Designated Driver: Multi-Driver Booking, Preferential Pricing and Merchant Commission

One driver is a consumer app demo. Closing time at a busy venue is an operations problem: several guests leaving at once, a quote that still looks fair on a long trip home, and a front-desk staffer who wants a cut without running a second ledger in a chat group.

Ptaxi’s designated driver app covers multi-driver quantity on the passenger side, estimated versus preferential prices with a visible rule breakdown, merchant-assisted booking with commission settlement, and the same core fare stack used across mobility lines. The sections below stay inside those documented capabilities — no invented tip buttons, card processors or surge engines.

Multi-driver booking: quantity before the map drama

After pickup and drop-off (and optional schedule within the usual booking window), the passenger can set how many drivers they need and call multiple vehicles together. That is the feature venues ask for when three tables leave at once.

Operational notes that matter more than the toggle:

• Dispatch still pushes within the configured distance range. More drivers requested means more acceptances needed — watch online supply on the heat map (online / on-trip / waiting counts are part of the designated-driver driver home picture).
• Book-for-others still applies: name and phone for the rider who is not holding the phone.
• Minimum estimated mileage can block trips that are too short for your economics. Turn that on only if support is ready to explain it.
• After a driver accepts and before boarding is confirmed, the passenger may change the trip time. Cancellations after that change land on a reserved-cancel list for staff to assign passenger or driver responsibility — covered in depth in cancellations, training and withdrawals.

Scan-to-order (passenger scans driver QR) remains available for face-to-face handoff when a single driver is already at the curb. Multi-quantity is for the “we need several now” case, not a replacement for QR.

Preferential and stage pricing: show both numbers

Confirm-price shows estimated price, preferential price and the pricing-rule detail. Riders should never guess which number they will pay.

Admin pricing plans include:

• Base fare as either a start fee (with start mileage and optional start duration) or a base fee.
• Distance fee per km, time fee per minute, long-distance fees by mileage bands, waiting fee after the driver arrives.
• Different base and unit prices by time period.
• Cycles: weekdays, weekends, holidays or custom.
• Preferential pricing (switchable): mileage-stage distance fees and a maximum charge per stage.

Use preferential pricing when you want longer trips to feel capped by stage without rewriting the whole plan. Keep the breakdown visible. Fixed-price / one-price switches also exist for markets that prefer a single estimated quote for distance and duration — pick one story per city and train drivers on bill confirm (passenger pay, driver advance pay, or offline collection via the driver’s payment QR where enabled).

Payments on the passenger side stay within documented in-app balance and local e-wallet style channels plus offline paths at bill confirm — do not invent card brands in the marketing copy. Wallet top-up packages with bonus credit can be configured when you run prepaid campaigns.

Merchant commission ops: the venue is a channel

Merchant-assisted booking lets merchant staff place orders for customers. After completion, commission settles to the merchant under configured rules. Admin merchant management covers creating merchants, viewing commission rules, reward statistics and reward detail.

Why this beats a spreadsheet:

• The order is a first-class trip with the same cancel rules, alarm management and complaint tools as consumer bookings.
• Finance sees merchant reward lines instead of reconciling cash envelopes.
• You can turn merchants on for hotels and restaurants without giving them a full dispatcher seat.

Train merchant staff on cancel timing and on who pays a penalty when a guest walks away after the driver is already en route. The platform records the trip; the venue relationship still needs a one-page SOP.

For the earlier merchant-focused write-up, see designated-driver merchant-assisted booking. Balance gates and heat-map ops for drivers are in online balance and heat map.

Driver-side constraints that affect multi-booking nights

Multi-booking only works if drivers can go online:

• Certification must be approved (prior designated-driver experience flag plus other documents as required by admin).
• Go-online can require a minimum reserved wallet balance.
• Admin may require uploaded collection QR codes before go-online when offline collection is part of your market.
• Order broadcast (including lock-screen voice) still has to work on the phones drivers actually carry.

Platform commission for companies and franchise drivers is configured in admin and applied when the passenger completes payment. Withdrawal requests need admin review. None of that is optional decoration if you promise merchants a reliable Friday night.

What to configure before you sell “multi + preferential + merchant”

1. Preferential pricing stages and the max per stage — with a screenshot of the rider confirm screen.
2. Standard plan cycles for weekend nights versus weekdays.
3. Minimum mileage, if any, and support scripts.
4. Merchant records, commission rules and a test settlement on a completed order.
5. Passenger and driver cancel rules, including reserved-cancel handling after time changes.
6. Push distance and heat-map coaching so multi-calls do not all land on the same three drivers.
7. Bill-confirm payment paths you actually allow (passenger pay, driver advance, offline QR collection).
8. Alarm management and trip share enabled for passenger safety (emergency dial to local emergency services — frame for your market, not a single country’s number).

Pricing cycles and weekend nights

Designated driving demand clumps on weekend nights and holidays. That is exactly why pricing cycles exist: attach weekday, weekend, holiday or custom ranges to the plan so the Friday estimate is not an improvised chat discount.

Combine cycles with preferential stages carefully. A holiday cycle that already lifts unit prices plus a preferential max-per-stage can confuse riders if the confirm screen is cluttered. Keep two clear columns — standard estimate versus preferential — and put the cycle name in the rule detail, not in a banner nobody reads.

One-price / fixed-price mode is a different product promise: the estimate for mileage and duration becomes the locked quote. Do not mix “meter-like components” messaging with “one price” in the same city without training. Drivers still confirm the bill and may add highway, bridge or parking where policy allows; those add-ons must stay visible to the passenger.

Coupons, wallet packages and who pays

Marketing tools on this line include discount and spend-threshold coupons, invite and register rewards, distribution rewards by city, and recharge packages that grant bonus balance. Use them to fill quiet weeknights, not to paper over a broken preferential table.

When a merchant books for a guest, decide in the SOP whether the guest pays in the passenger app or the merchant settles another way your finance team already supports. The documented path is still a platform order with merchant commission after completion — do not invent a second cash channel that never hits the ledger.

Invoices (paper or electronic, with a minimum amount where set) matter for venues that need a monthly pack of receipts. Configure that before the first hotel asks for last month’s trips in a spreadsheet export from someone’s phone.

Close

Multi-driver quantity, preferential stage pricing and merchant commission are how designated driving leaves the consumer demo and enters venue operations. If that is your channel, walk a real hotel manager through one multi-call, one preferential long trip and one merchant settlement on designated driver software before you promise volume. Contact us with your venue mix and we will say what is configuration versus custom.