TRC expands into England with three year 15-vehicle contract with East Sussex County Council

Contract marks TRC’s first in England and its fifth fleet in the UK

April 20, 2023 – Amsterdam, Netherlands: The Routing Company (“TRC”), a global on-demand vehicle routing and management platform partnering with cities to power the future of public transport, today announced it has received a 15-vehicle contract from the East Sussex County Council (“ESCC”). The contract, supported by the United Kingdom’s Bus Service Improvement Plan funding, includes a two year base agreement with an optional year extension, for a total of up to three years. 

The contract was facilitated through the United Kingdom’s G-Cloud 13 cooperative purchasing platform, which TRC was listed to in November 2022, marking TRC’s first contract secured through G-Cloud 13. Using the G-Cloud 13 platform, local UK authorities can select TRC as a supplier without requiring completion of competitive procurement processes. 

ESCC is the local authority serving the non-metropolitan and southern coastal county of East Sussex in the UK, overseeing all municipal services in the region, including transportation. ESSC is driven by expanding access for local residents (who previously could not access public transport), and the provision of responsive, efficient, shared transport services that best utilize available vehicles. 

TRC will deliver transport by leveraging its full suite of Pingo products – including flexible on-demand transport services as well as semi-fixed services – and features such as Pingo Journey™, Transit Connect™, and Pingo Flex™. Service is anticipated to begin this spring, and will be provided in partnership with WeDRT, who will manage 15 dedicated vehicles in addition to deploying non-dedicated vehicles in periods of high demand.

“We know that more accessible, shared, and on-time transport is critical to keeping the East Sussex community connected and provide greater freedom of movement,” said Dami Adebayo, Partnerships Lead, Europe, TRC. “Making the best use of vehicles to provide shared mobility is second nature to us. In fact, we have proven our ability to deliver up to 24 passengers per vehicle per hour, which not only improves service efficiency, but enhances the rider experience.”

With the new service, ESCC intends to strengthen its existing transport network and increase ridership with 10 vehicles operating fully on-demand in 10 different zones of East Sussex, and five vehicles converting from conventional fixed routes to more flexible, semi-fixed routes. The local population is nearly 600,000, with ESCC facilitating over 15 million bus journeys per year. 

Launched in October 2022, Pingo Journey™ integrates TRC’s real-time routing technology with public transport infrastructure, allowing riders to hail on-demand transport rides and plan multimodal transport journeys all from the single Ride Pingo app. The feature makes Pingo the world’s only app offering on-demand transport and end-to-end journey planning in one place and can be used alongside the Transit Connect™ feature. Transit Connect™ guarantees connections between on-demand and fixed-route services, and will be used alongside Pingo Journey™ to connect riders to other rural bus services in the area.

The Pingo Flex™ feature allows operators to get more out of conventional bus services, by keeping scheduled stops while adding an on-demand element to improve service responsiveness within high density or intermittently peak demand routes. 

TRC’s Pingo platform includes the Drive Pingo™ and Ride Pingo™ apps and the Pingo Dashboard™ operations management tool, which together provide on-demand, paratransit, fixed, and flexible transport that enhances ridership of existing transport networks.

To learn more, visit theroutingcompany.com/products. 

About TRC

Founded by MIT researchers and rideshare industry veterans, TRC is a global on-demand vehicle routing and management platform that partners with cities to power the future of public transport. Leveraging proprietary and unrivaled artificial intelligence, TRC delivers routing from multiple points of demand to one vehicle while enabling greater transport equity, accessibility, cost efficiency, and sustainability. Its leading product, the Pingo™ app, offers on-demand or advance trip requests and can operate in on-demand, flex, fixed, or paratransit mode. 

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