Press Release: Lyft partners with SPLT

Lyft partners with SPLT to Disrupt Non-Emergency Medical Transport (NEMT)

Detroit, MI (August 8, 2016) – SPLT (splt.io), an enterprise-first carpooling app and service, announced today they are working with Lyft to provide Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) to underserved markets. The underserved demographic seeking a reliable transportation solution consists largely of seniors. While many American seniors own smartphones, more than a quarter do not. The NEMT solution that Lyft and SPLT are offering does not require usage of a smart phone. In fact, requesting transportation is as simple as inputting a patient’s name, pickup and drop-off location and a Lyft driver will be matched to provide the ride. Lyft and SPLT’s plan to increase access to medical care will start in Michigan.

Since moving their business to Detroit a year ago to participate in the #1 startup program in the automotive industry: Techstars Mobility, SPLT has established local traction, partnering with Fortune 500 companies such as DTE Energy, Honda, and Magna to launch its enterprise carpool platform. SPLT received investment from Detroit-based investment firm, Fontinalis. “It's our mission to connect people and communities through effective, affordable, safe and accessible transportation, and SPLT’s concept is a great way to deliver our services to the underserved,” said Gyre Renwick, Head of Enterprise Healthcare Partnerships at Lyft. “Getting a patient to their doctor appointment can lower the cost – and increase -- the quality of care.

Anya Babbitt, Founder & CEO of SPLT agrees the opportunity is exciting, “We are grateful to be part of the inspiring Detroit Story and we are compelled to work towards the betterment of NEMT in Detroit, and Michigan as a whole.”  

In the current NEMT system, 3.6 million Americans miss or delay medical care every year due to access to transportation. Current incumbents in this space require patients to book transportation at least four days prior to their appointment. Following the appointment, patients are often left stranded several hours before their driver arrives. “The inefficiencies in this industry are enormous and patients have no voice or alternative,” said Babbitt. “Patient Trust is what we plan to bring back to the NEMT experience.” SPLT and Lyft are focused on the reduction of pre-booking times to a matter of hours and patient wait time to minutes.

State governments and health care providers face challenges managing NEMT while Medicaid expands under the Affordable Care Act. SPLT’s early discussions with healthcare systems across the Midwest have been positive, with pilots planned for Fall 2016. “We look forward to working with SPLT with our non-emergency medical transportation companies in Michigan and beyond” said Dr. Paul LaCasse, EVP Post-Acute and Diversified Business Operations, Beaumont Health. NEMT will vastly improve with automation of reimbursement software, optimized dispatch of drivers using Lyft, and better customer service through automated voice messages and texts, with all ages and populations in mind.

For more information, please contact Anya Babbitt at [email protected], Benjamin Seidman at [email protected], or Cassidy Tucker at [email protected]. To get in touch with Lyft, visit http://get.lyft.com/mobility-solutions/. More about Techstars Mobility, the First North American accelerator program to focus on mobility solutions can be found at http://www.techstars.com/programs/mobility-program/.

Beaumont Health patients to benefit from Splt ride-share pact with Lyft, by Tom Henderson

Local patients of Beaumont Health will be part of the first wave of a service contract reached between ride-sharing companies Splt and Lyft.

Splt, a graduate of last summer's Techstars Mobility incubator program at Ford Field in Detroit, is expected to announce Monday that it has signed a contract with Lyft, the San Francisco-based ride-share company, to provide transportation for senior citizens to their non-emergency medical appointments.

The service is scheduled to begin this fall with patients of Beaumont Health.

Splt founder and CEO Anya Babbitt said she wants to roll out the service with health care systems throughout the Midwest this year and next and then go nationwide.

She said Lyft will provide the drivers. Splt will do the scheduling and handle insurance reimbursement, Medicare qualifications and reporting to health care systems.

Splt was founded as an app-based way for companies to launch ride-share programs for employees. Current customers include DTE Energy, Honda Manufacturing of Ohio and Magna International of America Inc.

Babbitt said the partnership with Lyft won't require seniors to use smartphones. She said Splt has developed a system that will allow patients to schedule rides through a website, by text messaging or by phone calls.

"More seniors are using smartphones, but they won't need to have one," Babbitt told Crain's last week while in Palo Alto, Calif., at a pitch event to would-be investors. She said Splt is raising a funding round of $500,000 to $1 million, which she hopes to close in the next three months.

"This deal lets Lyft focus on its core business, and it lets Splt focus on our core business, which is helping people connect to share rides," said Babbitt.

"It's our mission to connect people and communities through effective, affordable, safe and accessible transportation, and Splt's concept is a great way to deliver our services to the underserved," said Gyre Renwick, head of enterprise health care partnerships at Lyft, in a news release.

"We look forward to working with Splt with our non-emergency medical transportation companies in Michigan and beyond," said Dr. Paul LaCasse, vice president of the post-acute care division and diversified business operations at Beaumont Health.

Babbitt said she is hiring four software developers and two operations and business development employees to manage the increase in business, which she expects to mean an increase in revenue of $20 million over the next year. She declined to reveal current revenue.

