TRC announces new commingled paratransit and on-demand transit contract with South Carolina’s Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority for up to 3 years
Latest contract marks TRC’s first in the state and its tenth paratransit deployment in the United States; focused on powering workforce transportation to connect people and jobs
October 7, 2024 – New York, New York, USA: The Routing Company (“TRC”), a global on-demand vehicle routing and management platform partnering with communities to power the future of public transit, today announced a new service with the Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority (“PDRTA”). The contract includes a pilot phase followed by an extension for up to three years. The initial deployment, focused on transitioning the agency’s paratransit services, is anticipated to launch in the fourth quarter of 2024, with workforce transit expected to phase into the deployment in early 2025.
PDRTA is the public transportation authority serving the six-counties of Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Marion, and Marlboro, that together comprise South Carolina’s Pee Dee region. Serving a predominantly rural area, PDRTA is the largest transit authority in the state and the third largest in the country by square mileage, providing paratransit, demand response, workforce development transit, deviated fixed routes, and fixed routes to its rural residents as well as those in the cities of Florence and Dillon. PDRTA supports nearly half a million fixed route and demand response rides per year.
TRC will leverage its full PingoTM product suite to provide PDRTA with greater control, data transparency, reporting, and analysis over its existing services, ultimately shifting the agency from manual Microsoft Excel-based operations to data-driven, automated, demand responsive routing and scheduling. And, by using the Ride PingoTM app, the agency is giving its riders a new and more convenient way to book, pay, and track trips at their own convenience.
“We are focused on improving the experience for all users of transit, including drivers, dispatchers, and riders – and leveraging real-time data and insights to directly inform how we improve our transit network design in the future,” said Don Strickland, Executive Director, PDRTA. “We are thrilled to partner with The Routing Company in making this happen, and in providing a significantly better dispatcher experience while driving better fleet efficiency with a real-time, demand-responsive software platform that routes, schedules, and reports on local transit ridership. Together we are improving the convenience and accessibility of transit in our region, while setting the foundation to ready us for scalable future growth in ridership and transit modes offered.”
PDRTA will leverage Pingo’s real-time demand routing and tracking to gain a deeper understanding of its transit operations, while tapping into the capabilities of Pingo Analytics™ to generate custom NTD compliant reports, eliminating the agency’s reliance on Microsoft Excel and Paper-based reporting. PDRTA also expects to use Pingo’s offline capabilities, including real-time turn-by-turn navigation for drivers and dispatch-to-driver communication, to improve the accuracy, on-time performance, and reliability of transit trips.
“TRC has been innovating its Pingo product to best serve its rural partners since inception, with a goal of making transit more accessible, efficient, and flexible for all who use it – especially those who traditionally do not have access to transit,” said James Cox, Chief Executive Officer, TRC. “Not only does on-demand transit improve the quality of life for rural residents, it dramatically improves the utilization and flexibility of existing assets for transit agencies, while saving time for riders, operators, and dispatchers through elimination of manual processes.”
Pingo Analytics™ is TRC’s next generation customer transit analytics and reporting tool that offers best-in-class customer data access, with reports customizable to meet the U.S. Federal Transit Administration's (“FTA”) National Transit Database (or “NTD”) requirements. The new reporting features – including new self-serve reporting capabilities and additional on-demand transit metrics – can be used to combine pre-developed reports for NTD reporting, or to generate any report an operator needs whether in real time or based on historical data.
PDRTA will also leverage TRC’s comprehensive customer support through the transition and launch. TRC strives to deliver the industry’s best customer experience, and remains unmatched in customer satisfaction. Following a recent partner survey, TRC announced it earned a record customer satisfaction score with an NPS of 92, continuing to illustrate TRC’s ability to delight partners and deliver on white glove service expectations.
TRC’s award-winning Pingo platform includes the Drive Pingo™ and Ride Pingo™ apps and the Pingo Dashboard™ operations management tool, which together provide on-demand, paratransit, fixed, shuttle, and flexible transit that enhances ridership of existing transit networks.
Pingo has moved nearly two million passengers to date. To learn more, visit theroutingcompany.com, or to request a demo, email move@theroutingcompany.com.
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 unrivalled 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 Canada, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Learn more at theroutingcompany.com.
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