Walk-in limo rides: start the trip now, record it at the drop-off

The ride nobody booked

A guest walks out of the hotel and asks your chauffeur if the car is free. A client finishes dinner early and wants to go home now instead of at eleven. A passenger at the airport sees your sedan and asks for a ride downtown. These walk-in rides are real revenue, but they often never make it into the books. The driver takes the job, gets paid, and the trip lives only in a text message or a memory.

That is a problem at the end of the month. A ride that was never recorded cannot be invoiced, counted in a driver's revenue or explained when a client calls with a question. It also leaves the vehicle's day looking emptier than it really was.

Why walk-ins slip through

Creating a normal booking takes a pickup address, a destination, a time and a client. Nobody wants to fill in a form while a passenger is waiting on the curb, so the booking gets skipped with a promise to enter it later. Later rarely comes, or it comes with the wrong time and a rough guess at the price.

The fix is not more discipline. It is a way of recording the ride that takes less effort than not recording it: one tap when the passenger gets in, and a short form once they get out.

On the go in LimOperations

On the Bookings page, a round Walk-in ride button sits in the bottom-right corner. Tap it and a Walk-in Ride? window asks you to start now and tap again at the drop-off to complete it. Your phone's location is needed to start, so the ride's pickup is where you actually are. Tap Yes, start and the booking is created on the spot with the passenger on board, assigned to you and your vehicle. Nothing has to be typed.

Drivers your business has added can start walk-in rides too, from the Driver app or the driver web page, in the same way. The ride is assigned to the driver who started it.

Finishing the ride at the drop-off

When the passenger arrives, tap the button again. Finish Ride? shows a map with the start and your current location, the ride's itinerary, and two choices: Finish, or Cancel ride if it was started by mistake. Continue Ride takes you back if you tapped too early.

Finish opens the client details. You can type a name, a phone number and an email, or pick an existing client when the name matches one you already have. All of this is optional: skip it and the ride is saved as a walk-in client. Then Ride details asks for the price, which is required, and an optional tip, entered as an amount or a percentage of the price. Save ride completes the booking at your current position, and it appears in your bookings with its own confirmation number.

Expenses and a thank-you text

On the Scaler plan, Ride details also lets you add expenses for the trip, such as fuel or charging, parking and tolls, an airport fee or cleaning. They are saved as expenses of the ride's vehicle, so they count in that vehicle's numbers. On other plans, expenses are not part of the walk-in form.

When you saved a phone number for the client, you can text them a thank-you in your company's name. You see the exact text before it goes, you can add your phone number, website, email or Google review page, and nothing is sent unless you tap Send text. Texts are paid with tokens, like your other client messages. Not now skips it.

Who sees the price

Drivers never see the price of rides a business assigns to them. A walk-in ride is the exception, because the driver is the one who agreed the fare with the passenger: they enter the price of their own walk-in ride when they finish it, and only for those rides. Agree with your team on how walk-in fares are set, for example the same rates as your quote form, so the price a driver types matches what the office would have charged.

Making walk-ins part of the routine

Walk-in rides are part of the Starter plan, which is free with unlimited bookings, so every company can record them from the first day. Tell your chauffeurs that any passenger who was not booked gets the Walk-in ride button, every time, and check the day's walk-ins when you review bookings. Over a few weeks you will see how much business arrives without a reservation, and where it comes from.

Walk-in ride checklist

• Tap Walk-in ride as soon as the passenger is on board.
• Allow location on the phone so the pickup is recorded.
• Enter the agreed price, and any tip, before saving.
• Add the client's name and phone when they may book again.
• Use Cancel ride for a ride started by mistake.
• Review walk-in rides with your daily bookings.