When your next rider has no app

Imagine a woman in her late seventies approaching a neighbourhood minibus. She is on her way to meet friends at the community centre and asks the driver, “Are you going that way?”

She has not booked through an app. Asking the driver seems a perfectly reasonable way to find out whether she can travel.

For the driver, the answer takes a little more thought. There may be room on board, but other riders are waiting to be collected. Can he help her without making their trips more difficult?

If you plan public transport, you may recognise the dilemma too. You want residents to use the service you have introduced. Someone standing beside a bus, willing to travel, ought to be a good starting point.

A question we kept hearing at the bus door

Demand-responsive transport uses bookings to adapt journeys to the people who need them. Yet people do not always approach a bus in the way its booking process expects.

One of our earliest experiences was in 2017, during Shotl's first years, in Vallirana. Vallirana Town Council funded the town’s on-demand service, and the operator Soler i Sauret ran it.

There we met Jesús, an older resident who wanted to get from his home down to the local casal, a social club for older people. Walking there would have taken him almost an hour. The driver was flexible enough to take him.

That experience helped us recognise the value of a driver being able to respond to someone's need. It prompted us to think about how technology could support that flexibility.

Across our projects with municipalities and operators, we kept meeting people who simply walked up and asked the driver where they were going. Spending time alongside drivers and listening to those conversations helped us understand what was missing.

For someone who is comfortable with a familiar driver but less confident with an app, that conversation matters. A visitor has a similar expectation: surely they can ask about a ride without registering for a service they will use only twice.

We wanted to give drivers a practical way to help in that moment, with the information they needed to look after everyone travelling. That question led us to develop Guest Rider.

Giving the driver a way to say yes

Let us return to the woman heading to the community centre. With Guest Rider, the driver opens the Driver App and enters where she wants to go. He adds how many people are travelling and, if needed, whether a wheelchair space is required.

The app checks whether the trip fits alongside the existing bookings. If it does, the driver sees a proposed pickup time and estimated arrival time, and confirms the journey. Her trip then becomes part of the route.

For her, the experience is much like asking a driver about an ordinary bus ride. The booking happens in his app while he talks her through what is possible.

What residents need to know before leaving home

A planner or councillor introducing this option will soon face a practical question from residents: “Can I just turn up at the stop?” The answer depends on how the local service runs.

Take a bus that serves particular stops whether or not anyone has booked. Someone waiting there can expect it to arrive. Guest Rider lets the driver check whether they can join, even if the normal deadline for booking has passed. A missed booking deadline alone need not end the conversation.

Now picture a service whose route is decided entirely by requests. Without a booking, the bus may have no reason to visit that stop. Guest Rider helps someone who meets a vehicle already picking up or dropping off riders. Waiting and hoping one appears, though, is a poor way to plan a trip.

For the woman going to the community centre, the difference is very real. She needs to know how to get there and how she will get home. Explaining the local booking options clearly helps her decide whether she can rely on the service.

Helping drivers handle the unexpected

A driver receives planned pickups through the app. A person asking for a lift arrives with a question that was never on that list. The driver is the one who has to answer, often while other people are waiting.

Guest Rider brings that request into the same checks used for other bookings, and it never forces a trip onto the vehicle. The driver sees whether the trip is possible before making a promise. Some journeys will still not fit, but the conversation begins with checking how to help.

For the operator, an accepted trip also becomes part of the recorded service. That gives a fuller picture of the journeys being made, which informs later decisions about how the service should develop.

The people behind the bookings

A request made at the bus door is as real as one sent through an app. Someone wants to keep a hospital appointment, visit a friend or get to the shops without asking a relative for a lift. The way they ask for that journey should be part of the design.

Guest Rider grew from paying attention to those everyday encounters. It gives the driver another way to help, while keeping the other riders and their plans in view.

If your drivers are facing similar situations, tell us what is happening on your services. Contact us and we will work through with you how Guest Rider fits your riders, your drivers and the way your service runs.