01 The challenge
SEND transport is one of the most sensitive services a council runs: vulnerable children, contracted drivers and passenger assistants, and routes that change whenever a child moves school, an address changes or a vehicle is off the road. The transport team was managing this with spreadsheets, printed run sheets and phone calls. Drivers had no reliable way to confirm pick-ups and drop-offs, the office could not see where a journey was, and answering a parent’s “where is the bus?” call meant ringing the driver.
02 What we did
NHZ Global built Sendtra as a licensed platform for council transport services:
- Back-office web application — passengers, schools, addresses, vehicles, drivers and passenger assistants, with route planning and daily schedules
- Sendtra Driver Android app (published on Google Play, 2021) — each driver sees their day’s manifest, confirms every pick-up and drop-off, records no-shows and incidents, and navigates stop to stop
- Live journey status in the office so staff can answer parents and schools immediately
- Safeguarding controls — only authorised, checked drivers and assistants can be allocated to a route
- Reporting for contract monitoring, invoicing and audits
Sendtra is supplied under an annual licence with support, and has been licensed to a second council transport service.
03 The results
- Paper run sheets replaced by a driver app with confirmed pick-ups and drop-offs
- Live visibility of every journey for the transport office
- Annual licence renewed for 2022 and extended to a second service