In April, Splt won the $100,000 Pritzker Foundation Award at the sixth annual Clean Energy Trust Challenge in Chicago. In May, Splt pitched to venture capitalists at the annual Google Demo Day in Mountain Valley, Calif., having won the Detroit Demo Day contest at Grand Circus in March.

As part of her participation in last summer's Techstars program, Splt got $120,000 in funding from Detroit-based Fontinalis Partners LLC and Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Verizon Ventures.

This article was first published by Crain's Detroit Business. 

EFN's iCatalysts Accelerates SPLT

EFN's iCatalysts venture accelerator has made a huge impact on more than 120 ventures. The accelerator provides entrepreneurs with an opportunity to receive guidance from mentors and investors as well as an opportunity to make incredible connections within their industries. The 120 ventures that iCatalysts accelerates have raised more than $150 million. The SPLT team is proud to be one of those 120 ventures accelerated by EFN's iCatalysts. We are learning from mentors, taking our business in new directions, and improving our process every single day.

More recently, SPLT's CEO, Anya Babbitt, and SPLT's Head of Business Development, Kristin Welch, traveled to Palo Alto to pitch at EFN's Young Tech Leaders Investment Forum.   

How to keep customers H-A-P-P-Y during rapid growth, by Cassidy Tucker

Rapid growth can be the kiss of death for any company when it comes to keeping up with customer service requests. When SPLT was founded two years ago, we started growing very quickly — moving from pilots to full-scale launches with Fortune 500 companies — and realized early on we needed a process for customer service to combat the chaos that comes with rapid growth.

But as most small businesses know, there is no sweeping “recipe for success” when it comes to customer service. Each customer is different and faces different problems; how could a single solution be applied to any unhappy customer in any business at any time? By choosing to focus on our customer service process from the beginning at SPLT — a process that ended up putting us ahead of our competition — we found some key takeaways for any small business owner. All you need to do is keep your customers H-A-P-P-Y.

H- Hear your customer.

Seemingly simple, but often overlooked. Pay attention! Hear your customers and understand their needs. They may be angry, disappointed, or confused with your product. It is your job to be patient and hear everything they have to say. After the customer has aired out the issues, then you can move forward to fix the problem.

A- Ask for feedback.

Always stay up-to-date on your customers’ needs. Relevancy is key when it comes to customer satisfaction. This tactic proved especially useful for us during our first pilots. We made it a point to check in with our customers multiple times a week. Not only did we gain amazing insights into how our customers felt about our product, but we also fostered relationships with customers who realized we truly cared about providing the best service possible. Many of our very first customers volunteered to be our “SPLT Champions,” promoting our brand everywhere they went. Every business owner knows how powerful word-of-mouth is; customer service is a perfect way to tap into that opportunity.

P- Praise your customers.

They keep you in business, so be sure to show your gratitude. Follow-up and follow-through. The truth is 80% of CEOs believe they deliver a superior customer experience, but only 8% of customers actually agree. That’s why at SPLT we don’t stop at respecting our customers; we go so far as to praise them, thank them, and never forget they’re the reason we’re here.  

P- Protect the values and the mission of your company.

Employees new and old should know the company credo and take pride in it. The credo, itself, ought to place the responsibility of keeping customers happy onto every employee (As they say: teamwork makes the dream work!). Company culture is integral to your success, so immerse your employees in a culture that cherishes company values. Ultimately, customers will feel a difference with your company that they’ll never experience with a company that does not own its values and mission.

Y- “Yay!”

This is the reaction we want from a disgruntled customer after we’ve helped. We don’t just want our customers to be satisfied; we want them to be happy. By the end of a call or meeting, your customer should always hang up or leave feeling great about the refreshing experience he or she just had.  

By keeping this strategy top of mind, every customer will be a H-A-P-P-Y one.

This article was first published on Desk.com.

SUMC Unveils 3 New Shared Mobility Tools for Cities

Last year, SPLT traveled to Chicago to partake in one of the most insightful conferences in the mobility space, the Shared-Use Mobility Summit 2015, organized by the Shared Use Mobility Center (SUMC). We were one among 500 transportation leaders from across the country discussing and learning about future of shared mobility, the role of public and private sectors, and the impact of tech on urban development in American cities. At the time, SPLT was just getting started as an enterprise carpool platform, greatly benefiting from the knowledge, connections, and opportunities presented at the conference. It was the perfect summit to introduce us to all the possibilities and game-changers in mobility.

Today, we are partners with those we admired less than nine months ago. In addition, Anya, SPLT CEO & Founder, has been invited to speak about expanding shared mobility access at the upcoming Summit this fall. The Executive Director of SUMC, Sharon Feigon, was a Mentor of SPLT for the Clean Energy Trust Challenge. Sharon gave SPLT a tremendous introduction on stage for what became a winning pitch for the $100K Pritzker Award.

We trace our successes back to the resources SUMC provided us with early on. SUMC recently released their Shared Mobility Toolkit, created to help cities and public sector leaders realize the benefits of shared mobility and put them to action. 

Here are the 3 new resources you should check out to mobilize your city the right way!

1.     Shared Mobility Policy Database- a collection of more than 700 policies, plans and studies from across North America.

