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    1. Technology

    Residents No Longer Need to Dial in a Laketran Dial-a-Ride Reservation

    Aug. 29, 2016
    Laketran’s door-to-door transportation service has been called Dial-a-Ride since it began in 1986 because customers need to call in a reservation to book a trip on the bus—thirty years later you can now book a reservation with the click of a mouse.
    Related To: Laketran

    Laketran’s door-to-door transportation service has been called Dial-a-Ride since it began in 1986 because customers need to call in a reservation to book a trip on the bus—thirty years later you can now book a reservation with the click of a mouse.

    While Laketran will continue to brand the service as Dial-a-Ride, that phone call is no longer necessary. Laketran has launched Request-a-Ride, an online reservation program for customers to request, confirm or cancel reservations now available at www.laketran.com.

    “Today, seniors are comfortable online and adaptive technology makes booking a reservation online much easier than making a phone call for some individuals with disabilities,” explained Julia Schick, director of communications and marketing. “Plus, plans change and it’s simply easier to have unlimited access to schedule your own transportation.”

    Quite often the person booking the trip is a caregiver or community agency, and not the person actually taking the trip. Request-a-Ride provides both caregivers and riders access to trip information at any time, making it easier to manage transportation needs and verify accuracy of trip details at their own convenience.

    With Lake County senior population growing, so is the demand for Dial-a-Ride service. In 2015, Laketran’s customer service center answered 160,000 phone calls that provided over 275,000 Dial-a-Ride trips. The goal of Request-a-Ride is to improve efficiency by reducing call volume that will result in shorter wait on hold and ultimately lead to better customer service.

    In addition to Request-a-Ride, Laketran is also improving efficiency and the customer experience with the launch of automatic phone call program that was piloted earlier this spring.