About this episode
Matt Saltzman runs Ready Steady Transportation Services out of Santa Cruz, California on a single van, and says senior roundtable referrals now account for half or more of his trips. He spent three or four months carrying full time drivers on a payroll his business loan was quietly funding before he switched to part time hires, and he now takes one driver from every 60 candidates his recruiter sends. Broker rates run about a third of what he wants, so he bids only on days a driver is already staffed for private pay and uses the extra run to cover that day's payroll.
Key takeaways
- The bidding rule is simple. On days with a driver already booked he bids low to fill the gap; on empty days he quotes high, answering a $35 pickup offer with $55.
- His one van carries a gurney, two wheelchairs and two captain's chairs. He priced a four rider outing at $700, charged the agency half, and absorbed the labor as sponsorship.
- Two recruiting rounds produced about 60 candidates each and exactly one hire per round. The runners up go into his sales CRM as a candidate audience he keeps warm.
- He is waiting on Medi-Cal approval and access to Central Coast Alliance, the regional provider network, and expects that volume alone to push him past one vehicle.
- An acquisition target doing $1.8 million in revenue turned out to have a single broker customer. That concentration risk is why he committed to private pay as priority one.
Chapters
- 0:22 What he would tell someone starting from zero
- 2:38 Half his trips now come from referrals
- 4:10 One van: gurney, two wheelchairs, two captain's chairs
- 5:06 A $700 event ride sold at half price
- 6:52 Competitors, flyers and the rides he is not getting
- 7:49 The three legged stool and the broker math
- 9:28 Bidding only when a driver is already staffed
- 10:55 Full time to part time: the payroll mistake
- 11:42 One hire out of 60 candidates, twice
- 14:09 Borrowing the Amazon DSP playbook
- 16:06 A $1.8 million business with one broker
- 18:48 Four hour days, two kids, one income
