The Routing Company expands to fourth region in Scotland with new SEStran contract for on-demand transport
February 16, 2023 – New York, New York, USA: The Routing Company (“TRC”), a global on-demand vehicle routing and management platform partnering with cities to power the future of public transit, today announced it has partnered with the South East of Scotland Transport Partnership (“SEStran”) to provide on-demand transportation for up to one year. With this deployment, SEStran becomes TRC’s fourth fleet in Scotland. Scottish riders can already use TRC’s award-winning Pingo platform in Campbeltown, Dunoon, and Berwickshire.
SEStran is a statutory regional transport partnership overseeing eight local councils, including East Lothian Council and the Scottish Borders Council. The new service – anticipated to launch in spring 2023 – will operate in partnership between TRC and Prentice Coaches and will service the Haddington region and surrounding towns including Tranent, Humbie, and more.
The East Lothian Council area currently has limited public transport coverage, with approximately nine percent of the population having ‘no access’ to key destinations via public transport. The area’s rural geography means car dependency is high, yet approximately 24 percent of households in the area do not own a car. SEStran plans to work with TRC to maximize accessibility, and reduce social exclusion via the new on-demand service.
“TRC’s partnership with SEStran marks an important expansion of the Pingo brand in Scotland as well as the deployment of our Pingo Flex feature, which allows SEStran to get the most of out of its fixed bus service between rural towns and the main town centre,” said James Cox, Chief Executive Officer, TRC. “Pingo Flex allows the service to operate on a fixed basis during the most popular times and to the most frequent destinations, while outside of these peak times, to operate as an on-demand service in an area not currently served by fixed routes. Ultimately, this will increase accessibility, reliability, and the efficiency of mobility for local residents.”
SEStran will utilize the full Pingo suite, including Transit Connect™ and Pingo Journey™. Launched in late 2022, Pingo Journey™ is a multimodal journey planning feature integrating TRC’s real-time routing technology with public transport infrastructure. Using Pingo Journey, riders can book on-demand rides and plan their ongoing fixed-route journeys from the single Ride Pingo app. The Transit Connect™ feature, which guarantees connections between on-demand and fixed-route services, will be used alongside Pingo Journey™ to connect riders to other rural bus services in the area.
“This service is especially needed to increase access to mobility – and TRC has proven its ability to service smaller, rural communities where fixed-route services have historically struggled to meet variable demand,” said Cox. “Our partnership with SEStran in East Lothian directly improves community mobility, and contributes to our purpose – that any community of any size, in any place, with any resources, can meet the transportation needs of its people.”
“We chose to partner with TRC to meet our core goals of maximising accessibility for our community, providing an efficient service within the constraints of our fleet, and establishing and launching a new service quickly," said Hattie James, Project Officer, SEStran. “Together, we have integrated our existing mobility-as-a-service platform with TRC’s Pingo app – marking the first time TRC has integrated with a local MaaS app. Through this, we will increase ridership on an established rural route, and explore improving the long-term viability of the route.”
‘I’m delighted to see this Digital Demand Responsive pilot ready to launch," said Councillor Colin Davidson, SEStran Chair. "Using this kind of transport option in East Lothian will have the potential for further trials in the other rural parts of this region, as well as the more urban areas."
"This pilot is the result of very strong partnership working with Council and SEStran officers, as well as other public and private sector colleagues," said Councillor John McMillan, East Lothian Council Provost and SEStran Board member. "It’s exactly the kind of new approach we need to take to encourage people onto public transport, and ties in well with the other initiatives we’re seeing around transport in East Lothian."
TRC’s award-winning Pingo platform – powering the Drive Pingo™ and Ride Pingo™ apps and the Pingo Dashboard™ management tool – has moved over 200,000 people to date. 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 transit. Leveraging proprietary and unrivaled artificial intelligence, TRC delivers routing from multiple points of demand to one vehicle while enabling greater transit 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.
With a team spanning eight countries, TRC directly supports international operations and customer growth through hubs in Australia, Canada, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Learn more at theroutingcompany.com.
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