RideSuite Glossary
Booking
We use the term ‘booking’ to mean a reservation for discretionary ground transport services, each of which we call a 'ride'. A typical booking would be:
- a taxi ride from an airport to a hotel and back again at the end of a holiday,
- a minibus to collect a group from a cruise ship, or
- two seats on a shuttle service between an airport and a popular resort hotel.
A booking can be one-way (1 ride) or return (2 rides), and includes information about the paying customer, the vehicle type, the passengers, their luggage and optional extras such as baby seats.
The current version of RideSuite doesn't support by-the-hour bookings, ride-hailing or carpooling. We have focused instead on helping you manage advance bookings for pre-agreed dates and times, between specified pick-up and drop-off locations at pre-agreed prices.
The terms 'booking' and 'ride' are used throughout our documentation, but there are times when we need to use more specific terms. For example, we use the terms 'sales order', 'purchase order' and 'works order' to describe the different commercial documents that you use to manage rides within the platform. Each has a specific purpose and meaning that is defined in this glossary.
Contracts
A 'contract' in RideSuite defines the terms and conditions that apply to transactions between two organisations. Each contract references one or more rate cards which contain the prices that apply to rides performed under that contract.
Before two organisations can agree a contract, they must first be connected via RideConnect.
External Orders
An 'external order' means a booking instruction received from outside of RideSuite. That instruction could be a new order, a change order or a cancel order, and can be received by email, API, spreadsheet upload, or manually entered by a user.
RideSuite creates an external order record to capture each booking instruction. The external order record may contain unstructured data, such as an email which the system cannot interpret, or highly structure data such as XML which can be imported automatically. Users receive external orders in RideInbox, and use the information provided to create or update their sales order and works order records.
External orders are similar to purchase orders, except that purchase orders are sent internally within the RideSuite platform.
Inbox
'Inbox' is a component of our RideInbox application. It is a simple email system for receiving enquiries, new orders, changes, cancellations, complaints and other booking-related emails. Emails cannot be sent from Inbox, so users should send replies from their normal email client or use a ticketing system for more complex requirements.
Invoices
An invoice is a document with a list of service provided, that is sent by a seller to a buyer to request payment. RideSuite allows you to generate itemised invoices for the rides you perform. Alternatively, you can export ride data in csv format and import the data into your regular invoicing or accounting system.
Invoices are legally-recognised documents that follow standard conventions which vary by country and industry. Please check with a qualified accountant before using RideSuite to generate invoices for your business.
Issues
An 'issue' in RideSuite is a record of an incident or problem that affected a specific ride. We have defined several broad types of issue, such as 'breakdown' and 'complaint'. You can set a priority for an issue and create reminders with notifications.
Location
A 'location' in RideSuite is a precise pick-up point, drop-off point or way-point linked to an address, a point of interest (e.g. an hotel), or a gateway terminal (e.g. Barcelona Airport T1). Locations are used for operational purposes (e.g. routing) rather than commercial purposes (e.g. pricing). This allows you, for example, to set a standard price for a town, but record the precise drop-off address in the works order.
Organisation
We use the term 'organisation' to refer to a business, or other entity, that has a RideSuite account. There are two types of account in RideSuite:
- Transport Service Organisers (TSO), for businesses such as an travel agencies, metasearch websites, airlines, business travel agencies or other customer-facing businesses. This account type is also for intermediaries and aggregators that do not run their own fleet of vehicles or dispatch services to specific drivers,
- Transport Service Providers (TSP), for businesses such as a taxi firms, car with driver services or coach companies that employ or otherwise contract drivers.
In contrast to platforms such as Uber or Lyft, RideSuite is not used directly by passengers.
Places
A 'place' in RideSuite can be a point or a defined area, and is used for price calculations. We have defined numerous place types and organised them into the following groups for convenience:
- Gateways - comprising airports, ports, train stations and other place types where users change mode of transport. For rides to or from a gateway, we allow you to capture additional information about the passenger's arrival or onward travel arrangements.
