Platform users
Staff and volunteers
Coordinators and volunteers log into the admin panel to take bookings, assign drivers and vehicles, and manage settings and billing. Each person has a role, such as Admin, Manager or User.
Community transport booking system
OpenCommute is a community transport booking system built for UK schemes. Coordinators take dial-a-ride, door-to-door, group hire and training bookings on one shared calendar, with seven booking types and their own rules for approval, buffers and costing. Assign staff or volunteer drivers, check vehicles are free and road-legal, then create the invoice from the booking when the trip is done. It replaces the spreadsheet diary and the morning phone round with one place your whole team can see.
Who uses the booking system
Members
Passengers, drivers, volunteers
Coming soonThe people you carry. Today, staff book on their behalf. A member app for booking and managing journeys is coming soon.
Built for community transport
Seven booking types in one community transport booking system
Each journey type has its own workflow, costing and assignment rules, so dial-a-ride, group hire and training never get squeezed into one form.
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Open
Shared journeys on a planned route that members can discover and join.
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One-to-One
Door-to-door member trips, usually driven by a volunteer.
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Driver Own
Members hire a vehicle themselves and see a per-mile cost before they book.
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Group
Organisations hire a vehicle for a group trip, with mileage-based pricing.
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Internal
Non-invoiced diary time for staff and operational use.
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Training
Trainer-led sessions to assess members, with optional hire and mileage charges.
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Block
Reserve a vehicle so the slot cannot be used for customer trips.
Everything around the booking
From the booking diary to fleet checks, invoices and reports, here's what sits behind each trip.
Platform user
Bookings and the diary
Take, approve and assign bookings on one shared calendar: dial-a-ride routes, one-to-one lifts, group hire and blocked vehicle time. Lead times and buffers are set per booking type, and you see the cost before you save. Assign staff or volunteer drivers from that diary.
- Seven booking types: Open, One-to-one, Driver own, Group, Internal, Block, and Training
- Booking creation, approval, assignment, and status tracking
- Configurable lead-time limits and booking buffers per type
- Calculated cost previews and booking history timeline
- Admin dispatch and driver assignment workflows
Platform user
Vehicles and compliance
Track MOT, tax, insurance and maintenance dates for every vehicle, with alerts before they lapse, so you can see which vehicles are ready to go. See vehicle compliance.
- Vehicle register with type, capacity, and licence requirements
- MOT, tax, insurance, and maintenance date tracking
- Compliance alerts for upcoming and expired dates
- Per-vehicle booking type and group-hire eligibility settings
- Vehicle media gallery and availability management
Platform user
Staff access and roles
Give coordinators and volunteers the right access to take bookings, dispatch and change settings. Invite by email or by join code with admin approval.
- Role-based access for admins, managers, and coordinators
- Invite platform users by email with role assignment
- Join-by-code flow with admin approval for new platform users
- Multi-team switching for users linked to more than one organisation
- Billing contact and settings restricted to authorised roles
Platform user
Passenger and member records
Keep passenger, driver and volunteer records apart from staff logins, with service-area checks when people join.
- Member register with types such as passenger, driver, and volunteer
- Service-area eligibility checks during member onboarding
- Out-of-area join request review workflow
- Assign members as drivers on internal bookings
- Member activity history and profile management
Platform user
Invoices from bookings
Create journey invoices from the booking, with hourly, daily or mileage pricing. Membership invoices are raised separately. Members can pay by card through Stripe or by Direct Debit through GoCardless, and you can record manual payments too. See the mileage and invoicing guide.
- Monthly membership fees with configurable pricing factors
- Auto-generated invoices for billable bookings
- Payments through Stripe
- Payments through GoCardless
- Manual payment recording and reconciliation
- Hourly, daily, and mileage-based pricing with surcharges
Platform user
Reports for coordinators and trustees
Dashboards and printable reports for bookings, mileage, fleet compliance, invoices and fees, plus an audit trail of booking and pricing changes. See the reports.
- Dashboards for bookings, fleet, and alerts
- Mileage, fees, invoicing, and member reports
- Audit trail for booking and pricing changes
- Compliance reporting across your active fleet
- Policy and pricing controls per team
Members
Member app (coming soon)
Coming soonA member app so passengers and volunteer drivers can book, pay and follow their journeys. Not available yet.
- Member app for bookings, subscriptions, and payments
- Multi-stop journey planning with route maps
- Live booking status updates and notifications
- Document upload and profile management
- Volunteer driver request acceptance on mobile
Platform user
Security and data protection
Protect passenger and booking data with organisation isolation, two-factor sign-in, roles, and a full audit trail.
- Cloudflare and a web application firewall to help prevent attacks
- Email two-factor authentication for all platform users, including admins
- Roles with per-user permissions so only necessary users gain access
- Audit trail of actions on the platform
- SSL certificates to protect data in transit
- Data scoped to the organisation — other organisations cannot see it
- Daily database backups
- Amazon AWS hosting with data isolated to a London data centre
See pricing, FAQs, dial-a-ride software, volunteer driver scheduling, community car scheme software, the docs, or start a free trial.
Questions about the booking system
It's software for taking and managing passenger journeys for a community transport scheme. In OpenCommute, coordinators book dial-a-ride, door-to-door, group hire and training trips on one calendar, assign drivers and vehicles, and invoice from the booking.
Seven: Open (shared routes), One-to-one (door-to-door), Driver own, Group, Internal, Training and Block. Each has its own approval, buffer and costing rules. See the booking types docs.
Yes. The same driver can't be saved onto overlapping trips. Buffers keep a gap between jobs on a vehicle, and Find availability searches for a free vehicle and time before you book.
Not yet. Today staff and volunteers make bookings in the admin panel. A member app for self-service booking and payments is coming soon.
There are three plans: Starter, Community and Community Plus. Every new organisation gets a 28-day free trial with no payment needed. See pricing for current limits and prices.