The quote that was too long to send
Test your text provider with your longest real message, not a "hello".
On 6 October I tested a written quote for a ride day, and the text network refused to send it.
Texts are how most of our riders hear from us. For many older riders, a text and a phone call are the only channels that work. So a written quote has to arrive whole.
What went wrong
Short texts were never the problem. The first text from the system reached my phone at 3:02 pm on 23 August 2026, the first day of the build.
A written quote for a ride day is long: about 1,371 characters, which the network carries as nine joined-up parts. Our text provider, CommsChannel, delivered four- and five-part texts without trouble, then refused the nine-part one with a bare error.
It wasn’t the first time the network had sent me looking in the wrong place:
- putting a ”+” in front of our own sending number produced an error that looked exactly like a wrong password;
- slow confirmations from the network made texts that had arrived look as if they had failed.
What we did
- Any text longer than five parts is now split into numbered texts, “(1/2)”, “(2/2)”, at the end of a sentence, never mid-word.
- All the parts are counted against our spending cap together, before any is sent, so a rider can never receive half a quote.
- One record holds the whole quote as written, because that is the legal evidence of what we quoted.
- From 2 October, a spending cap on texts means a fault can never run up a bill. If the cap is reached, sending stops and a person is told.
- On 6 October DyComDrive got its own two-way number, 0489 988 601. Riders can text back.
Replies go to a person
When a rider texts us, the message is filed against their trip for a person to read. Nothing acts on it automatically. A text saying “cancel” cancels nothing; a “yes” approves nothing. A person reads it, and rings if needed. Automatic replies are tempting, but one misread “no” can strand someone at a hospital.
What I’d tell you
Make sure a rider can always ring a person. For some riders a call is the only thing that works.