Interview with Brandy Gray: How to found a community-first taxi service in Canada

Discover how Brandy Gray, founder and owner of Loyal Transportation, addressed a lack of safe, legal transport in Ontario’s Niagara Region with a family-run taxi service — and how technology helped her move from 25 drivers on speed dial to a structured, data-driven operation with the help of a ride hailing API and mobility intelligence.

Background

The Niagara Region in Ontario, Canada is famous for tourist sights and wineries. For years, however, everyday mobility for locals in this area was far from glamorous. Legal, reliable transport options were limited, while underground, unregulated taxi services tried to fill the gaps with no proper licensing or oversight.

At the same time, one of the locals, Brandy Gray, struggled both to find decent employment and get around with her kids. What began as a personal challenge turned into Loyal Transportation, a licensed, community-focused company that now serves residents, visitors, and local institutions across the region.

Interview with Brandy Gray

Introduction

Brandy, welcome! Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself and how Loyal Transportation was born?

Founding Loyal Transportation

Brandy: Sure. I’m a mom, first of all. My husband has lived in the Niagara Region his whole life, and I’ve been here for about 15 years. When we were starting Loyal Transportation, I was a struggling mom of many, trying to find work that could support a big family. At the same time, I had trouble finding reliable transportation.

What we discovered was that there were illegal underground taxi services operating in our area. People were clearly trying to solve their transport problems on their own, but everything was happening in the shadows: no structure, no clear rules, no real protection for passengers or drivers. We even started out by working for one of those companies. But over time, we realized “We can do this better. And we can do it legally.”

That’s how the idea for Loyal Transportation really took shape — creating a properly licensed, community-supporting service that could do, out in the open, what people had been piecing together underground.

Family Involvement

You call Loyal Transportation a family company. Can you explain who else is involved in running it?

Brandy: We really did “sucker in” the whole family and a bunch of friends into this mission. My husband is an excellent spokesperson and was one of the original drivers, along with his brother David. They would go out on trips and, at the same time, spread the word that Loyal existed and that we were licensed to operate.

Our son Logan is the accountant. He handles a lot of paperwork, taxes, cash-out corrections, and the financial side.

Our daughter Sky became one of the youngest drivers in the region to hold a TNC licence in Niagara, and she also answered the dispatch phone for a while. Now she’s in Florida working in advertising — and we joke that she’ll be our “gopher” when we open operations there.

Another daughter handles paperwork for the Niagara Region authorities, which are very demanding. There are a lot of regional requirements, so there’s constant back-and-forth to stay compliant.

And then we pulled in extended family and friends. The pitch was basically: “This is a great mission. Help the community. Help us help them.” So yes, it’s very much a family-built operation from day one.

Early Operations

Can you describe what your operations looked like in the very beginning?

Brandy: Chaotic. Very hands-on. I was taking phone calls constantly, sometimes while literally pushing kids through the snow, answering the phone while trying to be a present mom. I felt like I couldn’t even look my kids in the face or sing a lullaby without another call coming in.

At some point I realised that I can’t keep doing this by hand. That summer, I basically said: “We need a system. We need an app. We have to figure something out, because this isn’t sustainable.”

We started looking into building an app, checking loan options, hearing numbers like $30,000 for custom development. Which is a lot when it’s just you, your family, and a growing operation.

Choosing opran as Technology Provider

So how did you end up choosing opran as your technology provider?

Brandy: At first, we tried the custom app route. We were driving some college students, and we hired them to build an app. They actually did build one, and it looked great. But when it came to making it live, they couldn’t manage the servers or handle a real-time production environment. I even tried to see if I could build my own app somehow, but it was just too technically complex and time-consuming.

By implementing a taxi software solution, Loyal Transportation was able to streamline its operations and improve the overall riding experience for its customers. With the help of opran's ride hailing API and mobility intelligence, Brandy Gray was able to turn her family-run taxi service into a successful, data-driven business.