Booking a ride

Booking a ride

What this is for — taking a call and turning it into a trip on the board, in one pass, without retyping anything the system already knows.

Where to find it

Left menu → Scheduling. The booking form is the big card at the top of the page, headed Book a ride. (New trip on the dispatch board brings you to the same place.)

Steps

1. Find the client — or start a new one

The four boxes at the top — First name, Last name, Phone number, Email — are the search. Type in any of them.

1. Matching clients appear below as you type. Click one to select them.
2. A match with the same phone number is flagged Same phone in red. That is almost always the same person — use them instead of creating a second record.
3. Someone marked "booked before, not in contacts" was booked once without being saved. Picking them keeps their history together.
4. If nobody matches, you'll see "Nobody matches — keep typing and this becomes the new client." Just carry on booking; the details you type become the new contact.
5. Add with full profile opens the complete client form first, if you want to record addresses, caretaker and billing before booking.

Once a client is selected, their card shows their mobility, phone, home or facility, and how they pay. The ✕ on that card clears them so you can search again.

2. Typing a facility name instead of a person

If the caller is a facility and you don't know the patient yet, type the facility name into the same boxes. The facility appears first in the list, labelled "Facility — sets the pickup; type the patient's name above." Click it and the pickup fills in, leaving the patient boxes free to keep typing.

3. Who is calling

• Person calling and Contact number — the facility, caretaker, or the client themselves.
• Tick Same as patient/client to copy the client's own name and number in. Unticking it brings back whatever you had typed before.

4. When

• Request date — the day of the trip.
• Appt time — what time they need to be there.
• Pickup time — what time the driver collects them. This is the time the trip sits at on the board.

5. Mobility and trip type

1. Click one of Ambulatory, Walker, Wheelchair, Gurney. It pre-fills from the client's record.
2. Round trip is ticked by default. Untick it for a one-way.
3. If the client has a caretaker on file, tick Caretaker riding along when they are travelling too.

Repeating trips (dialysis, school) have their own page: 03 — Repeating schedules.

6. The ride home — return time, will call, or wait and return

Every round trip comes home one of three ways. Pick one:

A set return time — you know when they will be done.

1. Leave Round trip ticked.
2. Fill in Return time.

Will call — they will phone when they are ready, so there is no time yet. Use it when the appointment has no fixed finish: a doctor running late, a hospital discharge, an infusion.

1. Leave Round trip ticked.
2. Choose Will call (client calls when ready).
3. Leave Return time empty — the form will not ask for it.

The trip sits on the board marked Will call. When the client rings, open the trip and set the time (see 06 — Trip details).

Wait and return — the driver does not leave. They park, wait through the appointment and bring the client straight home on the same run. Use it when taking the client home and coming back would cost more than waiting: most gurney runs, some wheelchair runs, and short appointments such as a lab draw, an X-ray or a quick follow-up.

1. Leave Round trip ticked.
2. Choose Wait and return — the driver stays at the appointment.
3. Fill in Estimated wait (minutes). The form works out the return pickup time and shows it to you.

The driver is held on the board for the whole wait: a block appears reading Waiting with , so nobody books them onto something else. That block comes from the booking and cannot be edited on the board — change the wait by changing the trip.

Not sure which? If they can tell you a time, use Return time. If they cannot, but the driver could usefully go and do another run, use Will call. If the appointment is short or the client is on a gurney, use Wait and return.

7. Where — pickup and destination

Pickup from and To facility / destination work the same way:

1. Pick one of the client's saved places by its name (Home, Dialysis, Sister's home…). The full address and its notes show underneath so you can read them back to the caller.
2. You can correct the address right there. A Save changes to "…" button appears when something differs — that saves it back to the client's record.
3. Choose Type an address or facility… for a one-off. Type the name first — matching saved places and saved facilities appear below:
   • This client's saved places — click to use
   • Saved facilities — click to auto-fill (fills in the facility's address and phone)
   • No match just means it's a plain address. Type the Street address and City in the boxes below.
   • Whatever you type as the name is also the label the place gets saved under on the client's record.
4. Choose ＋ Add new location (saved to client)… to add a properly named place: Location name, Address, City, plus Notes for driver and Notes for dispatch, then Save to client's locations.

Below the two boxes, Suite # and Department apply to the destination. A saved place or a facility with these on file fills them in for you.

The ride home shows the same suite or department as the ride out. The driver going back sees it next to the pickup, so they are not left with a bare street address. Rides home already booked before this change show it too.

Add a stop adds a stop between pickup and destination — a pharmacy run, say — with its own Time and Stop notes.

8. Payment and price

• Who pays? — required. Choose Private Pay, Facility Invoice, the broker paying for the trip, or Unassigned — decide later. It starts on — choose — and prefills from the client's record when something is already known (their usual broker, or how they pay) — but you can always change it for this one trip. The Book button stays greyed out until this is answered, so an Unassigned invoice is always a deliberate choice, never an accident. If the client had no answer on file yet and you pick Private Pay or Facility Invoice, it's saved to their record too — Unassigned never is.

• Bill to — appears under Who pays? when it is Facility Invoice or a broker: which facility or broker gets the invoice. The list has the Facilities first, then the Brokers. It fills itself in:

  • with the broker, when you picked a broker in Who pays?;
  • otherwise with the client's usual facility (for a new client, the pickup facility, which becomes theirs).

