About this episode
Joe Scarborough, head of sales, marketing, and business development at Wisdom Care Transportation in Raleigh, North Carolina, says most operators sit near $260 per vehicle per day when the number should be $600 to $800. He wins facility contracts by asking coordinators what is broken instead of pitching, then offering portal access that replaces the phone calls it takes them to book one ride. A large hospital may outsource to a dozen NEMT companies, so he runs three legs at once: a brokerage baseline, private pay riders, and facility service agreements.
Key takeaways
- Revenue per vehicle is the metric that matters. Scarborough says a day of ambulatory work can come to $130, most operators land near $260 per vehicle per day, and $600 to $800 is the target.
- He intervened on a frustrated coordinator's inbound call, asked how her day was going, then offered direct ride entry instead of repeated phone calls. The portal demo runs 15 to 20 minutes.
- Keep all three revenue legs alive: brokerage baseline, private pay riders, and facility service agreements. Leaning only on brokerage brings more cons than pros, and any one leg can go volatile without warning.
- Improve the mix, not the count. Adding stretcher work, specialty chair capability, or multi-loading raises the rate per ride on the same vehicle capacity instead of forcing you to buy more vans.
- Driving and dispatching at the same time works briefly and then caps growth. Wisdom Care splits the roles and puts every driver through at least 10 hours of defensive driving, first aid, and CPR.
Chapters
- 0:03 The phone calls it takes a facility to book one ride
- 1:15 From driving Uber and Lyft into NEMT
- 3:33 Why you cannot drive and dispatch at the same time
- 5:02 Joining Wisdom Care Transportation
- 6:25 The three revenue legs every operator should run
- 7:38 Mapping your market and knowing the players
- 10:32 Stop waiting for calls and walk into the facility
- 12:00 A recent win: intervening on a frustrated coordinator
- 14:03 The facility portal pitch and a 15 minute demo
- 17:54 Driver training, maintenance, and brand standards
- 20:32 Ride capacity, ride mix, and revenue per vehicle
- 22:20 The gap between $260 and $800 a day per vehicle
