We started our Shepherd Journey back in late 2019 when we were working on a project looking at the viability of Mobility as a Service for Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire. As part of the project, we researched different service areas and entered the world of supported transport.
We quickly figured out that running supported transport services against a backdrop of budget pressures, increasing SEND demand, and service quality requirements is tricky. Clearly, there was a shared problem, but could we make it easier?
Working together with supported transport teams, we identified key focus areas:
Safeguarding - knowing who was travelling, where and when and being driven by whom is key. There was a need for real-time information for passengers and an automated way to check DBS, vehicle checks and licensing.
Potential Savings - identifying resource pressures across the service from dealing with service calls (where is the bus, the bus is late), complaints, validating operator invoices, and generally automating basic tasks, to maximising route/vehicle utilisation, spare seat capacity and combining trips.
Better data for decision support - data, where it exists, is often in silos, planners heads, and there is a disconnect between what is happening on the ground and what is happening in reality. There was a need to bring everything together, fill gaps and build a dynamic evidence base.
This is why we created Shepherd. Our mission is to help supported transport teams answer the question, "how do we improve safeguarding, and service delivery whilst reducing costs for home-to-school transport?"
Through 2021/22 we worked with Local Authority teams to shape Shepherd from the ground up. We designed and built the prototypes and piloted mainstream services. In 2023 we added full SEND functionality and tested this with West Sussex. We're now opening Shepherd up to all Local Authorities by way of demos and pilots with the full commercial release scheduled for January 2024.
We're already expanding Shepherd to include Adult Social Care and community transport packages with an eye on developing Ai driven 'Total Transport' Solutions.
