Transit Hailing set to increase fleet utilization by more than 20%

Learn how one large private transportation service provider is using Transit Hailing to overhaul their public and NEMT services

Retail Fleet Optimization

A large private fleet operator optimizes service through Transit Hailing integration

In 2017 Metropia was awarded a Federal Transit Administration grant to demonstrate the viability of extending Tucson’s regional transit authority’s fixed route bus service into a neighboring rural community. The project was launched on-time and Metropia received strong praise by both local and federal agencies.

A regional transit service provider (TSP) that provides both non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) as well as the large retail fleet operation took notice and contacted the company to better understand the functionality of its platform in discussing its specific capabilities. Their existing taxi booking and dispatch platform had limitations that were impairing vehicle utilization levels as well as on-time performance.

Supporting Technologies

Transit Hailing

The Approach

Metropia collaborated with the specific TSP to put together very thorough use cases to understand the specific functionality the customer desired and the scope of integration necessary to have a fully operational system. Further, Metropia conducted simulations of both its NEMT and Retail business’ using trajectory data provided by the TSP to establish a benchmark as to the level of vehicle utilization it could achieve using advanced routing algorithms and altering trip assignments for a better manifest generation.

The project officially kicked off in March 2019 and the NEMT build-out began field beta testing mid-June and will go live in early August 2019. The retail build-out began on June 1 and will be going live in late November. The company has a weekly 90-minute status review meetings (peer to peer development teams) and a Metropia executive has bimonthly calls with senior TSP leadership to assess satisfaction and surface any issues before they escalate.

Expected Project Accomplishments

Among the anticipated benefits and outcomes the TSP expects to achieve once the platform is deployed are:

Increase driver/vehicle utilization levels by >20%
Improve customer satisfaction level by increasing on-time performance
Optimize supply/demand through real-time and predictive fleet management
Increase driver and passenger loyalty through usage of the platform’s incentive system
Reduce administrative costs through automated dispatch assignments and billings