Pre-booked trips

A pre-booked trip has a pick-up time in the future. It waits in the Later column of the board and starts dispatching a set number of minutes before pick-up. You will be able to book one, set when it goes out, and cancel or hand it over.

Before you start #

• You need the owner, manager, advisor or dispatcher role to book from the desk.
• Taxi is part of the Pro and Business editions.
• Give the pick-up a latitude and longitude, so the trip can be offered automatically.

Book a trip for later from the desk #

1. Open Taxi and choose New trip.
2. Fill in the rider, the phone, the pick-up address and the drop-off address.
3. Under When, choose Later. The field "Pick-up date and time" appears. Fill it in.
4. Choose "Book the trip". The message "Trip (number) is booked." appears, and the trip shows in the Later column.
5. When the pick-up time comes close, the trip moves to Waiting and Pop Dispatch offers it to a driver (see taxi-auto-dispatch).

The desk refuses a pick-up time that is more than a few minutes in the past, or more than 400 days ahead.

Set when a trip goes out #

1. Open Taxi, then Rates and settings, then Dispatch settings.
2. Under Offers to drivers, set "Minutes before pick-up to start offering a booked trip". It runs from 0 to 240 and starts at 15.
3. Save. Trips booked after the change use the new value.

Set the notice and the booking window for riders #

1. In the same Dispatch settings, open Public booking page.
2. Set "Least notice for a booking, in minutes": a rider booking for later has to give at least this much notice. The starting value is 30, and it can go up to 1,440.
3. Set "Days ahead a rider can book": from 1 to 365 days, starting at 30.
4. Save. The public page shows both limits under the time field. See public-booking-page.

Cancel or change a booked trip #

1. Select the trip number in the Later column.
2. To cancel, open "Cancel this trip", add a reason and choose "Cancel the trip". A cancellation fee applies only when a fee is set and the cancellation falls inside the window (see taxi-cancel-and-no-show-fees).
3. To change the time, cancel the trip and book it again.
4. To give it to a driver before it goes out, use "Give the trip to a driver" on the trip page.

The estimate on a booked trip uses the pick-up time, so a night or weekend surcharge counts when the pick-up falls in that window.

If something goes wrong #

• "The pick-up time is in the past.": choose a later time.
• "The pick-up time is too far ahead.": choose a time within 400 days.
• The trip waits with "Needs the desk": its pick-up has no latitude and longitude, or the offers ran out. Give it to a driver by hand.