NEMT | SmartMove

Transportation Industry Tips: How Taxi & NEMT Companies Drive Profitability & Growth

smadmin — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 18:04:25 +0000

So you’ve decided to get into the transportation business.

Congratulations, you’ve come to the point where you have made the leap. Being an entrepreneur is an admirable career path that puts your fate into your own hands. You’ve probably gained experience within the transportation industry by being a driver, administrator, or fulfilled other roles within a taxi cab, non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT), or other transportation company.

Running any business is about maximizing profits and driving growth.

Starting Small

The number of vehicles in your initial fleet depends on how much funding you have, and even modest fleets with 2-10 cars are able to bring in profits. It’s important to run your company efficiently, without breaking the bank — avoiding high-costs that cut into your profit margins.

Booking & Dispatching for Small Fleets

Whatever the size of your fleet, you’ll need to invest in technology that can manage operations of your taxi company. Merely having a phone number, just won’t cut it these days.

At minimum, every legit taxi or NEMT company should have online booking and chat support on their website, in addition to phone answering service for those that call in their bookings.

Fleet Operation Tips: Thriving in the Taxi & NEMT Industry

SmartMove Systems offer an affordable all-in-one solution for small fleets (and big ones too). With cost-effective website booking tools, apps, and dispatching that all integrate together, your transportation company runs smoothly, giving customers and drivers convenient experiences.

Want to see the SmartMove System in action? Book a Demo

Taking Customer Booking Calls and Dispatching Rides at Low-Cost

Not only does SmartMove provide the software needed to keep your fleet moving, they also provide packages that include transportation specialized call centers that provide you with low-cost call and chat answering service, as well as full dispatching. This eliminates the costs of running and managing staff locally at high wages and high turnover rates.

Contact support services for booking and dispatching are available to all fleets that utilize SmartMove Systems, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

What support is included?

Customer Calls, Chat, Email, and More
Driver training
Staff training
After-hours assistance
Holiday/Weekend Coverage
Troubleshooting and system improvements
Assistance with specific reporting requirements
Everyday assistance with keeping your fleet operational and at maximum efficiency

SmartMove works ‘hand in hand’ with your fleet, from fleet setup to driver and staff training. We are available 24/7 to help you with troubleshooting and system repairs.

Low-cost operations, with all the features you need.

Working with SmartMove can make all the difference in how much it costs you to run your transportation business. It’s important to lower your costs as much as possible, without compromising the quality of your service.

Why SmartMove?

Vehicle Mapping & Tracking

In-Depth Reporting

Branded App & Online Booking

Easy Driver + Dispatching Process

Booking + Dispatch + Call Center Integrations

More!

Top 5 Features Your Taxi Dispatch Software Needs

Medical Transportation (NEMT) Dispatching Software Guide

smadmin — Thu, 19 May 2022 17:15:48 +0000

There is a ton of unlocked potential in the transportation industry. A huge sector that has been growing over the last decade is medical transportation. Ride service companies all over the world have shifted or expanded their services to cater to the ever-rising demand for non-emergency medical transportation, also known as NEMT.

Learn how and why NEMT companies use the SmartMove System for managing operations.

Why Do People Need NEMT

Every person strives to maintain health and well-being, where many are unable to drive themselves due to injury, disability, lack of vehicle, or many other reasons. If anything, these individuals are likely to have more medical appointments than most — where options for recurring transportation are needed.

As the baby boomers of the world continue to age, many are looking to ride service companies to offer medical transportation (and transportation in general) to get where they need to be, when they need to be there.

How Do I Run a Successful Medical Transportation Company?

In today’s day and age, you shouldn’t be running your company with manual processes that are time consuming, inefficient, and inconvenient for operators and customers alike.

Customer Booking

At minimum, transportation companies should have many options for customers and corporate clients to book and manage their rides. Clients should be able to call in bookings, book online on your website, or manage rides through a mobile app.

Stay competitive and grow customer satisfaction with SmartMove’s advanced app and web booking tools, which can be custom branded to reflect your company.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SMARTMOVE APPS Book a Demo

Are you missing out on calls or chats because of the struggle associated with hiring and keeping customer support teams in-house?

By outsourcing to specialized contact centers for transportation, medical transportation companies eliminate the headache of maintaining an in-house support team, usually made up of local, low performing entry level applicants that don’t stick around very long. By outsourcing, your customers and drivers have better experiences, while you avoid the costs of rising wages and unruly employees.

Dispatching

Your dispatching standard operating procedures (SOPs) should also run smoothly with your software system, allowing your team to easily distribute and accept rides quickly.

Offering these routes of booking and dispatching to your customer and driver base might seem overwhelming and expensive, but in reality there are affordable options for transportation software.

