A Business Built on Quiet Service

Most businesses are built around life’s happy moments. But as Travis, the veteran owner of Funeraltransit in Mobile, Alabama, points out, there’s a different, quieter side of service. “A lot of people focus on the happy things, when people are born,” he says. “But people die, too. It’s a good business because not everyone is comfortable doing it.”

His team provides an essential service: on-call funeral transport. Based in Mobile, the work is sensitive, urgent, and unpredictable, stretching to the rural roads of Alabama at all hours. A quiet morning can turn into a hectic afternoon of back-to-back calls, each requiring the utmost professionalism and careful documentation.

The Search for a Fair Price

A driver’s day is never the same. It’s a fluid sequence of events—a dispatch to Wolfe Bayview Funeral Home, followed by a run to Baldwin County Hospital, only to be called back to the funeral home hours later. This created a difficult payroll problem: how do you fairly track a base on-call rate plus a flat fee for each distinct job, especially when your team is focused on the sensitive work at hand, not on a clock?

A single forgotten clock-out could throw off an entire day’s pay. Travis needed a system that was as reliable and professional as his crew. That’s what brought him to ShiftFlow.

Our job-based model was already a close fit, but a focused conversation clarified the final mile. By listening to his real-world needs, our product team identified two key capabilities that would provide the needed clarity and control:

1. Flat-Rate Pay Per Job: The ability to assign a fixed rate to any job code.
2. Time Limits with Auto-End: A feature to automatically clock a driver out after a set duration.

These ideas, first captured in Travis’s public feedback post, were quickly shipped in v9.2.0.

“Flat rate plus time limits fit our calls perfectly.” — Travis

A Day on Dispatch: Clarity in Action

The impact was immediate. A typical day now unfolds with a new sense of precision and calm:

A driver starts their day in an “Idle” status, earning a base rate for their availability. The phone rings for a dispatch. The driver selects the job code for Wolfe Bayview Funeral Home, which instantly assigns a flat rate and starts a two-hour job timer.

This time limit is a safeguard for everyone. If the job finishes early, the driver is immediately available for the next run. If a pickup takes longer than expected, there’s no risk of an open-ended clock-out creating payroll errors later. When the next call comes in for Baldwin County Hospital, the driver simply selects that new job code, creating a fresh, separate entry. Each selection requires a brief, mandatory note, ensuring every paid job has context.

This simple, clear process allows the team to focus on their important work, knowing the administrative details are being handled accurately in the background.

The Impact: From Chaos to Calm

The new workflow brought significant, tangible results:

• Fair, Predictable Pay: Drivers get peace of mind knowing they are being compensated accurately for every part of their day—their availability and each call they complete.
• Fewer Errors: Automatic time limits dramatically reduce missed clock-outs, leading to cleaner, more reliable data and less time spent fixing mistakes.
• Streamlined Operations: With notes tied directly to jobs, reconciling timesheets and invoices is now straightforward, eliminating the need for extra spreadsheets and guesswork.

A Practice to Copy This Week

If your team runs on-call, job-based work, try creating job codes that mirror real requests. Add a flat-rate amount and a time limit that matches a typical call. Require a short note on each selection so end-of-week reviews and invoices write themselves.

If you operate urgent, on-call services and need predictable pay logic, talk with us about your routes. We’ll meet you where the work happens.