How to set up your taxi & chauffeur company on Opraly (step-by-step)

Starting a taxi or chauffeur operation on new software usually means a week of fiddly configuration before you can take a single booking. It does not have to. This guide walks you through setting up your fleet on Opraly in the right order — so by the end you have a branded booking page, live dispatch, and card payments ready to go.

If you have not yet, take a quick look at the rides industry overview to see how the pieces fit together. Then work through the steps below.

1. Open your account

Sign up and create your company. You will name the business, set your region and timezone, and pick the Rides & chauffeur vertical so Opraly turns on the features your operation actually needs — live dispatch, the taxi stand, and job-style bookings rather than fixed appointment slots.

A few things worth setting up front:

• Your brand — logo, colours and company name. These flow straight onto your booking page and customer messages.
• Currency and tax so fares, tips and receipts are right from job one.
• Contact details customers see when they get a confirmation or a “your driver is on the way” message.

2. Build your services (vehicle classes)

In Opraly, a “service” is whatever a customer books. For a fleet, that maps cleanly to your vehicle classes and ride types:

• Standard taxi — point-to-point, metered or fixed.
• Executive / chauffeur — premium sedan with a named driver.
• Limo or large group — priced per vehicle and capacity.
• Airport transfer — a fixed-route product with luggage allowance.
• Hourly hire — chauffeur by the hour for events or roadshows.

For each one, set the price (or pricing rule), the vehicle capacity, and how long a typical job blocks the calendar. Defining classes clearly now is what lets customers self-select the right car later — and lets dispatch match the right driver.

3. Add drivers and vehicles (staff & resources)

Drivers are your staff; vehicles are your resources. Add each driver with their own login and a role that fits what they should see and do:

• Driver — sees only their assigned jobs and route, marks pickups and drop-offs.
• Dispatcher — works the live board, assigns and reassigns jobs.
• Owner / manager — full access to reporting, payments and settings.

Then add your vehicles and link drivers to the classes they are cleared to run. This is the backbone of dispatch: when a job comes in, Opraly knows which available driver and car can take it.

4. Set your operating hours

Tell Opraly when you run. You can set company-wide hours and then per-driver availability on top — perfect for a fleet where some drivers cover nights and others cover the airport run at dawn. Hours control what customers can book online and keep the calendar honest about who is actually working.

If you offer 24/7 service, set it that way; if you close on certain days, block them. Either way, online booking will only ever offer real, coverable windows.

5. Turn on online booking and your branded page

This is the moment your company starts taking work while you sleep. Opraly gives you a branded booking page under your own name — not a marketplace — where customers:

• Pick a vehicle class and enter pickup, drop-off and time.
• See a price up front.
• Pre-book a future ride, or check in to the taxi stand for the next available car.

Share the page link on your website, your Google profile, and in your email signature. Every booking that lands here flows straight onto your dispatch board.

6. Set up payments and capture timing

Connect payments so you can take cards, tips, and store a card-on-file. The most important decision here is capture timing — when the customer actually pays:

For high-value chauffeur and event work, a deposit plus a clear cancellation window protects you from last-minute drop-offs. We go deeper on that in how to grow your taxi & chauffeur company.

7. Add reminders and messaging

Turn on appointment reminders and reschedule / cancel notices so riders never forget a pre-booked job — and so a cancellation frees the slot automatically. Switch on 2-way messaging so a customer can reply to confirm a pickup point or ask the driver to wait. Less radio chatter, fewer missed pickups.

8. Go live (a quick pre-flight check)

Before you share the page widely, run through this list:

• A test booking on each vehicle class completes end to end.
• A test job appears on the dispatch board and can be assigned to a driver.
• A card charges correctly with your chosen capture timing.
• Reminders and confirmations arrive on a real phone.
• Each driver can log in and see only their own jobs.

When those pass, you are live. Point your traffic at the booking page and let the dispatch board do the heavy lifting.

What to do next

Setup is the foundation — filling the calendar is the fun part. Once you are taking bookings, move on to how to grow your taxi & chauffeur company with Opraly, where we cover deposits, reminders, packages, the taxi stand and reporting in depth. You can also revisit the rides industry page any time to see the full feature set.

Ready to put your fleet online? Start free and have your booking page live today.