one-time registration fee of RM3,” said Manjit. “Registration can be done either via SMS or the www.d2dclub.com website."

In cases where recipients are unregistered users, the system would immediately notify the sender and store the message for a year in the database.

“In the event drivers change their cars or mobile numbers, then they would first have to re-register," said Manjit.

Driver-to-Driver SMS is just one of the few services Worldwide SMS Network Link is planning to offer drivers.

The company is also working on developing a “reminder service” which it hopes to launch sometime early next year, said Manjit.

“We want to develop a service that can be used by drivers to remind themselves to service their cars, renew their road tax and so on,” he added.

Worldwide SMS Network Link was also looking to expand its services into Singapore within the next couple of months.

“It all depends on how well the service takes off here,” he said.

For more information, call (603) 2274-4461 or e-mail manjits_98@yahoo.com.