Your drivers are able to accept and manage rides with ease through the SmartMove Go Dispatch App on Android Devices for easy set up.

SmartMove Solutions & Case Studies

SmartMove offers part-time and full-time transportation specialized support and dispatching services, with agents at the ready to serve. We make it easy to outsource and save you money.

Whether you are opting to manage your own support/dispatching team, or deciding to outsource with SmartMove, SmartVoix by SmartMove is a feature rich phone system which has been customized to interface seamlessly with the SmartMove booking and dispatch system.

SmartMove Taxi Software Features

SmartMove Systems for NEMT Companies

No matter what stage of growth your medical transportation company is currently in, SmartMove offers customizable packages that work with your ever changing needs. With options for every budget, SmartMove works with established transportation businesses along with startup companies. We’ve partnered with companies that work with fleets ranging from fleets of 2–200+, and they love the fact that they can easily add on more features as they grow.

Book a Demo Contact Us Call 206-886-0620

Pro Tips: Guide to Running & Growing Small Fleets

smadmin — Thu, 12 May 2022 19:51:21 +0000

Building a Successful Transportation Business

When you talk to most transportation companies with large fleets, most have had modest beginnings of less than 10 cars, or even starting with a single vehicle. Many transportation business owners have had personal experience driving as a profession themselves, with their drive and ambition pushing them to run their own fleet operation.

If you are on a similar path, looking to grow your fleet in the transportation industry, learn about the different ways you can make smart moves when developing your strategy and business plan.

Decide Business Structure

Will you own the vehicles and lease them out? Will drivers use their own vehicles? There are several pros and cons to consider when choosing your structure depending on your budget and other factors.

Contract Drivers

Taxi drivers own their own vehicles and agree to paint their cars with the taxi company colors and logo.
Build your fleet without the obligations and regulations that come with employed drivers. Less pressure on your budget, where leases pay off vehicles and owner/operators are responsible for their vehicles.
Decide on how your fleet is maintained. Will you take on the costs or are drivers responsible?
Contract drivers must operate at your standards in order to have the right to display your brand if stated in your agreement.

Employed Drivers

Cab companies own vehicles and hire drivers to operate them.
Great for Medical Transportation (NEMT) where certifications and special needs put higher liability on driver performance.
Drivers are provided with vehicles maintained at your standard, with requirements to perform based on your operating procedures.

Low-Cost Booking + Dispatch System

When you’re starting your business with a small fleet, you’ll need affordable options for booking and dispatching rides to drivers, as well as convenient ways for your customers to book reservations.

Where can you find a cost-effective booking + dispatch system that has all of the features you need to run your transportation business? Small fleets use SmartMove Systems for affordable software that not only manages dispatching needs, but also offers solutions for online booking through website or mobile app, while also integrating with voice and chat support for customer reservations.

Book a Demo

Outsource Customer Support & Dispatching

As growing while saving costs without losing quality is a major goal for all business owners, this is also the case for start-up or small fleet taxi companies. Successful transportation companies all over The United States, and around the world, outsource their inbound customer support calls, chats, emails, and more to specialized contact centers with agents that are trained especially for transportation. Work with contact centers exclusively or make a hybrid team (some outsourced, some in-house). Outsourcing can eliminate the headache of managing low-level employees to answer phones, not to mention these positions are typical for high turnover.

Contact support services are available to all fleets that utilize SmartMove Systems, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

What support is included?

Customer Calls, Chat, Email, and More
Driver training
Staff training
After-hours assistance
Holiday/Weekend Coverage
Troubleshooting and system improvements
Assistance with specific reporting requirements
Everyday assistance with keeping your fleet operational and at maximum efficiency

SmartMove works ‘hand in hand’ with your fleet, from fleet setup to driver and staff training. We are available 24/7 to help you with troubleshooting and system repairs.

With multiple layers of redundancy protection to ensure our systems stay online all the time and to keep your fleet operating smoothly.

SmartVoix by SmartMove is a feature-rich phone system which has been customized to interface seamlessly with the SmartMove booking and dispatch system.

Identifying the caller via the phone number
Identifying previously recorded caller details including name and addresses
Providing advanced call queuing to prioritize important callers
Allowing you to take more accurate bookings and offering advanced functionality
Recording all calls and linking them to the original booking. This provides an exceptional quality control measure.
SmartVoix also enables you to effectively use ‘interactive voice response’ also known as IVR to speed up bookings.

See our SmartVoix video here for more detailed information on this feature.

