TRC announces groundbreaking update to Pingo Flex™, making dispatcher lives easier through seamless management of fixed and flexible routes
Enhanced Pingo Flex™ empowers transit agencies with unprecedented ease of use, adaptability, and efficiency across rural and urban communities.
December 2, 2024 – New York, New York, USA: The Routing Company (“TRC”), a global on-demand vehicle routing and management platform, today announced a significant update to Pingo Flex™, providing transit agencies with an enhanced ability to seamlessly manage both fixed and flexible routes.
This latest innovation addresses a long-standing challenge in the transit industry – efficiently delivering fixed and demand-responsive services on a single, user-friendly platform. With this update, Pingo Flex™ offers unparalleled adaptability for transit agencies operating in rural and urban environments, empowering them to deploy the most appropriate service mode for their demand profile and user demographic.
Solving Complex Challenges for Transit Agencies
Transit agencies are grappling with the challenge of transitioning service models to incorporate demand-responsive solutions. With a growing demand for flexible transportation options, agencies face operational complexities when managing mixed-mode services, including deviated fixed routes, school routes, and group trips. This latest Pingo Flex™ upgrade addresses these challenges head-on by offering a unified, streamlined solution that adapts to multiple transit verticals. These updates allow agencies to quickly adjust to service changes, improve route efficiency, and deliver a smoother rider experience – all from a single platform.
Key Enhancements in the Pingo Flex™ Update
- Single platform for mixed-mode operations: Transit agencies can now manage fixed routes, school routes, group trips, and microtransit services all within the Pingo Dashboard, creating a seamless experience for both operators and dispatchers.
- Improved booking and reservation system: Riders can easily reserve spots on existing stops through the rider-facing app, enhancing the user experience for both scheduled and on-demand trips.
- Support for creating GTFS files: Pingo Flex™ offers support for creating GTFS files including GTFS real-time feeds to give riders real-time information about bus locations.
- Streamlined route management: Creating and managing routes is now easier than ever. With intuitive tools to quickly add, remove, or modify stops, agencies can optimize routes in real time without the hassle of multiple workflows.
- Enhanced flexibility for easy changes and trip adjustments: Pingo Flex™ offers greater flexibility for on-demand changes, making it simple to adjust stops, times, and routes mid-shift without disrupting ongoing services. This feature is especially beneficial for handling one-off breaks or updates to recurring services.
Achieving What No Other Provider Has Done
Transitioning between service models has historically been a complex and risky endeavor for transit agencies. Pingo Flex™ removes this complexity, allowing agencies to easily manage fixed routes alongside demand-responsive services. Whether an agency is managing school routes, group trips, or traditional fixed-route transit, the new Pingo Flex™ enables operational flexibility like never before.
“Pingo Flex is the result of listening to our partners and building a product that genuinely meets their needs,” said Niko Rekhviashvili, Director of Product, TRC. “We first launched Pingo Flex three years ago, and since then it has become one of the most actively used features on the Pingo platform. Through this, we identified the best use cases for Pingo Flex as well as the exact scenarios that we could refine and improve the user experience. With this update, we’ve simplified operations for agencies serving both rural and urban areas, and continue to offer an innovative product that no one else has been able to deliver.”
The Pingo Flex™ update was led by TRC’s Robert Enck, Lead Product Designer, and Casey Szilagyi, Senior Engineer. Enck led the design of Pingo Flex™, working closely with TRC partners to understand and incorporate their unique needs into the updated and more intuitive design. Szilagyi played a critical role in implementing scalable solutions for semi-fixed route operations, deeply integrating these improvements into the Pingo platform to enhance functionality for agencies operating mixed-mode services.
Driven by Partner Listening, Collaborative Innovation, and Market Responsiveness
“We are proud to collaborate with our partners, whose valuable input has driven these improvements to Pingo Flex,” said James Cox, Chief Executive Officer, TRC. “Our commitment to continuous innovation is grounded in the feedback from the transit agencies we work with, and this update is a testament to that ongoing collaboration. We’re enabling agencies to streamline their operations and deliver better transit experiences for their communities.”
By consolidating various service needs, such as school routes, paratransit operations, and microtransit services, into one powerful tool, Pingo Flex™ simplifies operations for dispatchers and transit administrators, reducing inefficiencies and boosting performance.
A Solution for Both Rural and Urban Communities
As agencies across the globe continue to face challenges around cost, efficiency, and rider satisfaction, Pingo Flex™ offers a critical solution. “This is more than just an upgrade,” said Dami Adebayo, Director of Partnerships at TRC. “It’s a game-changer for both rural and urban transit agencies. Pingo Flex gives agencies the tools they need to deliver flexible, reliable services regardless of geography or ridership size.”
Available Now
The enhanced Pingo Flex™ platform is available for both new and existing transit agency partners, with upgrades being deployed imminently. TRC remains committed to continuous innovation, with frequent updates that will continue to improve and expand the platform’s capabilities in alignment with the needs of modern transit.
The Pingo™ platform, which includes the Drive Pingo™ and Ride Pingo™ apps and the Pingo Dashboard™ operations tool, has powered over two million trips to date, helping agencies deliver efficient, flexible, and scalable transit services.
To learn more about how TRC is moving the world, visit theroutingcompany.com or request a demo by emailing move@theroutingcompany.com.
About The Routing Company
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, shuttle, 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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