Records that stand up when the council asks.
Contract work is judged on the paperwork as much as the driving. DispatchMe keeps a locked record of every accepted booking, a register of the staff who take and dispatch them with their DBS details, and stops a driver with out-of-date documents from going online at all.
The work itself is billed to an account customer, with a credit limit and invoices that work out the VAT.
What does DispatchMe record for each journey?
Before the journey starts, DispatchMe writes the record of the booking. The database refuses any change to it, and refuses to delete it for 12 months. A change made before pickup is added as an amendment beside it.
| Recorded | Detail |
|---|---|
| The booking | Reference, when it was received, the passenger, pickup and destination |
| Who handled it | The member of staff who took the booking and who dispatched it |
| Who drove it | The driver, their private hire licence number and the vehicle registration |
| When | The time the driver accepted, and the journey time |
| Subcontracting | Whether the job was passed to or taken from another operator |
Licensing authorities set their own record-keeping rules. Our guide to school transport contracts links to the official guidance.
Checks before a driver ever reaches a child's door.
- A driver can't go online, or be offered or given a job, until the office has approved them and every required document is reviewed and in date
- Drivers upload documents from the app; DispatchMe reads the expiry date and the office approves each one
- Reminders before documents run out: 90 days ahead for the PHV licence, 30 days for the rest
- A driver can't be given two jobs that overlap, allowing for the drive between them
- An alert when a job has no driver and the pickup is 20 minutes away. How dispatch works
Bill the contract as an account.
A school, trust or council department is set up as an account customer. Its journeys are booked on account and billed together.
Credit limit, enforced
Invoices with VAT
The right car for the job
More on account bookings and invoices.
What it doesn't do yet.
Questions offices ask
Does DispatchMe set up repeating school runs?
Not from the office screens yet. Each journey is a booking on the board, so it is dispatched, recorded and invoiced like any other job. We will say so here when repeating runs can be set up in the console.
Can I prove which driver and vehicle did a journey?
Yes. Before every journey starts, DispatchMe writes a record of the booking with the driver, their private hire licence number and the vehicle registration. That record cannot be changed afterwards (a change before pickup is added as an amendment beside it) and is kept for 12 months.
Where do I record DBS checks for office staff?
On each staff member in Settings: DBS reference, the date it was issued and the date you checked it, plus date of birth. The staff register export lists everyone who takes or dispatches bookings with those details.
Can it carry wheelchair users?
Mark the job as needing a wheelchair-accessible vehicle and only drivers whose car has that capability are suggested. Passengers booking online can also tick that they need assistance getting in and out.
Does it produce reports for the council?
There is no council-specific report. You can export the record of bookings, the staff register, the complaints log and driver and vehicle documents as CSV or PDF for any date range.
See the records for yourself.
Open the live demo, a made-up London fleet, and look at the exports under Settings. Or start free with your own drivers.