Make a Goals List

How many vehicles do you want to have in your fleet by the end of the year? In 3 years? 10 years? Review what exactly you need to do to hit those goals, and execute. Revisit your goals every year to see where you can improve or pat yourself on the back if you’ve exceeded your goals. Did something prevent you from growing at the pace you had expected? Maybe you had trouble hiring drivers or didn’t increase customer base. Going over your customer and driver experience can open your eyes to any stunted growth.

Make the SmartMove

Our team at SmartMove is committed to bringing small fleets an affordable option for booking and dispatching software, with features that allow for easy-to-use customer and driver apps and tools.

Small fleets and transportation startups have grown with SmartMove. With options that scale with you and your workload, SmartMove pricing scales up and down if your fleet size or workload changes.

Book a Demo Contact Us Call 206-886-0620

Fleet Operation Tips: Thriving in the Taxi & NEMT Industry

smadmin — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 10:18:51 +0000

How Do Taxi & NEMT Service Companies Thrive?

The transportation industry in The United States has evolved over the last decade. With technological advances in booking, dispatching, and the overall experience, how do you (as a transportation business owner) keep up with customer and driver expectations, while keeping operations efficient and cost-effective?

While many companies have had to close their doors over the years, other transportation companies have thrived despite the many challenges that come their way. Success has come to those that focus on making decisions that improve productivity, lower overhead costs, and improve customer and driver satisfaction.

What should you consider when you’re looking to optimize your transportation business?

Custom Branded Web Booking Tool & App

When transportation service companies are growing, they must look at what current and potential customers are looking for and expect in a ride service. Not only that, you should remember that it’s important to think about the driver experience as well, since they are essentially the face of your business. Keeping these factors in mind, you should pick a taxi booking software with features that allow passengers to easily book rides, while offering drivers easy options for accepting rides from dispatchers.

Stay competitive and grow customer satisfaction with SmartMove’s advanced app and web booking tools, which can be custom branded to reflect your company. Your drivers are able to accept and manage rides with ease through the SmartMove Go Dispatch App on Android Devices for easy set up.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SMARTMOVE APPS. Book a Demo

The better your online presence and experience is, the better your chances to pull in a larger demographic of people that prefer to book through those digital mediums. You’ll also look more professional which doesn’t hurt, especially when you’re pitching corporate accounts that consequently lead to big bucks. You’ll be happy with the ROI.

Comprehensive Reporting and Record Keeping

How do you handle your accounting, legislative and quality assurance requirements? Do you have real time access to your data and reporting tools to streamline paperwork and reduce manual data entry? It’s important to have a system in place that allows you to access and analyze driver performance and business financials at any given moment.

Docketkiller by SmartMove Systems

SmartMove’s innovative accounting features DocketKiller as they eradicate paperwork and save you time and money by streamlining your book-keeping processes dramatically.

At the end of every job, the driver is required to record how the fare was paid. This can be made compulsory so that the details of every payment are captured and used in the paperless reporting processes.

- - Invoices to account holders for work done on account
  - Financial transactions for invoiced work and claims from owners can integrate seamlessly with MYOB or QuickBooks.
  - End-of-shift report providing a complete history of work done on a shift along with a financial reconciliation can be produced in a few seconds. This is particularly useful for fleet-owned cars.
  - An invoice from bailor (owner) to bailee (driver) for work done can also be generated to assist with financial reconciliation.
  - Web booking users can have jobs charged to their account. This might remove the need to justify claims as the users themselves have made the bookings.

Learn More About SmartMove Features

Unlike in many other dispatch systems, YOU maintain control of ALL of your data at NO EXTRA COST which means UNLIMITED access always. With this access to unlimited reporting, you have an unprecedented level of control over your business.

Ready for Growth

When you’re running a business, you should be pushing towards growth, but are your transportation company operations ready for scaling, new acquisitions, or expanding to new territories? Be sure to work with a booking and dispatching system that can cater to your needs.

Are you a taxi or NEMT startup? Find one that can accommodate your small fleet and grow with you.

SmartMove has options that scale with you and your workload. Our pricing scales up and down if your fleet size or workload changes. Additionally, if you need extra call-center support, or if you’d prefer not to have your own staff on around-the-clock, you can activate our call-center services to manage overflow or handle preferred time slots when your staff members are unavailable.

Fleets of All Sizes,

From 1-200+ Vehicles.

Make the SmartMove

SmartMove Systems is a global leader in booking and dispatch systems, serving Taxi Networks, Non-Emergency Medical transportation (NEMT) Operators, Fleets, Rideshare Operators, Paratransit, Livery, and Shuttle service providers with lower-cost & scalable booking, dispatch and integrated call-center solutions.

SmartMove has been supporting the taxi industry for over 17 years, and we value providing a high-quality customizable approach to our customers.

Book a Demo Call 206-886-0620 Contact Us