DriveWare? Any other suggestions?

[rockstarr]

Hello All.

My wife and I are starting a limo business in Stockton, CA. We just got our first car over the weekend! (Woohoo!)

At any rate, I'm in the process of choosing a management software. It looks like LimoAnywhere and LimoWiz are the top 2 choices. I'm leaning towards LimoAnywhere based on the feedback I'm seen here in the forums.

Another one I ran across was DriveWare (http://www.driveware.com/). No upfront costs, just $50/month. Seems like an OK deal, but was curious if anyone has had any experience with them...?

Thanks!
Rocky Goforth
RockStarr Limousine

[Steve W.]

Hey Rocky,

Welcome to the Forum!!

I can tell you I do not think this Driveware has ever been mentioned on this forum. Are they new? Low upfront costs is an inticing offer that would merit at least a demo of it. See if you can get the developers to submit link to a test system we could all look into. Then we could give you some answers.
Looking at the one demo video on thier website looked pretty good with some features even oddessey (a $10,000 plus software package) has a hard time with.

Hopefully some other folks have seen this Driveware at a Limo Show and can offer some insight.

But yes Limoanywhere is a prettty solid system to start out with.

Take your time evaluating with one car you can run the business off paper for a while.

[DublinLimo]

Rocky, if you are just starting out to you really needthis software so early in your business, believe me when you are starting every penny counts and I would have thought that money would be better spent elsewhere in the business, I don't know how many vehicles you plan to have right away but if like most people you just have one to start, why do you need expensive software to manage one car??

Hello All.

My wife and I are starting a limo business in Stockton, CA. We just got our first car over the weekend! (Woohoo!)

At any rate, I'm in the process of choosing a management software. It looks like LimoAnywhere and LimoWiz are the top 2 choices. I'm leaning towards LimoAnywhere based on the feedback I'm seen here in the forums.

Another one I ran across was DriveWare (http://www.driveware.com/). No upfront costs, just $50/month. Seems like an OK deal, but was curious if anyone has had any experience with them...?

Thanks!
Rocky Goforth
RockStarr Limousine

[City Heat]

Hello All.

My wife and I are starting a limo business in Stockton, CA. We just got our first car over the weekend! (Woohoo!)

At any rate, I'm in the process of choosing a management software. It looks like LimoAnywhere and LimoWiz are the top 2 choices. I'm leaning towards LimoAnywhere based on the feedback I'm seen here in the forums.

Another one I ran across was DriveWare (http://www.driveware.com/). No upfront costs, just $50/month. Seems like an OK deal, but was curious if anyone has had any experience with them...?

Thanks!
Rocky Goforth
RockStarr Limousine

You'd better spend your money on becoming legal first.

Kathy
City Heat Limousine

[Limo Wire]

I agree with Myles, do you really need to spend money on software at this point? Keeping track of one limo is not to hard. My first limo contact was created in Microsoft Access. Billing was done with quickbooks.

[rockstarr]

I agree with Myles, do you really need to spend money on software at this point? Keeping track of one limo is not to hard. My first limo contact was created in Microsoft Access. Billing was done with quickbooks.

Thanks Everyone! I'm trying to get this done right.

I REALLY appreciate the comments. I think based on your feedback, I'll either go the paper and/or the MS Access route. I just want to make sure I'm covering my bases.

I did notice in LimoAnywhere that it provides some nice reminders about minimum times, terms and conditions (at least samples), etc. Is this another place on the web to get this stuff until I get my TCP and go live?

Also, want to through out a BIG thanks on the 'starting a limo business' thread. HUGE help and so far has been right on par.

[rockstarr]

One more question - does anyone have a spreadsheet or access database they used for scheduling as a starting point? Again, just looking to use this long enough to get up and going.

[Steve W.]

You do not even have to go as far as a data base for scheduling. You will have a reservation sheet you will fill out for each job. Once they confirm the reservation (with a signed contract) or you get a deposit then just put the times and customer name in something like yahoo calander. Day before the job make a copy of the runsheet and give to your driver. Driver turns in run sheet after run with times and any extras noted or collected. Update origional reservation sheet. Do final charges to cc if aplicable Put details in quicken to track your income then file the reservation sheet for your records.

Best part of using yahoo calender type of thing is you can view it from anywhere and you can share it so your wife can also check the schedule if she gets a call. Will also send reminders of jobs via email.

Just keep a stack of all your reservation sheets on your desk in run date order. Betwenn that and the calander you will never miss anyone. Start putting them in a computer file you have to check rugularly or forget to save or have a hard drive crash and that is a recipe for misses.

If you alredy ode outlook for your email look into a calander that will interface with outlook. Out look would also be a good place to keep all your customer info such as addresses, email and phone. So when you do get software you can import that information. Until then they will be avsolible for email marketing and the like.

[Steve W.]

I did notice in LimoAnywhere that it provides some nice reminders about minimum times, terms and conditions (at least samples), etc. Is this another place on the web to get this stuff until I get my TCP and go live.

For contract and terms ideas you can always brouse other companies sites most have them up for display. We have also discussed this topic alot in terms of cancellation policies, damage clauses, payment policies, conduct clauses. Hopefully the search function will be working good on here soon. If not just start another thread asking people to post thiers we are not shy about sharing ours.

[Cedar Mill Limousine]

Best part of using yahoo calender type of thing is you can view it from anywhere and you can share it so your wife can also check the schedule if she gets a call. Will also send reminders of jobs via email.

Just keep a stack of all your reservation sheets on your desk in run date order. Betwenn that and the calander you will never miss anyone. Start putting them in a computer file you have to check rugularly or forget to save or have a hard drive crash and that is a recipe for misses.

If you alredy ode outlook for your email look into a calander that will interface with outlook. Out look would also be a good place to keep all your customer info such as addresses, email and phone. So when you do get software you can import that information. Until then they will be avsolible for email marketing and the like.

I LOVE the Yahoo Calender. I even gave the chauffeurs access to it so they can view it too. The other nice thing is it automatically syns to my Blackberry when it's plugged into the computer (via Desktop Manager). I do go a little farther and have a Daily Planner (handwritten) that I carry everywhere (my 2 yr. old daughter calls it my bible unfortunately - talk about reminding me of what's important).

[Cedar Mill Limousine]

The other nice thing is it automatically syns to my Blackberry when it's plugged into the computer (via Desktop Manager).

The one thing to remember is that if you enter the item into the Blackberry to sync to the Yahoo Calender is that Blackberry (at least the Storm I have) automatically makes that time "Busy" which when transferred to the Yahoo Calender shows "Busy" when anyone else (that you gave permission to) looks at it - you need to set it on the Blackberry as "Free".