With our focus in 2016 being on changing our business model to take advantage of the new operating environment, I promised to write about members who have stepped back, taken a fresh look at their operations, and made changes to better compete. This month, I would like to highlight Mike Pinckard and the team at Total Transit in Phoenix, Arizona – a fully deregulated taxi market. They recognize that the TNC model will dominate most aspects of for-hire transportation in the very near future. As a result, they have spent the last 10 months restructuring a successful, 32 year old business to compete in this new reality. The process began last May, when they identified the need for a comprehensive logistics solution in the healthcare sector that leveraged both the TNC and modern technology business models. Their efforts resulted in the creation of Veyo, the first player in the space, which launched on January 1st of this year.

Their reorganization was not merely a tweak of their existing operations. They created two completely different businesses and leadership teams. Veyo is a modern technology company, built from the ground up that uses a TNC model to provide transportation management services to the healthcare industry in markets nationwide. Veyo uses a big data approach that relies upon real time dashboards and predictive analytics to deliver a seamless transportation management solution. Total Transit is a transportation company that incorporates a TNC model to augment its legacy transportation offerings to better serve their retail, paratransit and public transit clientele.

Veyo began recruiting and contracting with TNC drivers last November and their fleet has rapidly grown to over 2000 drivers. Just about every step of the process has been automated. Drivers apply online, take online training courses, and once on board, are processed and cashiered without coming in to the office. The TNC vehicles are inspected by Veyo before being put into service. All TNC drivers must meet the drug testing, background and auto insurance requirements of both their private contracts and the prevailing regulatory jurisdiction. Veyo provides contractually required supplemental auto liability coverage, (that meets or exceeds the prevailing regulatory requirements). during the period known as “trip accept to trip complete”.

Recently, Veyo passed a significant milestone when 4,000 trips, or nearly 25% of their daily transports, were dispatched to TNC drivers through the Veyo technology platform. The key to their success has been their ability to recognize the value the TNC business model brings to the marketplace; the changing customer demands; and the shift to a technology driven model that reacts to data in real time. They saw the opportunity and acted on it…quickly! The competition is moving fast and we have to move faster.