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CARTS improves service with Trapeze Pass

Capital Area Rural Transportation System

Business Challenge

The Capital Area Rural Transportation System (CARTS) provides fixed route, park-and-ride, paratransit and inter-city transportation services to nine rural counties and 123 communities around the Austin area in Central Texas. The bulk of its services are shared ride, advance reservation paratransit trips delivered by 60 minibuses and vans. CARTS had automated its registration, booking and scheduling in 1994 with Trapeze Pass but with a service area of 7,500 square miles dispatchers and supervisors needed a way to monitor services and vehicles in real time, spend less time on the radio with operators, eliminate paper manifests and reduce the time drivers and clerks spent on manual data entry.

Goals

To enhance its ability to provide flexible, reliable demand response services, CARTS decided to implement a mobile computing system that could work with Pass and provide automatic vehicle location (AVL) information using GPS technology. By implementing a paperless manifest system and reducing radio and data entry time the agency hoped to free dispatchers and other staff to handle last-minute itinerary changes and to offer same-day scheduling. CARTS also recognized the need for accurate, accessible data, such as passenger loads, trip distances and dwell times to support its ongoing service planning and to find further efficiencies.

Solution

In 2002, CARTS began a pilot project, installing mobile data computers (MDCs) from Mentor Engineering on one third of its fleet and interfacing them with the Trapeze PASS system. The organisation also implemented a mobile application to enable supervisors to access real-time information about all routes and vehicles from their cars. The paratransit fleet will be fully digital in early 2004, and by the end of that year CARTS will have MDCs on the rest of its fleet. CARTS also plans to integrate smart card technologies that will enable clients to use fare cards and other cashless fare media.

Results

The pilot project has yielded significant service improvements, primarily due to the availability of realtime information. Drivers now signal the call center when they have arrived at a location or completed a trip, and can send immediate notice of no-shows so that agents can follow up with the client or adjust the vehicle's schedule. Dispatchers can see instantly if a vehicle is lost or running late and can notify drivers of changes and cancellations in the schedule immediately and without using the radio. In case of emergencies or vehicle breakdown, dispatchers and supervisors can pinpoint the vehicle location and respond instantly. There have been bottom-line improvements as well. "We used to spend a lot of time faxing paper manifests to 50 routes scattered over nine counties and then extracting data from manifests for reports and productivity analysis," explains David Marsh, Executive Director of CARTS. "By eliminating and automating these and by reducing the dispatchers' time spent on the radio adding or removing trips, or figuring out where drivers are, our time can now be used more productively. "The quality of service has also improved since drivers can quickly access relevant client information from PASS to ensure more personalised attention, and the onboard ambience is much improved with the elimination of constant radio chatter.

Mr. Marsh has some advice for other agencies: "Digital data transmission and AVL have given our call center tools that significantly improve service delivery; however, the challenge of using these tools to their maximum utility is as great as the technical challenges of implementing the technology." Once the fleet is fully equipped with MDCs, CARTS will phase in a real-time system that will enable same-day reservations with on-the-fly changes and additions to itineraries. The introduction of electronic fare media and state-issued electronic benefit cards will further support the combination of improved service delivery and cost-efficiencies that CARTS strives for.

Bottom Line

The bottom line to CARTS is customer service improvements. "Our product is service to people," Mr. Marsh says. "This project will make marked improvements in our ability to deliver that product. In paratransit services, removing the obstacles between the ride and the rider request is what improves the service. That is what we are doing."