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Kickoff review · meeting prep

Question by question, with the gaps.

Every kickoff discovery question with Trevor's response beside it. He answered the org, enrollment, and scheduling questions in detail — the instructor, money, compliance, and volume questions, plus all five build decisions, are still open. Those are the gaps to close tomorrow.

Submitted by TrevorCTO · SafeWay DrivingJune 12, 2026
15
Answered
11
Unanswered
5
Decisions open

To cover tomorrow

Instructors
  • W-2 / 1099 mix; tied to one location?
  • Certifications, expiry tracking, lapse = stop driving?
  • Instructor quits / sick — what happens to their week?
Money
  • Refund reality — quit mid-package, who decides?
  • Who reconciles — location / franchise / corporate?
Compliance
  • Which TDLR filings, how often, who does them?
  • Hour types — behind-the-wheel / observation / classroom?
  • Completion certificates (DE-964) — who issues, how?
Volume & pilot
  • Students/location/month, lessons/week, headcount?
  • Pilot location, champion, definition of "this works"?
  • Access: GitHub/AWS, sample CSVs, compliance docs (§8 — due in 5 business days)
Decisions (all 5 open)
  • Texas compliance (TDLR/DPS)
  • Legacy data · Cutover approach
  • Notifications · Design system
Follow-ups he offered
  • Current enrollment intake process
  • Instructor-side no-show handling (Q11)
A

Org & hierarchy

4 of 4 answered
01Walk through the chain — corporate → franchise → operator → instructor. Overlapping hats?

Each tier can do everything the tier below can, and more (corporate ⊇ franchise ⊇ operator ⊇ instructor).

Instructors are the lowest admin level — lessons, road tests, scheduling. Separate Guardian → Student tree: guardians handle billing/scheduling but can't take lessons or tests. Multiple guardians per student.

02One franchise own multiple locations? Operators cover more than one?

Yes and yes — locations are assigned to an operator.

03Corporate vs. franchise vs. location control — pricing, cancellation, hiring, hours?

Corporate sets the standard, franchise manages locations, locations run daily execution.

  • Pricing — corporate owns the menu + prices; franchises toggle which packages are active, can't change price/contents.
  • Cancellation — corporate locks the fee + 24h window; operators can waive.
  • Hiring — local, but a compliance lock: no live slot until license, credentials & background checks are approved.
  • Hours — total location control (shifts, time-off, cars offline).
04Who looks across locations today, and at what?

Corporate sees all franchises + locations; franchise sees only its locations; operator sees only locations assigned to their user.

B

Students & enrollment

5 of 5 answered
05How does a student enroll today — walk-in, phone, web? Who enters them?

90% web, 10% phone / walk-in. Web enrollees self-enroll (account, track, intake, payment); phone/walk-in are entered by the operator from the admin backend.

06Minor vs. adult split? Who books, pays, gets emails?
  • Minor <18 — students + assigned guardians can pay, get emails, schedule.
  • Adult 18–24.
  • Older adult 25+.
07What's collected / verified at enrollment? What blocks one?

Captured (so compliance reports compile): legal name (F/M/L/Suffix), DOB, gender; age-track by DOB; home/mobile/email; parent contact if minor; intake questionnaires + a medical-conditions free-text.

Blocks: missing name/gender/DOB; minor with no parent contact; invalid email/phone.

Offered: their current intake process
08What do you sell — packages, programs? Families with multiple kids?

Packages = behind-the-wheel items + online products + misc (certificates, fees, swag).

Behind-the-wheel: Track (a lesson) → Track ItemsElements (small steps). Multiple kids → separate student accounts, shared guardians.

09When does parent access end — 18th birthday? Completion?

No mandatory end. Teen or adult students can have guardians (even HR for a company's fleet drivers). Should let a student remove guardians once adult.

C

Scheduling

6 of 6 answered
10Who books lessons — families self-serve or operator by phone?

95% self-serve, 5% operator. Families expect a modern portal — real-time availability, self book/reschedule.

11Cancellation reality — notice, fee, who waives? No-shows, student vs. instructor?

Late cancel <24h → auto-flagged, $50 fee on the balance; waivable by operators / corporate admins.

Student no-show (~15-min grace) → forfeits the slot, treated like a late cancel.

Instructor-side no-show not addressed
12Snow day / closure — what's today's fire drill?

Manager declares location + window → system batch-cancels everything in that window → SMS + email blast → "Act of God": 24h fee engine bypassed, zero fees, no hours deducted, hours credited back instantly. Instructor payroll reviewed manually.

13Who sets instructor availability; how often does it change? Buffer between lessons?

Instructors set availability, operators approve it onto the schedule. 2-hour booking buffer (no drive within 2h of now). Between-lesson buffer TBD but likely needed.

14Vehicles — per instructor or per lesson? In the shop?

Not locked to an instructor — operator assigns a car to a shift block or pairs it to a slot by key availability. Down → operator marks it inoperable; only the operator returns it to service.

15Freed slot — waitlist today, or does it go empty?

Today it's manual — operators run reports and reach out; no waitlist. They want to automate SMS/email to fill open slots.

D

Instructors

0 of 3 answered
16W-2 / 1099 mix? Tied to one location?
Not answered
Cover in the meeting
17Which certifications matter; who tracks expirations; does a lapse stop driving immediately?
Not answered
Cover in the meeting
18Instructor quits / calls in sick — what happens to their week?
Not answered
Cover in the meeting
E

Money

0 of 2 answered
19Refund reality — quit mid-package, what do they get back, who decides?
Not answered
Cover in the meeting
20Who reconciles — per location, franchise, corporate?
Not answered
Cover in the meeting
F

Compliance

0 of 3 answered
21Which TDLR filings, how often, who does them today?
Not answered
Cover in the meeting
22Hour types — behind-the-wheel vs. observation vs. classroom — what counts toward what?
Not answered
Cover in the meeting
23Who issues completion certificates (DE-964) and how?
Not answered
Cover in the meeting
G

Volume & pilot

0 of 3 answered
24Students per location per month, lessons per week, instructor headcount?
Not answered
Cover in the meeting
25Which location pilots first, who's the champion, what makes them say "this works"?
Not answered
Cover in the meeting
26Access logistics — GitHub/AWS provisioning, sample data exports, compliance docs (due within 5 business days): who owns each?
Not answered
Cover in the meeting · starts the §8 clock
!

Build decisions

0 of 5 settled
D1Texas compliance — enforce TDLR/DPS rules internally + produce audit records, or file with the state electronically?
Open
Left blank on the form
D2Legacy data — start the pilot fresh in 3.0 and bulk-import old records later?
Open
Left blank on the form
D3Cutover — run the pilot alongside the current process (parallel run)?
Open
Left blank on the form
D4Notifications — SMS in or out? (provider + TCPA consent; email-only is the floor)
Open
Left blank on the form
D5Design system — confirm SafeWay is providing it (vs. bringing a designer)?
Open
Left blank on the form