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Wheelchair-accessible vehicle (WAV) rides are an additional Rider Service you can add to a rider's profile for a per-ride fee. When the WAV Rider Service is added to a rider's profile, their rides will be performed by a vetted CarePartnerTM driver in a wheelchair-accessible vehicle.
About WAV rides
To arrange WAV rides, HopSkipDrive works with CarePartner organizations to match rides with vetted professional drivers driving specialty vehicles. You can schedule and monitor these rides in RideIQ, and caregivers and riders have a consistent HopSkipDrive experience, including the ability for caregivers to monitor the ride in the HopSkipDrive app and the identity verification steps at pickup.
All WAV rides are automatically Must Be Met rides to ensure riders are met by an adult. RideIQ automatically adds this requirement, regardless of the individual location settings. You do not need to set up Authorized Individual groups for these rides.
How to enable WAV rides for a rider
Follow the instructions below to enable WAV rides.
Prerequisites
In order to be able to enable WAV rides for an individual rider:
- The WAV Rider Service must be enabled for your organization at the account level. Contact your Account Manager if to enable the service for your account.
- The rider cannot have any upcoming rides scheduled. Cancel any upcoming rides before enabling the WAV Rider Service.
Enabling WAV rides for a rider
Rider Services are managed in the Safety Settings section of a rider's profile. To enable WAV rides for a rider, follow the steps below:
- Navigate to the rider's profile page.
- In Safety Settings, click Edit.

- Under Services, select Wheelchair-Accessible Vehicle, then click Save. All rides for the rider will now have the WAV Rider Service enabled and you will see the corresponding service icon at the top of the rider's profile, in the Rides list, and on the rider's rides.

Scheduling WAV rides
To ensure the ride or Ride Series can be fulfilled by a CarePartner, WAV rides must be scheduled at least 72 hours in advance. Schedule the ride as usual, then click Save.
The ride or series will have a status of Requested while HopSkipDrive's Specialty Transportation team reviews it. When the ride has been approved or denied, the Specialty Transportation team will notify you via email. Approved rides will then appear on the In progress & upcoming rides list. Learn more about ride requests here.
WAV ride restrictions
WAV rides cannot be combined with Safe Ride InSightTM or Car Seat Rider Services. In some cases, CarePartners may record rides using in-cabin cameras separate from Safe Ride InSight.
Managing and tracking WAV rides in RideIQ
WAV rides are identified with the WAV icon, as shown below:

To ensure driver availability, once a WAV ride is scheduled, it cannot be edited. If you need to make a change to the time or route of a WAV ride, cancel the ride and re-schedule it with the desired changes.
Caregiver communications
Caregivers will receive the same ride scheduling and status notifications as usual for all HopSkipDrive rides. Learn more about caregiver communications here.