"For the past few years I have worked hand in hand with INSOFTDEV to assist us with numerous services including developing a cloud-based platform for Taxi and Private Hire. The team has always been on time, making them a reliable partner to us. I have had a good experience with them over the past few years for the services they have rendered to us. I therefore strongly recommend their services."
Key facts
60 Small vehicles
25 Large vehicles
Operating in 4 countries
95% Corporate accounts
About London Travelin Group
Starting in 2011 with 4 vehicles, TravelinGroup operates now a fleet of 60 small vehicles and 25 coaches. Their extended network consists of 21 suppliers . They do provide executive transportation solutions with the ability to offer a wide array of vehicle options from small saloon cars to large 85 seat coaches, including: airport transfers, private hire, shuttle service, coach hire, city tours in United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Portugal and Latvia. They are working closely with world's leading Bedbanks accessed by travel agencies, tour operators and airlines.
The challenge
By the time this project was started, on the market, there were many dedicated solutions for Taxi industry and for Shuttle industries, but none of them has been capable to cover the needs of companies operating a mixed fleet - small and large vehicle, private hire and coaches. While the solutions targeting Private hire & taxis deliver a high level of automation and an Uber like feeling with a strong focus on booking and dispatching process, the Shuttle solutions were developed based on legacy and old technologies and been focused on delivering support solutions for accounts management, due to the nature of the corporate business clients, and, for fleet management to be in line with the strictly regulations from Coach industries. The coach management has been designed mostly for internal operations with no user interface- web or mobile to corporate clients, this adding pressure on the transportation companies forced to do a lot of manual work. Travelin was forced to use different solutions for each of their business branches. The drop was when Travelin Group signed up and important contract that increased their operations with 40%. At this point of time was very clear for Travelin Group, there are needed important changes on their technology infrastructure. It was needed one single system to cover all their needs, a more modern one and more flexible that can help them to backup their operations, automate the work, provide modern tools to their clients and help them to grow more. This, along with the fact that they planned an expansion to deliver services in more countries, made almost impossible to have one platform to accommodate all above challenges. At this point, Travelin approached INSOFTDEV who had already experience and solutions for Taxi industry.
The solution
INSOFTDEV's technology and experience from Taxi industry was placed nearby the Coach industry experience and fast growing Travelin Group. Both teams worked closely to bring the existent INSOFTDEV platform to a next level, by adapting it to support the Coach and Shuttle companies' specific operations. To bring the Uber like experience in the Shuttle business in parallel with an extensive development to support specific business areas such as travel agencies, accounts management and bus fleet management, plus the mixture of operating private hire and shuttles in the same place makes this specific collaboration a succes . By the time this project was started, on the market there were many dedicated solutions for Taxi industry and also dedicated ones for Shuttle industry. Due to the particularities of both, Travelin was forced to use different solutions for each of their business branches. More important , new players from Travel industries approached Travelin with demands that could not be performed in any of the current system. At this point of time it was very clear that changes needed to be done: a comprehensive system that could be used for all operations and one that could automate as much as possible from the backoffice work. This, along with the fact that they have planned an expansion to deliver services in more countries, made almost impossible to have one platform to accommodate all above challenges. At this point , Travelin approached INSOFTDEV who had already experience and solutions for Taxi industry. As result, they increased the automation by 50%, they were able to acquire new businesses and The businesses are now discussing about further new technology to expand the existent operations in convergent ares.
“Technologically speaking, starting this project was a real challenge because we had to operate the changes on the existent SmartCar Booking and dispatch Cloud platform in a manner they can be further reused, to avoid bottle neck in the near and far away future. As results we’ve released to the market, probably one of the most flexible systems which can operate and support small and larger vehicle operations, in one or more sites, traditional operating companies or Ride Hailing services”
Ionut Rascanu, INSOFTDEV
+44 (0) 2031 500 250
office@insoftdev.com
www.insoftdev.com