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Rider Assistants are an additional Rider Service you can add to a rider's profile for an additional per-ride fee. When the Rider Assistant Rider Service is added to a rider's profile, their rides will be performed by a CareDriver accompanied by a vetted Rider Assistant who sits in the back of the vehicle to support the rider.
About Rider Assistant rides
To arrange Rider Assistant rides, HopSkipDrive works with CarePartnerTM organizations to provide an adult assistant who rides in the back of the vehicle to support the rider during the ride.
How to enable Rider Assistant rides for a rider
Follow the instructions below to enable Rider Assistant rides.
Prerequisites
In order to be able to enable Rider Assistant rides for an individual rider:
- The Rider Assistant Rider Service must be enabled for your organization at the account level. If the Rider Assistant service is not available, contact your Account Manager.
- The rider cannot have any upcoming rides scheduled. Cancel any upcoming rides before enabling the Rider Assistant Rider Service.
Enabling Rider Assistant rides for a rider
Rider Services are managed in the Safety Settings section of a rider's profile. To enable Rider Assistant rides for a rider, follow the steps below:
- Navigate to the rider's profile page.
- In Safety Settings, click Edit.
- Under Services, select Rider Assistant, then click Save. The Rider Assistant service will now apply to all the rider's rides. You'll see the corresponding service icon at the top of the rider's profile, in the Rides list, and on the rider's rides.
Scheduling Rider Assistant rides
To ensure the ride or Ride Series can be fulfilled, Rider Assistant rides must be scheduled at least 72 hours in advance.
Rider Assistants meet the CareDriver at the school (or equivalent) location. This means that all Rider Assistant rides require an additional stop to either drop the Rider Assistant off at their vehicle or pick them before proceeding to the rider pickup. To account for this A-B-A route, RideIQ automatically adds a stop to rides that include a Rider Assistant. These stops are highlighted in green and cannot be deleted or edited.
Once a Rider Assistant has been matched with the ride you'll be able to see their name listed on these stops.
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.
Managing and tracking Rider Assistant rides in RideIQ
Rider Assistant rides are identified with the Rider Assistant icon, as shown below:
To ensure driver availability, once a Rider Assistant ride is scheduled, it cannot be edited. If you need to make a change to the time or route of a Rider Assistant 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.