WordPress website development for a transport company

CREATING.LV built the WordPress website hansalines.lv for the passenger carrier Tukuma Auto SIA: this transport company website included the design, timetables, information for passengers, a bus hire request form and an embedded ticket purchase form. The project was handed over in 2022.

Tukuma Auto SIA (now HANSABUSS Latvija SIA) provides regular passenger transport by bus and hires out buses for events and private trips. The company therefore has two different client groups: passengers and people who hire a bus.

Passengers need timetables, tickets and rules, while a company or individual planning a trip needs a way to request a bus hire with specific trip details. The company needed one clear place where both groups quickly find what they need. In addition, tickets had to be sold through a third-party service rather than through the website’s own shop.

CREATING.LV created the website’s visual design and the site itself on WordPress, and adapted its structure to the specifics of a transport company: information for passengers in one place, bus hire requests in another. The scope of work:

• visual design and the user journey;
• downloadable timetables and a section on regulations;
• a custom bus hire request form and a separate bus booking tab in the contacts;
• embedding a third-party ticket purchase form on the website;
• adaptation for desktops and mobile devices.

The site footer says “Lapu veidoja SIA CREATING.LV” (Site built by SIA CREATING.LV).

At handover, the website offered passengers downloadable bus timetables. Passengers can save a downloadable file on their phone or print it and view it even without internet access. On the current site, the timetables section has been changed: for regional route timetables it points to the 1188.lv portal. These changes are not part of our delivery.

A separate section brings together information on the regulations and legal requirements that govern passenger transport, as well as other service-related information. Passenger transport is a regulated field, and this way passengers find in one place both when the bus runs and which rules apply to the trip. On the current site, in the “Pasažieriem” (For passengers) section, the regulations are links to Cabinet of Ministers regulations on the likumi.lv portal.

A custom request form was created for bus hire. In it, the client requests a bus booking and specifies the trip details and their needs straight away, so the request reaches the company with information that would otherwise have to be clarified in a separate conversation.

The contacts section has a separate tab for booking a bus. In the current form, for example, the client gives the departure point, the number of people, the route, the stops and the return. This data is needed in a hire request because it determines whether a suitable bus is free at that time and how much the trip will cost.

We embedded a third-party ticket purchase form on the website (today bezrindas.lv), so passengers can buy a ticket without leaving the carrier’s website. Sales are handled by the ticketing service — the website does not sell tickets itself. In the project screenshot, the carrier describes three ways to buy tickets on the home page — from the driver, at the bus station ticket office and online at bezrindas.lv — and our embedded form is also visible there. This way passengers who do not buy tickets online also find out where to buy them.

An embedded form means that the ticketing service’s page is shown inside a section of the website. Passengers see the carrier’s site, while choosing and buying the ticket happens in the ticketing system, which runs separately. The carrier does not have to maintain its own ticketing system for tickets to be bought on the company’s site, and internal changes in the ticketing system usually do not require changes to the website itself.

Today the bezrindas.lv form is embedded on the website with an HTML iframe element. When planning a similar solution, you need to make sure the ticketing system allows its form to be shown on another site, and check that the embedded form is also easy to use on a phone screen.

On the current site, the two client groups are already separated in the menu with the sections “Pirkt biļeti” (Buy a ticket), “Pasūtīt autobusu” (Book a bus) and “Pasažieriem” (For passengers):

• passengers find timetables and rules, and buy a ticket in the embedded form in the tickets section;
• those hiring a bus open the hire request, enter the trip details and send the request to the company.

This way nobody has to go through information intended for the other group.

The visual design and the user journey are our work. The website is responsive and adapted for use on both desktops and mobile devices. This matters for a transport company, because passengers may open the timetables or tickets section on a phone at a bus stop or already on the way. On a responsive site, the same content rearranges itself to fit the screen width, so a transport company website does not have to be maintained in two versions and the content only has to be updated once.

The company manages the content itself in WordPress and can adapt it when routes or the range of services change:

• when the schedule changes, it uploads a new timetable file;
• it adds to the section with regulations and other information for passengers;
• it changes the bus hire description and contact information.

Because the timetables are downloadable files, replacing them is ordinary content work in WordPress, and the website code does not have to change. More about this platform for business websites — on the page WordPress website development.

This kind of structure suits a carrier or another service company with several client groups with different needs: some look for information, others want to request a service. A transport company website built on this model brings timetables, rules, a custom request form and ticket purchase together on one site. A transport company website like this suits both a regional carrier and a company that mainly hires out buses.

If you already use a ticketing or booking system, a WordPress website for a transport company can complement it rather than replace it — the system’s form is embedded on the website. For the same client we later also built the Jūrmala public transport website.

• Website development

hansalines.lv

This portfolio entry reflects the solution as delivered at handover. The current website may have changed.