Senior Transportation
Senior Transportation Across Massachusetts & Rhode Island
Rides for older adults who have stopped driving — to the doctor, to the grocery store, to church, to a granddaughter’s wedding. Door to door, wheelchair or walking, with a driver who waits until your mother is actually inside before pulling away.
★★★★★ 5.0 from 71 Google reviews
The short answer
Senior transportation is a booked ride for an older adult who can no longer drive or safely use public transport, covering both healthcare trips and ordinary life — shopping, church, family occasions. Carry On Services Inc runs it throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island for passengers who use a wheelchair and for those who walk with help.
The part that distinguishes it from a taxi is the assistance either side of the drive. Someone meets the passenger at the door of their home and stays with them until they are inside the building at the other end.
Door-to-door
Home door to facility door
From 4:00 am
Early appointments covered
MA & RI
Both states, one booking
5.0 ★
71 Google reviews
What is senior transportation?
Senior transportation is a scheduled ride for an older adult who has stopped driving, or who can still drive but should not be doing it alone to an appointment.
For most families it replaces three things at once:
- A car that is no longer safe to use.
- A bus route with a walk and a set of steps that are no longer manageable.
- An adult child taking a half day off work every time there is an appointment.
It covers healthcare trips — appointments, treatment courses, hospital visits, follow-ups after a fall — and everything else: shopping, church, lunch with friends, a wedding. Families drop the second kind first when transport gets difficult.
Every ride is door to door. The passenger can stay in their wheelchair or walk with an arm to lean on, and drivers assist inside buildings rather than stopping at the entrance.
Carry On Services Inc was founded by someone who worked in group homes and saw how often a missed ride became a missed appointment.
- A car that is no longer safe to use.
- A bus route with a walk and a set of steps that are no longer manageable.
- An adult child taking a half day off work every time there is an appointment.
Non-emergency medical transportation for elderly passengers
Non-emergency medical transportation for elderly passengers is the same service as any other medical ride, with one difference: the passenger is more likely to be travelling alone, tired afterwards, and thrown by anything small that goes wrong.
So the details are the service:
- Collected from the door rather than the kerb — an icy path is a genuine hazard at eighty.
- Helped in rather than dropped off, because finding the right department is not straightforward for anyone.
- The return leg booked in advance, so nobody is stranded in a lobby at four in the afternoon.
The trips covered are hospital appointments, clinic and medical office visits, dialysis, physical therapy, rehabilitation centres, primary care check-ups and specialist referrals. Dialysis and physical therapy both carry a 10% discount, because those two schedules run for months or years.
The vehicle is wheelchair accessible and equally set up for ambulatory passengers.
For the full detail of how medical trips are run, see [non-emergency medical transportation](/non-emergency-medical-transportation/).
- Collected from the door rather than the kerb — an icy path is a genuine hazard at eighty.
- Helped in rather than dropped off, because finding the right department is not straightforward
- The return leg booked in advance, so nobody is stranded in a lobby at four in the afternoon.
Door-to-door transportation for elderly parents
Door to door transportation for elderly parents is shorthand for one worry: *what happens in the gap?*
The gap is the part nobody sells — the path to the vehicle, the lobby, the lift, the confusing signage, the wait. For an eighty-year-old with a stick, that is where every real risk sits.
Door to door means the gap is covered:
- The driver comes to the door of the home, not the kerb outside it.
- Passengers who cannot manage the stairs at their own front door are assisted — drivers are trained specifically for this.
- The passenger travels seated in their own wheelchair, or walks with support if that suits them better.
- At the destination the driver assists them inside the facility.
- The return trip is booked at the same time, so being collected is not something anyone has to organise while tired.
For families arranging this from another state, you are buying the certainty that somebody knocked on your mother’s door at 9:40 on Thursday and brought her home at 11:15.
- The driver comes to the door of the home, not the kerb outside it.
- Passengers who cannot manage the stairs at their own front door are assisted — drivers are
- The passenger travels seated in their own wheelchair, or walks with support if that suits them
- At the destination the driver assists them **inside** the facility.
- The return trip is booked at the same time, so being collected is not something anyone has to
Rides to medical appointments — and to everything else
Transportation for elderly people to doctor appointments is where most families start, and rarely where they stop.
Healthcare trips Hospitals · clinics and medical offices · dialysis centres · physical therapy · rehabilitation centres · primary care check-ups · specialist appointments
Everything else Grocery shopping · weddings · social events · senior community events · restaurants · parks · church services · shopping malls
The second list is not filler. A weekly grocery trip is what keeps someone choosing their own food; a Sunday service is what keeps a fifty-year friendship going.
Trips can be booked one-way or round-trip. Round trips are the norm for appointments; one-way is common when a relative is driving in one direction.
Occasions with more moving parts — a wedding, a funeral, an airport run — are set out on the [private transportation](/private-transportation/) page.
How families arrange a standing weekly ride
Most people looking for local senior transportation services are not booking one ride. They are solving a recurring problem: the same appointment, the same day, every week.
