About this episode
Carolynn Belke owns California Accessible Transportation in Redding, California, which she and business partner Jose grew from a garage with two vehicles to 17 drivers and 15 vehicles in three and a half years. The growth came from facilities and hospitals rather than broker volume, with hospital discharges accounting for roughly 60% of rides, work that cannot be pre-scheduled and forces her to staff drivers on standby. She funded the first 18 months entirely on private pay while waiting for California state approval, then extended hours to 3 a.m. through 8 p.m. to open up broker work.
Key takeaways
- CAT went from two vehicles in a garage to 17 drivers and 15 vehicles in three and a half years, with no loans and no leases through the first year and a half.
- Hospital discharges are roughly 60% of ride volume, so Carolynn schedules drivers with blank boards and stages them at hospitals waiting for calls that have not been booked yet.
- The first 18 months ran at 100% private pay while CAT waited on California state approval, which Carolynn calls the single biggest challenge any new provider will face.
- Extending hours to 3 a.m. through 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday, opened up dialysis broker work that falls outside a standard 9-to-5 operating window.
- On a day with 16 drivers on the road, Carolynn turned down roughly seven discharges rather than lower the hiring bar for what she calls NEMT specialists.
Chapters
- 0:00 How often do you have to say no?
- 0:22 Meet Carolynn Belke, California Accessible Transportation
- 0:37 From patient to operator: how CAT started
- 1:33 The business today: 17 drivers, 15 vehicles
- 2:08 The secret to fast growth: walk through the fear
- 2:34 The scariest leaps: vehicles, software, office staff
- 3:56 What's next: expanding into rural territories
- 5:04 Getting out of the driver's seat
- 5:26 Winning facility contracts face to face
- 6:18 Website, SEO and Google Business Profile
- 6:46 The cookie lady: grassroots facility marketing
- 7:30 Choosing Bambi and growing with it
- 8:49 Features she found late: invoicing, traffic, drive time
- 10:46 The competitor who oversold
- 11:16 Why simplicity beats complexity in dispatch
- 13:16 Adding an evening dispatcher and extending hours
- 14:35 The hardest 18 months: private pay while waiting on the state
- 16:02 Advice for new operators: get on Google, cold call
- 17:05 The wild west of NEMT compliance
- 17:42 Hospice and discharge: the back end of the 911 system
- 18:35 Managing flexible capacity
- 19:22 Paying drivers to sit on standby
- 20:35 Hospital discharges are 60% of the rides
- 21:58 Does it get easier as the fleet grows?
- 23:01 Hiring NEMT specialists, not drivers
- 24:12 Reputation, rates and reliability
- 24:49 How CAT sets its rates
- 26:05 Contracts, billing cycles and fair pricing
- 26:50 Compliance: follow the strictest rules