  The words under the box say where the choice came from. Change it if someone else is paying for this trip — once you pick one yourself it stays, even if you change the client's details. Leave it on — not known yet — if nobody knows; billing can set it later with Change Bill to on the trip (see 06 — Trip details). On Private Pay there is no box: the line "Bill to: the client — Private Pay." shows instead. A round trip or a repeating schedule carries the same Bill to on every trip.

• Refer by / source — how this trip came to you. The + button next to it opens Sources — add or remove: type a New source and click Add, or bin one you don't use. Deleting a source only takes it out of the list; past trips keep theirs.

• Card expires — the month the client's card on file expires. Saves to their account. Card numbers are never stored here.

• Miles, plus the tick boxes Holiday, Airport (+$60) and Our wheelchair (+$25), feed the Estimate.

• Estimate is editable — whatever you type wins over the rate card. The line underneath shows how the suggested figure was worked out.

• Travel time sets how tall the trip sits on the board and gives the arrival estimate. It follows the mileage until you edit it, and stays put after that.

• Authorization # — needed for broker billing.

9. Driver and van

• Driver and Vehicle both default to Assign later — most offices assign from the board instead. Picking a driver brings their usual van along.
• If the client has a Preferred driver on their record, that driver is already picked for you. To make a client always ride with the same driver, set it on their record — see 08 — Customers.
• Gurney trips show Second driver (two-person assist) on their own. Any other trip gets an Add a second driver button. The trip appears on both drivers' columns but counts as one trip and one invoice.
• Warnings appear here if the driver or van can't take the trip.
• "… is already on trip #N at that time. Will these riders ride together in the same van?" appears when the driver you picked already has a trip that overlaps this one.
  • Yes — they ride together books this as a shared ride: the board shows both riders in one box, and the system checks the van has room for everyone (wheelchair spots, gurney spots, seats).
  • No — it's a conflict keeps the double-booking warning, as before.
  • Cancel clears the driver so you can pick another.

10. Notes

Two separate boxes, on purpose:

• Additional instructions — this trip only (office / dispatch) — the office sees it, drivers do not.
• Notes for the driver — this trip only — printed on the run sheet and shown in the driver's app.

Under each is Save this note for future use. Tick it and the note is added to the client's standing notes and rides along on every future booking. Notes already saved on the client are shown above, in their own box.

11. Book it

1. SMS reminder to client records that the client is happy to be texted. It does not send anything — see Texting clients below.
2. Click the blue button. It reads Book trip, Book trip + return, or Book N trips depending on what you set up.
3. For a brand-new client you get one of two questions first:
   • "That phone number is already on file" — pick Use to book onto the saved contact, or It's someone else — continue as new.
   • "Save this contact in the database?" — a summary of what will be saved. Choose Save contact & book trip (normal) or Book without saving contact.
4. The confirmation says Trip booked. From there:
   • Book another trip for — same client, fresh form. Use this for a second standing schedule rather than creating a duplicate account.
   • Log another call — clears everything.

Read the details back to the caller before you click Book.

Texting clients

The program does not send text messages. There is no way to text a client, a driver or a facility from any screen. Nothing is sent automatically either — no booking confirmations, no pickup reminders, no "your driver is on the way".

The SMS reminder to client tickbox on the booking form, and SMS reminders OK on the client's record, only write down that the client agreed to be texted. They are a note for later. Ticking them sends nothing.

To reach a client, call them. Their number is on the trip panel and on their record.

If you want the program to start texting clients, tell Josue — it is a piece of work that has to be built, not a setting that can be switched on.

Good to know

• Round trips are one price. The fare covers both legs. On the board, one leg carries the money and the other says "Billed on trip #…".
• Booking closes the loop automatically. If that phone number had an open callback, it is marked handled. If a spot was being held, a banner offers to replace it — leave Replace the held spot when booking ticked.
• The system warns, it does not stop you. If a driver or van can't take the trip you get a warning; a hard block asks for a reason and records it.
• Card expiry only. The system never holds card numbers.
• Booking also writes the call log, the trackers and the client's history. There is nothing else to fill in afterwards.

If something looks wrong

• "Pickup and destination are required." — one of the two place boxes is still empty. In typed mode you need at least a name or a street address.
• "Enter a pickup time like 8:15 AM." — the Pickup time box is blank.
• A round trip booked with no ride home — the form now refuses a blank Return time unless Will call or Wait and return is ticked. If an older trip is missing its return, open it on the board and use Add return leg (see 06 — Trip details).
• The return time looks like the middle of the night — the form catches an AM/PM slip and suggests the time you probably meant.
• A duplicate client got created — an Executive can join them back together with Merge duplicates on 08 — Customers.
• The client's saved addresses aren't showing — they only appear once a saved client is selected. A brand-new client starts in typed mode.
• The Bill to box isn't there — it only shows when Who pays? is Facility Invoice or a broker. On Private Pay the client is billed.
• Bill to picked the wrong facility — it was filled in from the client's usual facility. Pick the right one before booking; if the client's usual facility is wrong too, fix it on 08 — Customers.
• The Book button won't click — check Who pays? first. It has to be answered — Private Pay, Facility Invoice, a broker, or Unassigned — before the trip can be booked.