1. Open the booking form, or call (855) 638-2568 or (508) 642-3995. 2. Choose wheelchair or ambulatory for the passenger. 3. Choose one-way or round-trip. 4. Enter the pickup address, the destination and the appointment time. Flag stairs at the front door here — drivers are trained for it.
5. Review the cost estimate shown before you confirm, then confirm. You can cancel whenever you want.
Seeing the price before confirming matters more for a weekly ride, because the family is deciding whether this works for a year, not for Thursday.
Why this is not the same as booking an Uber
Why not just use an app? For an active seventy-year-old, an app is fine. For the passengers on this page, these are the differences that decide it.
An unfamiliar driver in an unmarked car, arriving at an unpredictable time, is stressful for someone anxious, hard of hearing or newly unsteady. A booked ride, with someone who comes to the door, is not.
| Senior transportation with Carry On | Rideshare app | |
|---|---|---|
| Who books it | You, by phone or form — a relative can book on the passenger’s behalf | The passenger, on a smartphone, with an account and a card |
| Where you are met | At the door of the home | At a kerb, sometimes down the street |
| Getting in | Ramp, or an arm to lean on; wheelchair stays with the passenger | Unassisted, into a standard car seat |
| At the destination | Driver assists the passenger inside the building | Driver stays in the vehicle |
| The ride home | Booked in advance as a round trip | Re-requested afterwards, subject to availability |
| If the appointment overruns | Planned for at booking | The vehicle has gone |
| Paying | Medicaid, Medicare, waivers, insurance, workers’ comp, card or cash | Card only, private pay |
Insurance and payment
Senior transportation is paid for in more ways than most families expect, and medical trips are frequently not paid for by the passenger at all.
10% off dialysis and physical therapy rides.
Non-medical trips — shopping, church, a family occasion — are normally private pay.
What a plan covers is decided by the plan. [Medicare.gov](https://www.medicare.gov/) explains what Original Medicare and Advantage plans include, and Massachusetts publishes its own programme details at [mass.gov](https://www.mass.gov/).
| Accepted | Typically used for |
|---|---|
| Medicaid | Medical trips |
| Medicare | Medical trips |
| ABI / MFP Waiver | Waiver-eligible passengers |
| Private insurance | Medical trips |
| Workers’ compensation | Injury-related travel |
| Cash | Any trip |
| Debit and credit cards | Any trip |
Senior transportation services near you in MA and RI
Carry On Services Inc covers Massachusetts and Rhode Island from two offices:
Main office: 25 Braintree Hill Office Pk #200, Braintree, MA 02184 Satellite office: Fall River, MA
Braintree serves Greater Boston and the South Shore; Fall River covers the South Coast and the Rhode Island border, so cross-state trips are ordinary here.
The first pickups of the day start at 4:00 am — the difference between making a 6:30 appointment and rescheduling it.
One phone call solves the transport problem
Tell us where your mother or father needs to be and when. You see the cost before you confirm, the return leg is booked at the same time, and you can cancel whenever you want.
Call (855) 638-2568 or (508) 642-3995, or email support@carryonservicesinc.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ten questions, answered plainly.
What is senior transportation?
It is a booked ride for an older adult who no longer drives, covering both healthcare trips and everyday ones like shopping, church and family events. The passenger is assisted from their front door to the destination door.
Is there a minimum age to use the service?
The service is built around older adults but is not restricted by a birthday — mobility need is what matters, not age. ** Call (855) 638-2568 to check a particular situation.
Can a family member or caregiver travel with the passenger?
Families ask for this constantly, particularly for a first appointment or a passenger with memory difficulties. **
Can you take my father to an appointment and bring him home afterwards?
Yes. Book it as a round trip and the return leg is arranged at the same time, so nobody has to organise a way home at the end of a tiring appointment. **
Can we set up the same ride every week?
That is what most families want, since the usual case is a standing weekly or three-times-weekly appointment rather than a single trip. **
Can seniors use this for shopping or church, not just medical trips?
Yes. Grocery shopping, church services, restaurants, parks, senior community events, malls, weddings and social occasions are all part of the service. These trips are usually private pay rather than insurance-funded.
Does Medicare pay for senior transportation?
Medicare is accepted as a payment method here, but whether a specific trip is covered is decided by the plan. [Medicare.gov](https://www.medicare.gov/) sets out what Original Medicare and Advantage plans include. Check before booking rather than after.
My mother has dementia. Can she still be transported?
Passengers with memory difficulties travel regularly, and the door-to-door structure exists partly for them, since it removes every step where someone could get lost. **
How do we know the cost before committing to anything?
The booking form shows a cost estimate before you confirm the trip. For a weekly standing ride that is the number that actually matters, because the decision families are making is about a year of transport rather than one morning.
What happens if the appointment is cancelled?
You can cancel whenever you want. Medical schedules move constantly, so the booking is not built to punish that. ** —
Book the ride, not the worry
Tell us what the week looks like and we will arrange it, including the trips that repeat every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.