What exactly is Shuttle booking and why is it a part of The Booking Form software?
In the core of this functionality is the possibility to create Shuttle routes with multiple intermediate Stops and the ability to sell tickets per person between each stop. Shuttles can be used for selling Bus tickets and Tours as well.
Here is a quick example of how this all works:
Shuttle route consists of 3 stops: Trafalgar Square London, Heathrow Airport (LHR) terminal 3 and Heathrow airport (LHR) terminal 5.
Ticket for one person from Trafalgar square to Terminal 3 is £10 and to Terminal 5 is £12.
Your shuttle has got only 12 seats so you don't want to overbook it selling more than 12 tickets. The system will automatically make this shuttle unavailable once all seats are sold.
The shuttle leaves Trafalgar square twice a day:
- every morning at 8:00 and is at LHR Terminal 3 at 9:30 and at Terminal 5 at 10:00
- every afternoon at 15:00 and is at LHR Terminal 3 at 16:30 and at Terminal 5 at 17:00
Step by step tutorial on how to set it up:
1. First, create your Points of Interest to use for Stops - go to Dashboard > Points of Interest > Click on New and fill in the form. Repeat that for all POIs that you would like to use as Shuttle stops or you can use already existing POIs and assign them to stops in the Shuttle route.
Alternatively, you can create Points of Interest directly in the Shuttle routes sections by clicking on "Create new POI" button for each new Stop.
2. Create your Shuttle - go to Dashboard > Cars > Click on New or chose a car that is existing in your fleet and you want to use it as a shuttle.
Now find the option "Use as Shuttle", there are 3 choices in the drop-down:
- No - don't use as a shuttle, default option for all cars;
- Yes - use as Shuttle but use also for other Service types (taxi, limo, private hire) when available (very useful if you are a taxi but have a regular route eg. every morning where you pick up and drop off customers eg. shared rides);
- Only Shuttle - means that this vehicle will only be used as a Shuttle. Fill in the rest of the information that is relevant for this Car, it's important to fill in Maximum Passengers field as this is the maximum number of tickets you can sell for this car.
3. Create Shuttle routes - go to Dashboard > Shuttle routes and click on New.
- Enter the title and select which language you are creating this Shuttle route for (leave All unless you have translated your POIs and assigned them to separate languages).
- Publish: Yes/No.
- Start is the first stop where your Shuttle begins it's journey from, you should select the POI and add Arrival time, then click on Add new button to add the other stops (you can have just Start point and at least one stop to create a Shuttle route). In the Stop fields select the POI again and Arrival Time, this is where you set your Price per passenger as well (if you have selected Simple pricing). In the Price per Passenger to this Stop field enter the amount you want to charge for one person from the previous stop to this stop.
- Add new Stops as many times as you need for your Shuttle/Bus/Tour route.
- Click on "Get Available Shuttles" button to get all available Cars that are assigned as Shuttles, select the one you want to assign to this route and Save.
Pricing:
There are 2 different types of pricing that you can use: Simple and Flexible.
Simple pricing is used when you wish to Add up the prices between your stops. Example: Route A, B, C, D, E. Price between A and B is £10, between B and C is £5 so price from A to C will be £10 + £5 = £15.
Flexible pricing is used when you have different prices between all stops and you don't need to add up cost between them. Example: Route A, B, C, D, E. Price between A and B is £10, between B and C is £5, but between A and C is £12. Flexible pricing will display a pyramid-like pricing table at the end of all stops where you can enter pricing between each Stops pair individually. Watch the video:
What happens behind the scene?
When you assign Points of Interest to Stops and set Arrival time Shuttle booking will know how long it takes for the assigned Shuttle to complete the route and will block it off so it is not double booked if the car is also used for other Service types like taxi/limo/private hire etc.
At the front end booking form, Shuttle booking service type will only show Shuttles that travel from the selected by the customer Pick up and Drop off locations. It will dynamically load all Stops in the Pick up list and then filter out just the possible Drop off stops based on customer's choice.
For example if you have a route with stops A, B, C, D, Pick up will show A, B, and C and if the customer selects A - B, C and D will be in the Drop off drop down, if they select C only D will be in the Drop off drop down.
After the customer selects the Date the system will load only Shuttle routes that have available spaces and the times they travel from the Pick up location.
When a Shuttle / Bus is sold out it will be no longer shown at the booking form.