CLARITY FOR COMPLEX TRANSPORT PLANNING

Real results from real customers

Jon Shipton: The demand for SEND transport is rising exponentially. The number of EHCPs that are being issued is undoubtedly increasing. The forecast over the next five years is there is going to be a 30% increase in the number of EHCPs being issued, and that has a direct effect on the demand for SEND transport.

As a council, we’re tasked with trying to find cost savings all the time. When we first applied to invest in QRoutes, we had to do some detailed business plans and justification as to why we needed the council to make this investment. The question was, “Why? What’s wrong with the way that you’re doing things now?” We didn’t have any system beforehand, and everything was being done manually. Obviously, our expectations were high, but I don’t think any of us expected the marked efficiency and the speed in the way that QRoutes can actually process what we need it to process. It was incredible, to be perfectly honest. All of our expectations were exceeded. But I think the results have proved themselves.

This is our first year of using QRoutes fully. Last year, when it went live, we were in the middle of the planning process. So this year will be our first year, but we are already showing the efficiencies that we hoped to show. And in our opinion anyway, QRoutes has already paid for itself. It’s given us the confidence to go back to the members and to the corporate issue team and say, “This is really effective, it’s working, and we now need to look at other efficiencies that we can make,” and have the confidence to actually make those investments.