How to use texting for transportation operations

The transportation industry is among the biggest in the US, with a $1.26 trillion market. 

If you run a business in this booming industry, you’ve got to manage a lot of moving parts, from your employees to your customers (not to mention bringing in new ones). 

The question is, how do you do all of that without multitasking between a dozen tools and wasting valuable time on inefficient processes?

Answer: SMS.

I’m going to show you why SMS is best for transportation companies and how to make it work for you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Why Texting Works for Transportation Companies
• How to Use Transportation SMS
• Transportation Text Marketing Tools
• SMS for Transportation FAQs

Why texting works for transportation companies

First, why should you turn to texting for your transportation marketing and operations efforts? Here are a few important numbers you should see.

• 98% of texts get opened (as opposed to 16.97% of emails).
• 54% of consumers want to get promotions through text.
• In 2022, 70% of consumers signed up to receive texts from businesses.
• The majority of businesses report SMS click-through rates between 20 and 35%.

Texts get you the results you want (both in terms of customer engagement and improvements in sales), and your customers want you to use them.

How to use transportation SMS

SMS works for all kinds of industries, but let’s take a close look at how transportation companies specifically can put it to use.

• Send out promotions, coupons, and sale announcements to your current customers.
• Follow up with new leads from your website, ads, or social media to start a sales conversation.
• Schedule appointments and send reminders to reduce no-shows.
• Quickly recruit new talent and streamline the hiring process.
• Message your customers individually to answer questions and concerns.
• Send texts to your team to coordinate across locations and time zones.
• Text links to your payment portal, attach invoices, and remind customers of their due dates.
• Send out emergency alerts to your drivers about inclement weather or dangerous road conditions.

Transportation text marketing tools

Before you get your texting program off the ground, there are a few features you’ll want in your SMS toolbox. Here are a few must-haves.

Mass texts 

Mass texts let you send a message to hundreds or thousands of contacts at once in just a few clicks. These are helpful for big announcements, promotions, and updates like closures or emergency alerts.

Keywords

Keywords are short words or phrases that your customers can text to your number to agree to receive your SMS messages. They give your audience a quick, convenient way to get in touch with you (and you can grow your contact lists!).

Autoresponders 

Get conversations going instantly and without lifting a finger using these automatic messages. Use autoresponders to cut down your response times and capture your contacts’ interest.

SMS inbox 

Within a two-way messaging inbox, you can interact one-on-one with customers to handle their questions and concerns with a personal touch. 

Integrations

Already got an appointment scheduler, CRM, or email service you love? No problem. SimpleTexting integrates with thousands of applications, and if you don’t see your favorite among those, custom integrations are an option as well.

Our mobile app

As a transportation professional, you’re probably always on the move (pun intended). If you’d rather not be tied to your laptop all the time, choose a texting service that offers a mobile app — like SimpleTexting.

That way, you can continue texting and engaging with your contacts from anywhere, anytime.

→ Read more

• Learn how Commute.org makes going to work easy with SMS.
• Read about texting for dispatch and logistics.

SMS for transportation FAQs

Now you’ve got your tools and your inspiration all ready to go. I realize you may still have questions, though, so here are a few common questions transportation pros have about text marketing. 

How do I set up text-a-taxi?

Easy! Simply set up a keyword that riders can text in to notify your dispatch team that they need a ride. Alternatively, add a click-to-text button to your site that opens up the sender’s native text messaging app with a pre-filled message asking for a taxi. All they’ll have to do is input their location. 

How much does text transportation marketing cost?

That depends on the texting platform you use, but the good news is that SMS marketing for transportation generally costs less than the average phone plan. SimpleTexting’s plans, for example, start at $29/month and go up from there, depending on how many texts you need to send.

How do I advertise my transportation company using texts?

Got a big sale coming up or want to attract new leads? First thing, create a keyword just like I mentioned earlier and post it on your storefront, your social media, or anywhere else your audience will see it.

Then, send out promotional texts about your biggest deals and best offers to your new contacts!

Keep your transportation company rolling with SMS

Transportation businesses, more than many others, need to run smoothly: The stakes for continuously running operations are high, and you have a whole network of workers and customers to communicate with.

With texting, you can do all that with just a few clicks and no delay in your communications.