Rapid Medical

Fueling Scalability with Faster Pay: How Rapid Medical Boosted Growth & Retention with Branch

Background 

Rapid Medical is a logistics software and services company that supports healthcare stakeholders in harnessing the power of advanced medical logistics management. They operate across 22 states, supporting labs, pharmacies, health systems, and payers who are looking to eliminate wasteful movement and spend, while providing better patient experiences and outcomes. 

Rapid Medical was previously paying their delivery driver contractors every two weeks, but made the switch to Branch for same-day payments. We spoke with CEO Joseph Yemini and General Manager Ken Blewett about why Rapid Medical made the switch—and how it’s benefited their rapidly growing company. 

Breaking the No-Show Cycle with Faster Pay

As Yemini recalls, it was mid 2022, and Rapid Medical was experiencing an increase in the number of last-minute callouts from their drivers. 

“Drivers would call in and say they didn’t have money for gas,” says Yemini, “and this was happening across a few different markets.”

At the time, drivers were getting paid every two weeks. Yemini and the Rapid Medical team noticed that it was towards the end of that two-week cycle—right before drivers were set to receive their disbursements—that driver churn would accelerate. 

“While we have extensive redundancies in place to make sure all our routes are covered every day across the 22 states in which we operate, our target driver no-show rate is 0%,” says Yemini. “Driver satisfaction and retention are huge priorities for us. And we didn’t want anyone experiencing that stress at the end of each pay cycle.”

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The Rapid Medical team were also becoming aware that the gig economy driver pools they recruited from were accustomed to accelerated payments, more in line with what companies like Uber or DoorDash offer.

Once they uncovered these two trends—that driver no-shows increased at the end of a pay cycle, and that the talent they recruited preferred faster payments—they started searching for a fintech partner that could power same-day pay.

Smooth Onboarding That Set Same-Day Pay in Motion

When Rapid Medical implemented Branch, they were pleased that the onboarding process went so smoothly, allowing them to get up and running right away. 

“Branch gave us all the information we needed to connect our servers,” says Blewett. “They provided solid developer support during that process, and we were up and running in a matter of weeks.”

As soon as Branch was in place, drivers had the ability to receive same-day payment for their work.

“They can now get paid as soon as they complete their last stop of the day,” says Yemini. “Our algorithm spot checks their work, and drivers can receive payment immediately, allowing them to cover the costs of fuel required to execute their work and better manage other expenses.”

Yemini says that they “started getting positive feedback right away” from drivers, who were thrilled at the option to choose faster pay. 

“Over 60% of our drivers now take advantage of same-day disbursements through Branch, giving them the ability to support their small business—and their families—in the ways they need with added payments flexibility,” says Blewett. 

Improved Recruitment, Retention, and Driver Satisfaction

Thankfully, those days of high-volume call outs that the team were dealing with in 2022 are now behind them. Since implementing Branch, Rapid Medical has been able to increase driver retention and see an 87% overall decline in their driver churn rate.  They’ve been able to keep their existing drivers engaged, while also recruiting new drivers more easily.  

“Almost 90% of our churn rate has gone down since using Branch, and we believe it’s because drivers now have a better combination of being able to support the cost of driving with the revenue they receive as they choose same-day [payments],” Blewett elaborates. “We found that when we began offering the same-day payment option as part of our job requisitions, our recruitment conversion rates increased."

Not only have same-day payments benefited retention rates, scalability, and other key business metrics—but they continue to benefit their network of delivery drivers, and their ability to manage expenses without stress.

“Being able to receive money the same day they work has allowed drivers to better manage their personal and business expenses,” says Yemini. 

Plus, they report that the extras that come with Branch—like cashback rewards on fuel, quick service restaurants, and more—help with driver satisfaction, too.

“We’re continually looking to add incentives to enhance driver satisfaction—and we’re excited to see Branch continue to add discounts and offers that matter to our driver pool and where savings make a significant difference for them,” says Blewett.

Fueling Scalability—and Better Patient Experiences—with Faster Pay

After seeing the impact same-day pay has made on their business and the lives of their drivers, Yemini and Blewett credit Branch in helping Rapid Medical scale so rapidly—and in making new market expansion easier by providing a payment process they know today’s gig economy drivers want. 

“Partnering with Branch to deliver same-day pay has definitely helped our ability to scale,” says Blewett. “It’s created more trust with our driver pool, especially as we continue to break into new markets.”

Lowering churn and attrition rates also has a profound impact on overall client and ultimately patient experiences too. “We're moving critical things for health systems and ensuring that medical specimens are going from clinics, getting to the labs,” shares Blewett. “Better attrition rates have a downstream effect—you’re going to get better route affinity, better performance, which has a profound impact on patients and client experience. All of that has a downstream effect when you have better attrition rates, which we attribute to Branch.”