Road XS comes packed with helpful features—so many that you might not even know they are there. Once you find them, though, you can’t unsee them and, in most cases, never stop using them.
These hidden gems within Road XS enhance your user experience, streamline your transport workflows, and elevate your efficiency to new heights.
This article uncovers 15 hidden Road XS features that will become indispensable tools in your daily operations. From subtle functionalities that simplify mundane tasks to powerful tools that transform how you manage your road transportation services, these features optimise your productivity, connect your transport teams and ensure a smoother ride.
Get ready to explore some of the Road XS more obscure software features.
1) DVLA Vehicle Details Lookup
Within Road XS there is the ability to perform vehicle lookups on the details. Many years ago we linked up with the DVLA to ensure driver vehicle details remained accurate and up to date.
The software automatically keeps the records up to date and ensures that no vehicles travel without an MOT. When adding new volunteer drivers into the system, you can enter their vehicle registration, and the details magically appear.
2) Postcode Lookup
Road XS comes equipped with a postcode lookup feature to save users from having to type in the whole address when adding new drivers and passengers.
You type in the postcode, and it will find the address. This can save hours and streamline your passenger and driver onboarding process.
3) What3Words
What3Words not only pinpoints locations but also improves passenger safety. You can use Road XS and the What3Words integration to add precise pickup locations and show the last known location of the vehicle during journeys. This means you know where your vehicles are at any time.
4) Advanced Finance Settings
Community Transport offers various methods of finance, from straightforward payment models to rather complicated concessionary travel rates.
Within Road XS, you can configure our finance settings to meet your needs through an array of advanced settings, either globally or per journey and contract type—known in Road XS as payment sources. This means you can also accommodate passengers paying different rates even when travelling in the same vehicle.
5) Mobile and Tablet Apps
Road XS comes with numerous apps, the most popular of which is the driver portal app. The app enables your drivers to access their journeys in real time via their mobile, desktop, or tablet devices. The app seamlessly integrates into the driver’s life, and they can also communicate with the transport office within the app.
6) Real Time Run Sheets
As demand for transport increases, the days of paper are now limited. The good news is that Road XS comes with real-time run sheets.
If someone cancels, no problem, the routes are automatically updated, and you don’t need to reprint the weekly run sheet. Everything happens in real-time within Road XS, which reduces the need to keep providing constant updates via the phone. The software simply integrates into your volunteers and transport teams’ lives.
7) Action Board
As anyone who’s worked in transport knows, sometimes things can go crazy and out of nowhere. The Road XS action boards were made to bring you back to focusing on what’s important right now. Need to know what your next most important action is? That is no problem. Head straight to the action board.
8) Driver Record Reminders
This feature is easy to miss, yet it’s always in front of you. When you enter a driver into Road XS, we capture key information to ensure drivers are always eligible for journeys. This prevents allocating drivers who don’t have all the necessary records up to date, raising the safety of your services and reducing human error.
9) Advanced Algorithms
Throughout Road XS, advanced algorithms work on your behalf to save you having to do the manual work of calculating pickup and drop-off times.
Not only are we calculating the most direct route, but we are also calculating factors like loading times, waiting times, vehicle sizes, maximum vehicle capacity, and lots, lots more. This all happens and executes in a matter of milliseconds, something that would take you hours to do.
10) Service Areas
One of the biggest hidden potentials of Road XS is our service areas feature. This feature enables you to scale and scale quickly. Won a new contract? That is no problem; create a new service area. Want to integrate with another transport provider? No problem. Create a new service area, and you get the idea.
You can also assign staff, vehicles, resources, and drivers to each area, meaning your team only has access to the information they need to see at any time, while you get to see everything, right down to the tiny atoms of data across your entire operation.
A nice hidden “Easter Egg” within the driver app is the ability to use navigation to take drivers to their exact pickup location. This naturally also factors in the latest traffic conditions on the route. At the same time, the location of the vehicle pings back to the passenger app and admin board, providing the last known location and improving safety for all.
12) Customisable DRT and Dial-a-Ride Rules
Each service runs differently, so Road XS allows you to change the rules to suit your needs. Whether offering smaller or wider pickup windows, optional home pickups, enabling or disabling virtual bus stops, you get to decide and Road XS takes care of the rest.
13) Allowed Mileage and Payments
Road XS can show you how many miles your volunteer drivers have driven in a year. This Allowed Mileage and Payments (AMAP) feature means you can see at a glance whether your volunteer drivers can still claim 45p a mile or 25p a mile under HMRC.
14) Messaging
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it, but Road XS allows you to send messages between your transport team and drivers. This means that all of your communication sits within Road XS, and you get notified whenever you get a new message.
15) Continuous Feedback and Development
This one often goes unnoticed, but one thing we always do at Road XS is gather feedback. Sometimes, we’ll come and ask; what do you think about this? Or how can we improve this? Other times, we take a back seat and analyse how the software is being used to work out how we can make your life easier. Rest assured, we’re always listening, and that’s what’s made Road XS evolve to meet the needs of the transport market.
Wrapping Up
These 15 hidden features of Road XS are just the tip of the iceberg, demonstrating the depth and versatility of our software.
By integrating these tools into your daily operations, you will experience a significant boost in productivity, efficiency, and overall satisfaction. Road XS is designed with the user in mind, ensuring that every feature meets and exceeds your expectations.
Imagine a world where your transport workflows are seamless, your team communication is streamlined, and your administrative tasks are simplified. Road XS brings all this and more to your fingertips, empowering you to focus on what truly matters: providing exceptional transport services.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to elevate your transport operations.
Switch to Road XS today and unlock the full potential of these hidden features and transform your transport service for today and tomorrow, too. Book a demo with us today!