About the company
Loyal Transportation is a family-owned ride-hailing company in Ontario, Canada. The company launched in 2018 and switched to Onde when automation became necessary.
In 2020, Loyal Transportation achieved a 550% increase in orders compared to 2019, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their business performance is growing steadily year-over-year, with a 60% increase in orders in 2023 compared to 2022, and the trend is continuing in 2024. Over the past three years, Loyal Transportations’ customer base has grown by an average of 30% annually.
How did Loyal Transportation launch a popular taxi service?
Finding the gap in the market
In the Niagara region of Ontario, there were very few options for affordable transportation. Potential customers had to choose between unreliable bus services and illegal taxi services. That’s when the founder of Loyal Transportation Brandy Gray decided to replicate the idea of a taxi service, but get it licensed, legal and insured. She connected drivers and customers, taking a small commission for the service, and allowing the service to grow due to lower costs for customers and higher payments, including cash, for drivers.
Why did Loyal Transportation switch to taxi software?
Lack of automation challenge
The founder started the ride-hailing business with just her dispatch phone, taking calls from 7 am to 12 am every day. She manually sent out orders in texts to drivers, took calls from customers, notified customers when the driver arrived and received confirmations from drivers when the pick-up was completed. As the service grew, it became impossible to handle the orders manually, and the company switched to Onde – a cloud-based dispatch system with Driver and Customer mobile apps. It allowed to automate taxi operations, grow customer and driver bases, and
Onde app was chosen for the following reasons:
- Trustworthiness: the founder had a connection who was using Onde successfully before.
- Tech support: Onde had a team to support me using the app because the founder doesn’t consider herself tech-savvy and requires outside help.
- Affordability: the price allowed for a “startup” type of company.
Now, 98% of all orders come from the apps, allowing the founder to spend time on other activities.
How did Loyal Transportation grow its driver and customer base?
1) Retaining customers with excellent service
Loyal Transportation has excellent returning customer statistics: every customer rides 5 times/month on average. Also, Loyal Transportation apps are rated close to 5 on both app stores. This shows that despite the region having Uber and Lyft, customers often prefer local and reliable Loyal Transportation.
Here are the reasons the founder outlined that helped them ensure such great results:
- Answering phone calls to dispatch when required
- Accepting cash
- Not requiring a card to sign up, which allowed for low-income customers to access the app
- Local, community-born business
2) Company policy ensuring quick order acceptable
The company’s drivers also accept most orders within 10 seconds, which ensures quick service. This is achieved by the company policy, which requires drivers to accept all in-city orders. If they don’t, they receive push notifications. Drivers are allowed to sign out of the app, but they are not allowed to pick and choose orders.
3) Marketing campaigns
Loyal Transportation takes marketing seriously, investing in big and small campaigns. The company sponsors local youth hockey leagues, partners with Merrittville Speedway by entering a 'Loyal' car in races, plays ads on 97.7 Hits FM and carries out social media giveaways.
How did Loyal Transportation achieve a 60% increase in orders?
Key points of success
- Exceptional customer service that keeps customers coming back
- Local, family-owned business, which attracts customers and drivers
- Not discriminating against low-income customers
- Smart approach to crisis management
- Trustworthy and reliable taxi platform provider with tech support
- Thought through marketing campaigns & driver management policy
