If you are of the opinion that the transportation industry has limited business options, then you need this blog to sweep out that opinion. Ride-hailing, peer-to-peer and carpooling are the common business options in the transportation industry. But other than these, you have emergency vehicle services and even non-emergency vehicle services. This blog will discuss the business idea of starting an emergency vehicle services or in simple terms ambulance services business.

Like how Uber is popular for ride-hailing services, you can also start the ambulance service by developing an Uber like app. Let us see how to launch Uber like app for ambulances.

Progressive steps for starting your ambulance services business

• Identify the market needs

In order to fulfil the purpose of your business, you need to thoroughly understand whether there is a demand for private ambulance services. Conduct interviews with the target audience, know whether they are in need of private ambulance services, get to know the percentage of the elderly population in the target area and finally, list down the number of hospitals and emergency centres close by.

Only if you can come up with some favours for your business, you can head to the next stages.

• Understand the competition

There isn’t a single business niche that is free from rivalries. One of the prime steps in business planning is to understand the competition and devise tactics to overcome those competitions. You can do a simple online search regarding the number of ambulance services in your target area. Your competitors will include both government and private ambulance services. Check the number of vehicles they have employed, the average arrival time of ambulances, and the charges (private ambulance services).

• Highlight your unique selling points

It is of no surprise that people tend to choose government ambulance services as they are free of cost. So, in order to make them drift towards your ambulance services, then there must be interesting points. You can increase the availability of vehicles, employ well-trained drivers who can speak multiple languages, impose affordable charges, and most importantly, develop an app. Yes, if you develop an app, your users can book ambulances conveniently.

• Select a business model

There are two business models for you to choose from. They are the aggregator model and individual model. The individual model is pretty clear to understand that you will hire drivers, buy ambulances, develop the app and serve your customers. Whereas aggregator model is where your sole business purpose is to receive the booking requests and direct them to the ambulance service providers. Simply, your business will rely on the number of ambulance service providers you are associated with.

• Invest in resources and insurance policies

Suppose you choose to be the king of your business and select to operate individually. If that’s the case, you have to start investing in ambulances and hire drivers. You must also fix whether to hire drivers on a part-time or full-time basis. And not to miss the insurance policies you need to apply for ambulances and drivers.

• Develop an app for ambulance booking

The traditional ambulance business will get lost in current times as the online ambulance bookings services are dominating the market. Developing a technically well-functioning ambulance booking app is necessary. In the next subsections, you will learn in detail regarding the Uber like app development for ambulance services, and the workflow of the app.

The workflow of an ambulance booking app

Step 1: Patients looking for emergency ambulance services need to download your app. They must register on the app by filling in their address, email id, and phone number.

Step 2: When they need the ambulance service, they will fill in the location and the hospital they wish to visit. Once they have filled in these details, they will confirm the booking.

Step 3: Immediately after the patients confirms the booking, the service provider will get a push notification regarding the booking.

Step 4: Now, the nearest driver will be involved to pick up the patient from their place to the hospital.

Step 5: After visiting the hospital, the patient can pay through the app. Once they make the payment, they will get a pop-up message to rate their experience.

Features of the ambulance booking app

The patient app

• Book now or schedule

Patients have two options to book the ambulance services. If they need ambulance services for a later date, they can choose the scheduling option and go ahead by filling in the particulars. If they need the ambulance service immediately, they can choose the option accordingly.

• Status

Knowing the status of booking is important for patients. The app keeps updating the status from the time of booking till the completion of the service. 

• In-built tracking system

Upon booking, the patient can start noticing the location of the ambulance till it reaches. Likewise, the ambulance driver can use the tracking system to find out the patient’s location.

• Payments

Your app will relieve patients from carrying cash as they can transfer money through the in-app payment options.

• Estimated arrival time

The patients can know the time within which the ambulance will arrive at their spot.

The driver app

• Availability 

The ambulance drivers who are willing for accepting the bookings can mention available. So, while finding the nearest driver to match the booking request, the app will go through the list of available drivers.

• Route guidance

In ambulance services, one must keep up with the timings. To provide additional support to ambulance drivers to reach quickly, there is an in-app route optimizer, which ensures to provide the routes that are not busy.

These are the vital features for ambulance drivers. Apart from these, the driver app has features like push notifications, reviews, and earnings.

The admin panel

The job of every business administrator will circle over hectic schedules and management activities. The admin has to affirm that the bookings are properly serviced, the payments are credited without any mishaps, monitor the drivers, etc. All these core functions can be carried out in an easy manner via the admin dashboard.

Summing up, go ahead with the ambulance services business by launching an Uber like app.