Technology and the SuperShuttle

“You have a beehive of technologies here” I told my Blue Van shuttle driver this week as he dropped me off at Denver International Airport.  He had a NEXCOM mobile tablet, a Motorola walkie-talkie to communicate with the dispatchers, a digital toll tag on his windshield, a badge to allow him to enter the secure area of the airport for commercial vehicles, a DVD player, and a mobile printer to print me a credit card receipt.  The week before I used the SuperShuttle from San Francisco airport to my hotel and that operator had much of the same (a Samsung tablet) and additionally his own GPS unit, and personal smart phone.

All this technology is needed to handle a bewildering range of methods in which passengers book the shared service, pay for it, where they board and where they are headed.

For San Francisco, I had pre-booked my reservation on their website but since there are multiple pick up points across terminals, the service rep at each terminal punches your reservation code on his/her Motorola unit and the dispatch system provides your designated van number. In Denver, I boarded my shuttle with 9 others without a reservation at my hotel. In this transaction, the van operator handled the reservation and payment steps. On many routes, there are multiple pick up and drop off points, and of course, many last minute reservation changes and cancels.

The vans are driven by franchisee operators. As this article describes the Van has a NEXCOM Mobile Tablet PC (newer Samsung Android tablets on others), where the dispatcher sends them reservation info. “On receiving the reservation, the driver can see the exact pickup location on a map using special software that optimizes the route automatically with the Geospatial Navigation toolkit provided by Telogis Geobase.

Designed to provide on-board promotion, the Tablet PC has a built in barcode scanner for prepaid tickets, vouchers and promotional discounts which are all scanned into the system. This saves both customers and drivers a lot of time and facilitates easy book keeping for the drivers and the customers.

The Mobile Tablet PC connects via Bluetooth to a mobile printer and credit card swipe supplied by Zebra Technologies. This allows drivers to swipe credit cards and print credit card receipts and signature slips immediately for the customer.”

All this technology means consumers pay on some routes half of what a dedicated taxi would cost. And does not substantially increase the time for the same journey. And you can track where your van is on its route to pick you up.

Shared services are not everyone's cup of tea, but my last few experiences with SuperShuttle have been pleasant.  

Comments

[Shauna from SuperShuttle, Inc.]

Thanks for the mention and the kind words, Vinnie!

[Tablet PC]

Your Ipad and other gadgets looks good in your car. How I wish I have them too. You can consider stand for you tablet as well as your phone to make it organized.