You may have noticed a small black face with two white eyes in the corner of the ZeroLanes website. That is Zero, our helper, and it is there to answer your questions straight away, at any hour.
Most questions about booking a car are the same few: is the price fixed, what happens if my flight is late, how much luggage can I bring, how do I cancel? Nobody should have to wait for an email reply to find out. Zero answers those questions in seconds, and when a question needs a person, it says so and passes you to our team. Here is what it does, and what it does not.
1. Ask it anything about travelling with us
How the price works, what happens if a flight is late, how to book a school run, how much luggage fits, how cancelling works. Zero answers in plain English, in a sentence or two. There is no menu to work through and no form to fill in.
Type your question the way you would ask a person, such as whether you can book a car for the airport at four in the morning, or whether child seats are available. Zero reads the question and answers it directly. If you have a follow-up question, just ask it.
Zero can also help you plan a trip. Ask it what to see in a city, and it can point you to our city guides in the ZeroLanes Journal, which cover every city in the UK. It is a quick way to find the right guide.
Your conversation stays in place while you move around the website in the same tab, so you can read a page and come back to Zero. It is there whenever you need it. You do not need to sign in to ask a question.
2. Try the suggested questions
Not sure where to start? Tap one of the suggestions, like “Is the price fixed?” or “Do you do school runs?”. The suggestions cover the questions people ask most often. One tap, and the answer appears.
The suggestions include how to cancel, whether we do airport pickups, how much luggage you can bring and how to pay. Our team chooses them, and changes them as it sees what people want to know. They are a good way to learn how ZeroLanes works.
After tapping a suggestion, you can ask your own follow-up question. Zero remembers what you have just asked in the same conversation. It is like talking to a helpful person at a desk.
If none of the suggestions fit, type your own question. There is no wrong way to ask. Zero will do its best to help.
3. It knows when to pass you to a person
Zero cannot see your bookings, payments or account. For anything about a particular journey, a refund or a complaint, it hands you to our team, who reply in Your account under Messages. That is deliberate, not a limitation we are working around.
A helper that could look up bookings would need to know exactly who was asking, and a chat bubble on a public website cannot know that. So Zero is built without access to any personal information. It can only talk.
When Zero says a question is one for the team, you can message the team there and then, with what you said to Zero attached, so you do not have to explain it all again. If you are not signed in, you sign in first, because a message needs an account to reply to. Your conversation with the team then carries on under Messages.
You can also ask to talk to the team at any point, even if Zero has not suggested it. Our team can be reached from Messages in your account, or from the contact page. Zero is there to help, not to stand in your way.
4. It only says what is true
Zero answers from our help centre and the rules of how ZeroLanes works, including the live cancellation terms. If it is not sure, it says so rather than guessing. It is built not to invent a price, a policy, a phone number or a promise.
The help centre is written by our team, and Zero uses it as its source. When the team updates an answer in the help centre, Zero’s answers change with it. Some facts, such as the cancellation windows, are read live from the settings the rest of the website uses.
That means Zero’s answer about cancelling matches what the booking page and the cancellation policy say. There is one set of rules, and everyone uses it. It avoids the confusion of different answers in different places.
If a question is not covered by the help centre, Zero says it is not sure and offers to pass you to the team. That is better than a confident wrong answer. It is how a good helper should behave.
5. Find it on the home page, the help centre and Messages
Scroll down the home page and Zero pops up in the corner. It is also behind the Ask Zero button in the help centre, and in Your account under Messages as a chat. Wherever you are, help is close by.
On the home page, Zero appears as a small black face with two white eyes, which blink now and then. Tap it to open the chat. Tap the close button to put it away again.
In the help centre, you can read the answers yourself, or ask Zero if you cannot find what you are looking for. It is often quicker to ask. Zero uses the same answers.
Under Messages in your account, Zero is the first to answer, and the team is there when you need them. Your conversations with the team are kept there too. It is one place for all your questions.
In an emergency
Zero is for questions, not emergencies. If anyone is in danger, call 999 first.
Every live ZeroLanes journey carries an emergency alert that reaches a person rather than a queue. It is there for the moment you hope never comes.
Ride with ZeroLanes. Questions answered, then a car booked at a price fixed before you confirm. Get a fixed price.