Case study · Courtesy bus dispatch
A courtesy bus line answered without anyone behind the bar
The Mayfair Emerald in Emerald, Queensland put its bus phone on an AI agent. Casey takes the call, checks the address, sends the job to the drivers and texts the caller when a driver accepts. Nine calls in ten never reach a person.
Friday night the bus phone rang behind the bar while we were flat out. Somebody wrote the name and address down, then typed it into the group chat when they got a second. Now Casey answers, the job lands in the drivers' chat with the address already checked, and the first I hear of it is a driver tapping accept. Nobody on the floor has touched the bus phone since she went live.
The venue
The Mayfair Emerald
A pub, bistro, motel and drive-through bottle shop in Emerald, central Queensland. The venue runs a free courtesy bus within 8 km, 6am to 11pm, seven days, on three buses with drivers on their own phones. Before Casey the whole line ran through WhatsApp group chats.
01 · Before
The bus line by hand
Sebastiaan's account of the line, written before the agent went live.
Written down, then typed again
A thumbs-up was the record
Rang back to ask where the bus was
02 · Now
The bus line on Casey
Casey is the AI agent on the venue's bus number. Four steps, the same on every call.
Casey answers
She asks for a name, a headcount and a pickup address, in the order the bar staff used to.
The address is checked
Against Google Maps, before a driver sees it. A caller who says Chudley gets Chudleigh Drive read back. A pickup outside the 8 km run is declined on the call. A caller who cannot name where they are gets a map link and drops a pin.
One driver takes the job
It lands in the drivers' Telegram group as a card with Accept, Picked up and Dropped off buttons. The first driver to tap Accept holds it. A job nobody takes is nudged at five minutes and again at ten.
The caller is told, twice
One text when the job reaches the drivers, a second naming the driver who accepted. A caller who rings back hears the live status and can cancel on that call.
Their own phones, one new card
A person on any call
Every call transcribed
03 · The numbers
How the line runs
Read from the platform's own call and dispatch records. Silent calls and test calls are excluded.
04 · Your line
The same line for your venue
Mayfair was the first build and took under four weeks from a signed contract to Casey answering the venue's own number. The line is a pattern now. For the next venue it is a conversation about how your bus runs, then up to five business days.
Book a 15-minute call and we run it against your venue on the call.
Live in up to five business days
No build fee
We write the procedure
We deal with your phone company
No new software, no training
Hear it before you sign
05 · Who built it
Vertical AI
We build custom AI systems for Australian businesses from Perth. Casey runs on the voice platform we built and operate ourselves, and the people who built the line answer the support number. The Mayfair build ran remotely from start to finish.
If your phone does one job, and that job is being done by hand, book a 15-minute call and we will show you what it looks like on your line. Our other voice work is on the voice agents page.
FAQ
Common questions
Questions we hear from venue managers and owners. Book a 15-minute call if you do not see yours here.
It answers, asks for a name, a headcount and a pickup address, checks the address against Google Maps, sends the job to the drivers' group chat and texts the caller when a driver accepts.
Nine calls in ten at the Mayfair finish without a person, and the median call is 54.5 seconds. A caller who asks for a person is put through. The caller also gets two texts, one when the job reaches the drivers and one naming the driver, which the old line never sent.
It reads every address back before a driver sees it, checks it against Google Maps, and declines a pickup outside the run. A caller who cannot name where they are gets a map link and drops a pin. A wrong address that still gets through is on the card for the driver to query, and the caller can ring back, cancel, and book again.
The median call is 54.5 seconds from answer to read-back, and the line answers on the first ring however many calls arrive at once.
It replaces the writing down and the typing. The person on the bar keeps every other job and stops being interrupted by the bus phone. A caller who needs a person still gets one.
No build fee. You pay by the minute for the calls the agent answers, on the rate on our pricing page, with no subscription, no minimum and no lock-in.
Mayfair paid for the first build. The line is a pattern now, and setting it up for the next venue is days of work rather than weeks, so we charge for the calls and not the setup.
How the bus runs today: the radius, the hours, who drives, what a caller has to give you. Permission to forward the bus number, which we arrange with your telco. And a Telegram group for the drivers, which we set up with you.
The Mayfair's did too. The card runs in Telegram, which the drivers installed on the phones they already had. Nothing else about their phones changed.
No. The same shape fits any line where a caller asks for something to be sent somewhere: a taxi co-op, a tow operator, a hotel shuttle, community transport. If your phone does one job, it fits.
Perth, Western Australia. The Mayfair Emerald is in central Queensland, and the whole build and support ran remotely.
Your phone does one job too
If someone on your floor writes down what a caller says and types it somewhere else, book a call. We will show you the line running on your venue.