A run that was right last week
Many taxi firms carry regular contract work alongside their public bookings: school runs for the local authority, patient journeys for a hospital or clinic, staff transport for a factory on shifts. Each contract has its own runs, each run its own passengers, times, pickup points and, often, rules about which drivers and escorts are approved for it.
The runs change all the time. A passenger moves house. A school changes its finish time on Wednesdays. A driver who is approved for a run goes on holiday and a replacement must be found from the approved list. The contracting body emails a change on Thursday afternoon for Monday morning. The office updates a spreadsheet, maybe the dispatch system, maybe a message to the driver, but not always all three.
On Monday, a driver arrives at the old address, or a passenger waits for a car that was never told about the new time.
Three copies of the truth
The run sheet, the dispatch system and the driver's own notes all hold a version of each run. Changes land in one and are copied, by hand, to the others.
| Where the run lives | Who updates it | How it drifts |
|---|---|---|
| Contract spreadsheet | Office contract manager | Updated when the email is read |
| Regular jobs in dispatch | Controller | Not updated for one-off changes, like an early finish |
| Driver's notes or phone | Driver | Updated when the office remembers to tell them |
| Contracting body's list | Local authority or client | Changes sent by email, sometimes late |
Approved driver and escort lists add another layer. The approval rules come from the contract and are your contracting body's to set, but keeping track of who is approved for which run is your office's job, and it is usually kept in someone's head.
What goes wrong when runs drift
Contract work is valuable because it is regular, and it can be lost because of a few bad mornings. A missed pickup on a school run is taken very seriously by the contracting body. Repeated late arrivals can lead to penalties or the contract not being renewed, depending on the terms.
Internally, every change costs time: reading the email, working out which runs it affects, updating each copy, and telling the driver. Replacement drivers are found in a rush, sometimes without checking they are approved for that run.
One run planner for every contract
What we build holds each contract's runs in one place and makes every other copy follow it.
- Each run is set up once: its passengers, pickup points and times by day of week, the destination, vehicle needs, and the drivers and escorts approved for it according to the contract.
- Changes from the contracting body, whether sent by email, spreadsheet or their own portal, are read in, and an AI step picks out which runs, passengers and dates are affected. A person confirms each change before it applies.
- Your own changes, such as a driver's holiday, are entered in the planner, and replacements are suggested only from drivers approved for that run.
- Regular jobs in your dispatch system are created or updated from the planner through its API, including one-off changes for a single day.
- Drivers receive the current run sheet each day on their phone, with any change since yesterday highlighted.
- A record of changes, missed or late pickups and substitute drivers is kept for each run, ready if the contracting body asks.
A Monday morning without surprises
The contract manager sees every change in one list and confirms it once. Dispatch and drivers follow automatically. When a driver is off, the office picks a replacement from those approved for that run, and the replacement gets the full run sheet, including any notes about the passengers that the contract allows you to share.
When the contracting body asks about a particular morning, you can show the run as it was that day, who drove it and when each pickup happened.
New contracts are set up in the same structure, so taking on more contract work does not mean another spreadsheet.
Signs your contract runs need this
- Contract runs live in a spreadsheet separate from dispatch.
- Changes arrive by email and are copied by hand.
- Drivers have missed a change to a passenger or time.
- Approved drivers for each run are known by one person.
- Answering a query about a past run takes a long search.