Shuttle Bus Business Overview

Shuttle buses take people regularly to and from key destinations

1. Destinations (eg airport / seaport) where passengers are picked up or dropped

2. Addresses

   1. The price of the fare depends on the area of the Address found using suburb / postcode

   2. The address may be selected from a list

      1. Hotels - flagged in the system as Hotels

      2. Common Stops - eg railway stations - flagged in the system as common stops

      3. Shuttle Stops - eg University Dorm - Addresses on Debtors that have flag of Shuttle Stop

   3. The address may be manually entered

Broadly there are two a few types of shuttle runsbusinesses

1. Ad-Hoc - built as bookings are received - common with:

   1. Areas with sporadic bookings

   2. Private addresses

   3. Bookings can be added to existing legs or be manually added to a run

2. Route - scheduled runs

   1. Some stops are made even if no booking exists

   2. Strict schedule adherence

   3. Bookings can auto-attach easily

3. Driver Scheduled

   1. Drivers pick bookings from a list of bookings by adding their name to the booking

   2. Drivers mark bookings on / off / missed in a portal

Definitions

1. States of Operation - a shuttle run will normally only travel in a single state

2. Destinations Serviced - eg airport with address and terminals

   1. Hubs are a grouping of destinations

3. Areas serviced for the destinations

   1. ie Areas that do have a travel time to the destination chosen are not serviced

4. Services offered

   1. normally a default service and an alternate service eg( Shuttle or Private Vehicle)

5. Customer Online booking and Payment

6. Planning Bus Runs

7. Drivers Portal marking onboard / missed

8. Delegations

   1. to others (A need to Pay others)

   2. from others (A need to Collect payment from others)

9. Guest Bookings

   1. Guest bookings are when the person booking online does not create their own account and instead the booking is entered under the cash customer.

Customer online Booking and Payment

1. Customers are either

   1. individuals making bookings using an online website after authentication

   2. Anonymous Guest users making bookings using the online website (refusing to register)

2. Referring organisations may provide a LOGO image to display to referred customers

   1. Example a hotel may want their logo displayed if a link was provided from their website to the booking site

3. The booking screen may be a single page - or setup as a stepped wizard

4. The customer may make a return booking and pay for it all at the same time

5. The payment is online and the booking if not paid is not retained by the system

   1. This is to avoid tyre kickers creating bookings in the system.

Online Booking Portal

Some key options:

Other portal settings

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The customer will then receive a booking confirmation email with an attached invoice

If the customer logs in again and has an existing booking they will see it is possible to show existing bookings it at the top of the screen -(see the green line below). Customers have not been provided the ability to change bookings online once booked.

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The booking will then be ready for adding to a Bus Run

Booking confirmation email template

• Email Template for the booking confirmation

  • Usage context = Booking

  • System Usage = Order/Booking Payment Receipt

  • Recipients Role = Customer

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Booking Time calculations

Bookings use the following logic to calculate times

1. A time is required (Arrival or departure)

   1. Flight or ship time normally

2. The destination must be on the booking

   1. Destinations include

      1. minutes to add if pick up from

      2. minutes to add if drop off to

3. The address must be on the booking with a suburb/postcode

   1. A postcode results in an Area designation

   2. The Area combined with the destination results in expected travel time

4. The date must be entered

5. A time is required

   1. Flight or ship time

Booking changes

The customer has not been allowed to make changes to their bookings -

• they will need to make a phone call

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• or email

If a booking has already been paid for it cannot be changed

1. it can be cancelled for credit and a replacement booking entered only

Bus Runs

When a company wants the system to plan all the pickups and drop offs based on booking times then bus runs are used.

Bus Runs that are a number of Routes

When a company uses regular routes

• Bus runs have Legs and each Leg can be a route (example leg is a trip from the city to the airport)

• Bookings will attach to a suitable leg based on time of pickup

• Additional legs will auto create as new bookings are added if no suitable leg exists

Bus runs that are Ad-hoc

When a company does not have regular routes

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Ad-hoc bus runs are common where there is not sufficient volume to have regular cycles. This is very common in the Shuttle Bus industry.

No Bus Runs - Driver self Scheduling - all internal drivers so can see all bookings

When a company allows drivers to pickup bookings or pass bookings to others in team there is no need for bus runs

1. The driver is linked instead directly to the booking

   1. Drivers can be linked anytime to a booking

2. The Buses have a login to the system (special type of employee)

   1. The driver then enterers their login details (AKA and pin)

   2. The driver can see

      1. All bookings linked to them

      2. All bookings with no driver linked

      3. All bookings linked to other drivers

   3. The Driver can

      1. Assign themselves to any booking (including one already assigned to another driver)

      2. Remove themselves from any booking not yet picked up

3. There is a manager portal allowing a manager to assigned bookings to drivers

   1. The manager can also change the expected pickup time in case the passenger has contacted with an update

Planning Ad-Hoc Bus Runs

Ad-Hoc runs do not follow a schedule and bookings are commonly manually planned.

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1. Planned Bus runs (a combination of a driver and a vehicle with a from and to time on a date)

2. Bus Run Legs

   1. Ad-Hoc runs = a group of bookings in a direction to or from a destination

      1. Eg a group of bookings to the airport will be a leg

      2. At the end of the leg the driver will indicate starting the next leg

      3. The following bookings from the airport will be the next leg

   2. Route runs = a route from start to finish

      1. Eg a route may start at a destination (eg the airport) full of people - expecting to later end at a destination (eg the airport) full of people.

      2. Travel around a series of stops

      3. Drop off and pickup during the route

3. Allocated bookings (bookings already assigned to a Run Leg)

4. UnAllocated bookings (bookings that need to be assigned to a run

   1. Bookings can be assigned or moved runs anytime

The Drivers Day - Routes and add hoc Bus Runs

The driver uses the drivers portal to:

1. View their runs today and in the future

2. Confirm they have done a vehicle check

3. Start their run

4. Be shown the next address to go to

5. Mark passengers on-board / missed / or end of leg

6. Back to 4 until day is finished

Payment of Referrals

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1. Changes to the % requires Secure Features

2. Changes to the rating require Secure Features

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End to End flow of a shuttle booking

Pricing logic

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Where a price cannot be calculated

Where a price cannot be calculated > “manual pricing” will tick on.

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The customer will need to be contacted and a price entered manually by the back office

Create and Modify Delegate Invoices

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Print the Delegate Invoice

Student Bookings for University

Example limitations that can be enforced on bookings

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Student Login

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Create Booking

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List bookings and Create Invoice

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Print Invoice

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Cruise Bookings

Create Booking

From Airport to Cruise

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