Accessible and paratransit
A stop they can’t reach is a service they don’t have
Reduced mobility, hospital appointments and riders who have never used an app. This is what flexible transport does for the passengers who depend on it most — and where it already runs.
Does this describe your network?
Four things accessible transport teams say out loud
Accessible transport fails on details, not on intent: the distance to the stop, the width of a door, the time of an appointment, the channel a booking arrives through. Each symptom below leads to the scenario that answers it, and the service model it belongs to.
- 01“The stop is 400 metres away”For a rider with a frame or a wheelchair, that is the whole journey.See the scenario ↓
- 02“Half our trips are appointments”Dialysis and therapy run to a clock a loose pickup window will miss.See the scenario ↓
- 03“Our riders don’t have the app”A service designed around a smartphone excludes the people it was funded for.See the scenario ↓
- 04“We pay per taxi trip, one rider at a time”Invoices arrive, service data doesn’t, and the cost per passenger only goes up.See the scenario ↓
Scenario 01 — Riders who do not use apps
Book by phone, web or app — or let someone book for you
An app-only service quietly excludes the people it was funded for. Every trip can be created by the rider, by an operator taking a phone call, or by a carer, family member or social worker on their behalf — the same booking in the same system, with eligibility held in the rider register rather than checked at the door.
- Call centre booking
- Web portal
- Booking on a rider’s behalf
- Eligibility and rider registers
Scenario 02 — Treatment, therapy and day centres
Arrival times treated as a rule, not a target
Dialysis three mornings a week, therapy at 09:15, a day centre that closes its doors: these are clocks, not preferences. Strict pickup and drop-off windows are enforced when trips are assigned, and recurring schedules are programmed in bulk so nobody rebooks the same journey every week.
- Strict arrival windows
- Bulk repeat rides
- Return trips held open
- Live supervision and call centre
Scenario 03 — Getting out of the house at all
Collect the rider at the address, not at a stop
For a rider with a frame or a wheelchair, the four hundred metres to the stop is the journey. Trips booked against an address, with needs held on the rider profile — wheelchair space, boarding assistance, a companion travelling too — mean the right vehicle is assigned and the driver arrives knowing what the pickup involves.
- Address-level pickup
- Rider accessibility profiles
- Wheelchair-adapted vehicles
- Companion and carer seats
Scenario 04 — Accessibility on the everyday service
Build accessibility into the service everyone already rides
On a large site, accessible transport doesn’t have to be a separate operation. When the everyday shuttle runs accessible vehicles on routes riders can follow live, a student with reduced mobility rides the same service as everyone else: no booking, no separate request, the same stops. The same fleet then covers events without a second contract.
- Accessible vehicles on daily routes
- Board with no booking
- Live vehicle tracking in the app
- One fleet for daily routes and events
Typical service shape
What an accessible service usually looks like
Ranges from Shotl’s accessible and door-to-door deployments, so you can hold them against your own service before any conversation. Your simulation will produce the real numbers.
- Adapted + standard
- A mixed fleet, with vehicle capability matched to each rider’s recorded needs.
- Address to address
- Collection and drop-off at the door, shared with compatible trips along the way.
- Strict windows
- Arrival windows enforced by the engine rather than promised by the timetable.
- 3 booking channels
- App, web and telephone, plus carers and services booking on a rider’s behalf.
- Registered riders
- Eligibility and requirements held in a rider register, not checked at the door.
- Punctuality reported
- Trips served, arrival compliance and cost per passenger, month by month.
FAQ
Accessible transport questions, answered
Is this the same as a taxi voucher scheme?
No. Vouchers pay for single-passenger trips and produce invoices rather than service data. Here trips are pooled across a managed fleet — which can include licensed taxis — and the service reports trips, punctuality and cost per passenger.
How do you protect appointment times?
Each service defines strict pickup and drop-off windows. The routing engine will not accept a pooling option that puts the window at risk, and operations are alerted while a trip can still be recovered.
Can riders without a smartphone use it?
Yes. Trips can be booked by phone call or on the web, and carers, family members or social services can book on a rider’s behalf. It is the same trip in the same system.
Does it work with wheelchair-adapted vehicles?
Yes. Vehicle capabilities and rider requirements are both held in the platform, so only a vehicle that can carry the rider is offered the trip — and the driver sees the assistance needed before arriving.
Can accessible and general trips share vehicles?
Where your rules allow it, yes — and it is usually what brings the cost per passenger down. Where they must stay separate, the platform keeps them separate.
What about companions and carers?
They are recorded on the rider profile and counted in the vehicle capacity, so a rider is never assigned a vehicle that cannot take the person travelling with them.
