Employee transport glossary
ETS vs shuttle management
Shuttle management runs fixed routes to a published timetable between fixed points, like a bus service. An employee transport management system plans routes from a roster each day, so pickup points, sequence and vehicle counts change with who is travelling. Most Indian programmes run both.
In practice
- Shuttles suit dense, predictable corridors where a timetable is more useful than a personal pickup
- Roster-driven routing suits night shifts, spread-out catchments and variable headcount
- Fixed routes still need escort rules, live tracking and billing reconciliation — the shift in model does not remove the obligations
- Running both from one system avoids two sets of vendors, invoices and reports
Why it matters
Choosing between them is a cost and coverage question, not a technology one. Buying two systems to run both is where programmes create the reconciliation work they were trying to remove.