Chapter 1

Getting started

Create the business, choose what it runs, and bring in the people.

What Rydmate is

Rydmate is one system for running a transport or logistics business: the people, the vehicles, the routes and fares, every ticket and every delivery, the money collected, and what customers see. Everything is recorded once, the minute it happens, and the owner sees it the same minute on the dashboard.

A business is either a passenger transport company or a logistics company. The choice switches the right modules on: departures, tickets and shifts for transport; orders, deliveries and riders for logistics. Fleet, drivers, branches, tracking, money and the website are shared.

Create the business

  1. 1Go to Create account, give your name, email and a password, then the business name and its kind.
  2. 2You are the owner. The owner can do everything, including choosing the plan and connecting online payments.
  3. 3Open Settings to set the business timezone, currency (naira, always) and the address customers see.
There is no self-service trial. A new business can look around, but recording work needs a plan. Book a demo and we set the first routes or price list up with you, then you choose a plan on the Billing page.

Bring in the people

Staff is where you invite everyone who works in the business. Each person gets a role, and a role is a bundle of permissions: what they can see and what they can do. The built-in roles cover the common jobs.

  • Owner: everything, including billing, the website and API keys.
  • Manager: runs the operation day to day, sees reports and money, cannot change the plan.
  • Counter staff: sells tickets, records fares, scans at the gate, takes orders.
  • Driver or Rider: starts and ends shifts, picks up and delivers, shares location. Never touches settlement.
  • Accountant: reads reports and reconciliation, approves expenses.

An invitation goes by email. The person sets a password and lands in your business. You can limit a person to one or more branches, so a counter clerk in Kaduna sees only Kaduna.

A driver is two things: a person with a login (Staff) and a driver record with a licence and a phone number (Drivers). Link the two so the person's phone can share the vehicle's location and start their own shift.

The dashboard

The dashboard is the owner's morning: money collected today, trips or deliveries so far, what needs attention (a vehicle document expiring, a shift not yet reconciled, an expense waiting for approval) and a short written briefing. Every number on it is read from the records below it, never typed in.

Next: Branches and terminals