• Browse by topic, location, regulatory agency and more
• Find expert analysis on forms of shared mobility

2.     Share Mobility Mapping Tool- an outline of shared mobility options in more than 50 North American cities.

• Check out what carsharing, bikesharing, ride-sourcing, and public transit options exist in your city
• Understand where greater service is needed based on census data and transit quality

3.     Shared Mobility Benefits Calculator- a measurement tool to quantify the impact of reducing personal vehicles and embracing shared mobility.

• Manipulate metrics to understand effect on shared modes of transportation
• Quantify results based on fewer miles traveled, metric tons of GHG emitted, and personal vehicle costs

We’re grateful for these public resources and hope that they inspire you to consider multi-modal solutions! Join us in reducing congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and household transportation costs. Together, we are creating the cities of the future.

A Guide for the Modern Carpooler, By Cassidy Tucker

The first brave carpoolers faced a great deal of challenges. Organization, scheduling, communication- all of these tasks turned carpooling into one big headache. At SPLT, we recognized the difficulty in finding a group to share a ride. The SPLT app was fashioned around the elimination of all burdens and barriers that complicate the carpooling process. Yet, every day, people continue to use outdated methods to find a carpool heading in their direction.

While the OGs of carpooling faced significant problems trying to coordinate timing with riders and drivers, modern-day carpoolers need not worry about these obstacles thanks to SPLT. But, by using the new and improved SPLT app, are new challenges created? After extensive research, we have created a guide that will help the modern day carpooler navigate any potential problems that may arise.   

Potential Problem #1: Can I bring my coffee into the driver’s car? 

It is completely acceptable to bring your coffee into another person’s car. However, there is a proper etiquette that must be followed:

-        Avoid an embarrassing spill by always having a lid on your coffee

-        Don’t slurp, you’re a SPLTr not a slurper

-        Drinking coffee is acceptable, but be sure to ask the driver before eating

Potential Problem #2: Can I bring my dog in the car?

No pets allowed. 

Potential Problem #3: Is it rude if I want to sleep in the car?

Not at all! If you don’t feel like talking and you’d rather catch up on some sleep, that’s totally cool. To ensure that you can sleep when you want to sleep, we recommend bringing a pair of headphones with you. While you may not want to talk, your fellow carpoolers may be in the mood to chat. 

Potential Problem #4: Can I talk on my phone? Can I play music in the car?

Unfortunately, a carpool does not duel as a phone booth. It’s alright to talk quietly on the phone for a few minutes but to talk on the phone the entire ride may be frustrating for your fellow SPLTrs! As far as playing music in the car goes, every carpool is different, so, our advice is to work it out with your carpool!

Potential Problem #5: I’m running late for my carpool, what do I do?

Punctuality is very important, but sometimes life happens and it makes you late. If you’re running more than five minutes behind schedule, don’t make your carpool wait.

Through usage of the SPLT app, carpooling is no longer a hassle like it used to be. We hope this guide for the modern carpooler will better help our SPLTrs navigate challenges, overcome them, and create a more enjoyable carpooling experience overall. 

SPLT- How to Win the Startup World (No Pain, No Gain) by Techweek

SPLT is featured in Techweek's podcast! Check us out: SPLT- How to Win the Startup World (No Pain, No Gain)

Detroit has the Worst Commute in the Country, by Robin Runyan

Redfin released a tool last week called the Opportunity Score, which measures the proximity of jobs and public transportation to an address. Not surprisingly, metro Detroit came up first as having the worst commute.

The tool is meant to,

"help Americans find homes within a 30-minute car-free commute to nearby jobs. Opportunity Score assigns an address a rating, from zero to 100, that represents how easy it is to get to nearby jobs without a car. Scores also consider the local population to reflect the fact that places with more people likely have more competition for local jobs."

So we did some digging and came up with some interesting info.

I put in my address, which is in a Detroit neighborhood a few miles out of downtown, and the opportunity score was 84, a "Job Seeker’s Paradise" (YES!!!) But I also know of a few bus lines close by and downtown is only a few miles away.

Entering my old address in New Center had a similar ranking.

Go out further into the University District, and those rankings drop dramatically to 15-19.

Ferndale and Royal Oak ... single digits.

And if you enter some random McMansion in the suburbs, say Rochester, the score comes up as zero, just because jobs and public transportation are not located nearby. Basically, if you live there, you’re driving to work and it’s going to take a while to get there.

So how can such a weird tool be useful to you? It’s meant for people looking for homes near jobs and public transportation. So say you’re moving to the Detroit area and you don’t want a long commute. This tool can help you see which properties are closer to what you need.

This is also another great opportunity to check out the commuter map we ran last month, which visualizes commuters in action and shows us how far people in the city drive to get to work.

And, as always, it sets up a good discussion for the RTA vote this November.

• Introducing Opportunity Score [Redfin]

• Opportunity Score Tool [Redfin]

• This Colorful Map Shows Metro Detroit Commuters in Action [Curbed Detroit]

• Here's What Transit in Metro Detroit Could Look Like [Curbed Detroit]

This article was published by Curbed Detroit.