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The Hague partners for on-demand transit service
The Municipality of The Hague in the Netherlands has awarded a three-year contract to global on-demand vehicle routing and management platform, The Routing Company (TRC).
The contract marks TRC’s third partnership in Europe, with The Hague joining transit company West Coast Motors in Scotland as a user and Comu Escalades-Engordany in Andorra.
On-demand transit
The Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands. Its public transport service, run by local operator HTM, has been active since 1864 and today delivers more than 80 million passenger rides per year. It also operates shared bikes within the city and tram connections to surrounding cities.
The contract will service the Benoordenhout area with TRC’s Pingo app, which is set to replace the area’s previous fixed-route service. HTM will provide vehicles and drivers for a new on-demand service powered by TRC’s technology, launching in early 2023. Both apps – Ride Ping and Drive Pingo – will be available in Dutch, marking the first time Dutch is offered across the Pingo platform.
“Using this new technology through the Pingo app, we are offering more flexible and efficient additional public transport in a way that was not possible before”
Operating as a hub-to-hub service between nine existing bus stops, the service will leverage the Pingo platform’s Venues feature to route drivers and riders to convenient pick-up and drop-off locations. The Venue feature allows fleet managers to route all requests to specific points within the service area.
"TRC has strong Dutch roots and maintains a close relationship with the Delft University of Technology. We are thrilled to be launching our first Dutch service in the Netherlands’ dynamic administrative centre,” said Menno van der Zee, co-founder and engineer, TRC and a graduate of the Dutch university. “We will provide driver and operator training, technical and operational support during launch, and app translation to ensure that this new service is a success from day one.”
“We are very enthusiastic to work with TRC,” said Nadya Ensing, senior policy advisor of public transport, Municipality of The Hague. “Using this new technology through the Pingo app, we are offering more flexible and efficient additional public transport in a way that was not possible before.”
TRC continues to expand its presence throughout Europe. Most recently, TRC was accepted as an official supplier on G-Cloud 13, the UK’s Crown Commercial Service platform that connects public sector customers with cloud computing service providers, and oversees £3bn in annual purchases.
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. Using proprietary artificial intelligence, TRC delivers routing from multiple points of demand to one vehicle while enabling greater transit equity, accessibility, cost efficiency, and sustainability. Its core product, the Pingo app, offers on-demand or advance trip requests and can operate in on-demand, flex, fixed, or paratransit mode.
