Twenty quote requests on a Monday morning
The web form, the email inbox and the phone have produced twenty quote requests over the weekend. A primary school wants a 53-seater to a wildlife park, leaving at nine and back by three. A wedding party wants a coach from the church to a country hotel at 2pm and back to the town at midnight. A bowls club wants three pick-ups in neighbouring villages and a day at the seaside. A company wants a shuttle between a station and a conference venue all day.
For each one, someone opens a map, works out the distance from the depot to the first pick-up and back, estimates driving time, considers how long the vehicle and driver are out, whether the driver can have a break during the wait or needs a second driver, and applies a rate from a sheet on the wall. Some quotes go out that afternoon. The trickier ones wait until the owner has looked at them, and by then the school has booked with the operator who replied first.
Every quote is a small planning problem
Coach hire pricing is rarely a simple mileage rate. It depends on dead mileage from the depot, the time the vehicle and driver are committed, waiting time, whether the work fits in one driver's day, the vehicle size, and extras such as tolls, parking and overnight costs. Doing that by hand is slow and inconsistent.
- Enquiries arrive in different formats with missing details (return time, number of passengers).
- Distances and times are worked out on a map for each quote.
- Positioning miles to and from the depot are sometimes forgotten.
- Long waits and late finishes that affect driver time are judged by eye.
- Different staff price similar jobs differently.
How drivers' hours rules apply to a job is for your transport manager to judge. The tool only surfaces the time involved so they can make that call.
Slow or inconsistent quotes lose work
Many coach enquiries go to several operators at once, and the first sensible quote often wins, particularly for schools and private groups who want an answer quickly. Quotes priced inconsistently lose money on some jobs and lose the booking on others. A quote that forgot the positioning miles or the late finish becomes a job you run at a loss.
The owner or transport manager also becomes a bottleneck, because only they can price the complicated ones.
A quote tool that does the working out
We build a quote tool around your own pricing rules and fleet.
- Enquiries from your web form and inbox are read automatically. An AI step pulls out the pick-up points, destination, dates, times, passenger numbers and any special needs, and lists anything missing so the office can ask in one go.
- The route is calculated with a mapping service from your depot, through each pick-up, to the destination and back, giving loaded and empty miles and driving times for the time of day.
- The job's total time is worked out garage to garage, including waiting time, so the office can see how long the vehicle and driver are committed and where the long gaps and late finishes are.
- Jobs that may need a second driver or an overnight stay, based on the thresholds your transport manager sets, are flagged for their review rather than decided by the system.
- Your pricing rules are applied: rates by vehicle size, day rates, waiting time charges, minimum charges, and extras such as tolls, parking and congestion charges on the route.
- The office checks the draft quote, adjusts if needed, and sends it from a template with the itinerary written out, so the customer can see what is included.
- Each quote is logged with its status and follow-up date, so accepted quotes become bookings without retyping.
| Quote element | Worked out by hand | Worked out by the tool |
|---|---|---|
| Pick-up and drop details | Read from the email | Extracted and checked for gaps |
| Mileage including positioning | Map, sometimes forgotten | Calculated garage to garage |
| Time committed and waiting | Estimated | Calculated from the itinerary |
| Second driver or overnight | Judged by eye | Flagged for the transport manager |
| Price | Rate sheet on the wall | Your pricing rules applied |
The Monday quote pile with the tool
By the time the office opens, the twenty requests have been read. Fifteen have draft quotes ready, with route, times and price. Three are missing return times, and the customers have been asked. Two are flagged for the transport manager: the wedding with the midnight return and the long conference shuttle. The office checks and sends the fifteen before mid-morning, and the manager looks at the two flagged jobs over coffee.
Quotes are consistent from one person to the next, because the working is the same. When the customer accepts, the job goes onto the planner with its times already in place.
Is quoting holding your office back?
- Every quote is worked out on a map by hand.
- Only the owner or transport manager can price the tricky jobs.
- Positioning miles or waiting time have been missed on a quote.
- Customers have booked elsewhere before your quote arrived.
- Similar jobs are priced differently by different staff.