This document provides guidance on digitally managing, motivating, and engaging volunteer drivers through mobile technologies. It discusses how location-based technologies can help volunteers find rides closer to home, making volunteering easier. Engagement can be increased by allowing passengers to provide real-time feedback and connecting volunteers with passenger profiles. Online communities and gamification elements can also motivate volunteers by recognizing contributions and allowing social sharing. The overall aim is to better serve volunteers and passengers while lowering the costs of managing transportation programs.

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Letter from the author
Digitally Managing Your Volunteers
Engaging Your Volunteers
Motivating Your Volunteers
SPEDSTA - Practical Guidance for Managing, Motivating
and Engaging the Modern Volunteer Driver

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and Engaging the Modern Volunteer Driver
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The baby boomer generation’s life has been tough. The typical middle class boomer in the US
has grown up with a 9 to 5 job, steady career growth, nice car and a spacious house. This is certainly
tough compared to the younger generation’s perception of infinite work possibilities, flexibility and
desire to make an impact. Don’t count the Boomers out though as they enter their encore (retirement)
years and looking to make a bigger impact than just the bottom line…volunteerism is on the rise which
could be a boon for volunteer driving programs and volunteer senior transportation across the USA and
Canada.
So how do you leverage this fast
growing and impact seeking population
to volunteer their time and resources to
your cause? The simplest answer is to
give them what they want and on their
own terms. This could be mean more
group lunches, parties and other
benefits that potentially consume your
staff time and resources or it could be
leveraging new tools through Mobile
Technology and software to provide
emotional and tangible benefits at a
much lower cost.
The facts and trends around mobile technology are clear:
• Every adult who has a mobile phone has it within arms reach 22 hours a day
• Average consumer takes 28 hours to report a lost wallet. It takes 68 minutes to report a lost phone.
So lets dive into some ideas on how to digitally manage, motivate and engage the modern volunteer
driver.

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Digitally Managing your Volunteers
One recent study that a typical US consumer spends 85% of
their income within 5 miles of their home and that most car
accidents happen with 3 miles of their home. We have an affinity to
things, people and organizations that are in our local neighborhood.
This affinity also applies to volunteerism. The closer to home you
can have the person perform their volunteer duties the easier it is
for them to choose to do it. Volunteer transportation is no exception.
We would rather provide rides to people within 3 miles of our
home than 5 miles and the drop-off in participation can be up to
80% between the two distances. Giving the ability the volunteer to
understand spatially via GPS and Mapping technology where they
are relative to a potential passenger is one of the key enablers of
participation. Add in other relevant information such as time to
pickup, length of ride etc all adds to a positive decision making
process on the part of the volunteer driver.
People who volunteer can have busy lives and making it
easier for them to join on their own time and be notified of events
that are relevant to them are all part of a great experience.
Providing the option to digitally upload the requirements for joining
such as insurance, license and other details directly through Apps
and other benefits as paperless reimbursements (no odometer
readings) all add to the decreased burden on the volunteer.
“Location, location,
location”…this has
been the maxim of
the real estate
business for years.
But it also pertains to
everything volunteer
related.
SPEDSTA - Practical Guidance for Managing, Motivating
and Engaging the Modern Volunteer Driver

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Engaging your Volunteer
Part of the attraction of volunteer driving is to give back to
the community and have an impact on other peoples lives who
need it the most. In typical cases, volunteers do their duty and
go home with an internal feeling of satisfaction. Leveraging
technology could make their engagement more concrete and
provide them with feedback they would not normally receive. If
you are trying to form a habit with the volunteer to give more,
then constant feedback is one of the key elements to
participation.
One simple way to do this is allowing the passenger to
provide ratings and feedback to the driver. These comments
can be a wonderful way for the driver to get an idea of how
specifically they are helping in real time. This type of feedback
allows the volunteer to build a narrative of how they are helping
and the more real-time the feedback is the more powerful affect
it can have on providing more rides.
In cases where new passengers are being added into
your transportation network, allowing the passenger to tell their
story through building their own online profile can also increase
engagement. Drivers who volunteer are mostly friendly and
customer service orientated. By allowing the driver to find
common interests with the passenger through digital means
allows another layer of getting to know the passenger before
any real ride even happens.
5 SPEDSTA - Practical Guidance for Managing, Motivating
and Engaging the Modern Volunteer Driver

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Online Social Communities
As much as there has been a public and media perception that
the older generation does not participate in online communities
such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn the data certainly does
not show that. In fact, on Facebook today the fastest growing
demographic on the platform is the 55+ group. In elderly
transportation communities, we have seen participation of up to
20% of the community providing online feedback. This is
compared to a general average of 1% for online communities.
With over 1 billion daily active users globally on Facebook, social sharing is a phenomenon that
certainly spans age, geography and gender. The universal appeal of these social platforms is rooted
deeply in our human nature to share and give back . As simple a process as “liking” a photo or a
comment that you have made online can generate positive feelings in the person providing the content.
Although these are small events, these small events all build up our perception on how we are helping
and sharing with our community of friends, family and colleagues. Putting mechanisms of social
interaction through ratings and comments into your transportation network all generate that stickiness
you want in the volunteer.
Another mechanism that social platforms leverage is our constant need for learning and growth
through comparing what we are doing relative to other people. “Gamifying” your transportation program
by providing data points relative to how other drivers are doing or measures of performance provide a
mechanism of feedback and improvement to how you would like the driver to aspire to. For example,
putting in measures of ride cancellations, send a strong signal to the driver what is important for your
community of senior passengers. Other things such as response time to emails or other requests all
add to a more efficient and effective senior transportation program.
Motivating your Volunteer
SPEDSTA - Practical Guidance for Managing, Motivating
and Engaging the Modern Volunteer Driver

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Try Spedsta’s
Ride Management Tools and Passenger/Driver App
Free for 30 Days.
From managing your drivers to increasing your
transportation budget, Spedsta brings your entire
transportation program together. The result? Better
experience for the driver and senior passenger and a
lower cost way to manage your transportation
program.
Start Your Free Trial Now
www.spedsta.com/signup
email@spedsta.com
888 756 3617
SPEDSTA - Practical Guidance for Managing, Motivating
and Engaging the Modern Volunteer Driver