- Towns - ranging from large cities to small villages. We use municipality boundary data and district information to define areas you can use to set prices. We do use or allow custom polygons, as prohibits easy collaboration with local transport service partners.
- POIs (points of interest) - such as hotels, campsites or resorts for which you might wish to set a specific price.
Price List
A 'price list' in RideSuite is presented as a grid. The grid view displays your selling prices for a range of vehicle types (columns) to different destinations (rows). Your price list is linked to one or more of your rate cards. This linked structure allows you to calculate prices by setting the markup that should be applied to base rates within an underlying rate card. Our versatile approach supports numerous use cases which are described in the main article.
Purchase Order
Purchase orders (commonly abbreviated to PO) aren't unique to RideSuite. A purchase order is an official offer issued by a buyer to a seller indicating types, quantities, and proposed prices for services it requires. Once accepted, a purchase order becomes a legally binding agreement. By accepting a purchase order, the seller agrees to perform the services and the buyer commits to pay for the services if the terms of the agreement are met. Within RideSuite, purchase orders are created and sent within RideManager, or when a ride is subcontracted within RideSchedule.
Query
An internal ticket created in RideInbox to record that you had insufficient information to accept or reject a new or change order received from your customer.
Rate
Your 'rates' are your cost prices for the vehicle types you offer and the routes you've selected. Rates can be set manually or calculated by vehicle type using a formula. A set of rates is recorded in a rate card, together with available extras for each vehicle type.
Rate Card
Your rates are grouped together on 'rate cards'. Each rate card provides a grid view showing your vehicle types (columns) and the destinations you serve (rows) from a specific gateway. Rates can be entered manually for each route-vehicle combination, or can be calculated according to formula that you've preset for each vehicle type. You can also set the capacity and pricing for extras such as baby seats or skis by vehicle type.
Ride / Transport Service
Once perhaps only a US term, ‘ride’ is now globally understood to mean a paid journey in a passenger vehicle. A booking can be for one or more rides. Each ride consists of two or more ride stops, which can be a pick-up, a drop-off or a way-point (such as a stop to pick up rental apartment keys). In our platform, this information - together with passenger information and extra requirements - is captured within a works order record.
Here at RideSuite, we also use the term ‘transport service’ to describe a journey. At first this might seem like duplication but, to be precise, the customer receives a 'ride' whereas the driver performs a 'transport service'. The distinction becomes clear when we consider that the rides booked by several customers are fulfilled during the course of a single shuttle transport service.
Sales Order
A 'sales order' (commonly abbreviated to SO) is used by a seller to record the types, quantities, and agreed prices for the services it will provide. Within RideSuite they are used to record sales in RideInbox and converted into invoices in RideHQ once the rides have been completed.
Tasks
Users can create 'tasks' and assign them to themselves or other users on the platform. A task can have a priority, a due date and a reminder can be set.
Transport Service Organiser
A Transport Service Organiser, or TSO, is a business that either promotes ground transport services directly to consumers (B2C), via partners (B2B2C), or acts as a supply chain intermediary. Examples of transport organisers are airport transfer websites, online travel agents that offer ground transport services, airlines, travel management companies and so on.
Transport Service Provider
A Transport Service Provider, or TSP, is a business that operates its own fleet of vehicles and manages the drivers or, at the very least, is responsible for the assignment of each ride to a specific driver. Examples include taxi cooperatives, private hire and car with driver services, minibus and coach companies.
Vehicles & Vehicle Types
Transport providers enter the details of their actual 'vehicles' (make, model, registration number and so on), to create a complete record of their fleet. The vehicles in your fleet need to be categorised by 'vehicle type' - our standard classification system - as this helps with setting rates and when sending or receiving jobs from other organisations on the platform.
Works Order
A 'works order' captures the information required to perform a ride. Works orders in RideSuite are linked to sales orders (customer facing) and purchase orders (supplier-facing). Responsibility for performing a works order is passed from one company to another by sending and accepting a purchase order.
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