TRC announces new five-year 132 vehicle partnership with New York’s RGRTA; celebrates one of the industry’s largest on-demand deals of the year
Latest contract marks TRC’s second partnership in New York state
September 30, 2024 – 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 a new 132-vehicle five year contract with the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (“RGRTA”), also known as Regional Transit Service (“RTS”). The contract was celebrated today at the American Public Transportation Association’s (“APTA”) TRANSform Conference in Anaheim, California – the industry’s largest annual conference – with RTS Chief Executive Officer Miguel Velázquez and TRC Chief Executive Officer James Cox officially signing the contract onsite at the conference.
The contract marks one of the industry’s largest on-demand transit deals of the year, and also marks TRC’s second partnership in New York, following TRC’s partnership with the Capital District Transportation Authority (“CDTA”) in Albany, New York, announced late 2023.
RTS is a New York State public-benefit corporation providing public transportation services in the eight-county area in and around Rochester, New York, and delivering over 10 million rides per year.
TRC will support RTS as they provide weekday demand-responsive transit service that includes on-demand (microtransit), and deviated route service operated from seven properties across all the rural counties surrounding Rochester, including Wayne, Ontario, Livingston, Wyoming, Genesee, Seneca, and Orleans. Pre-booking will also be available to riders. Together, the service deployment across these counties marks one of the industry’s largest on-demand deals of the year.
“We are honored to be selected by RTS as their partner in the delivery of these innovative transit services, especially given the agency had to evaluate bid submissions from eight providers," said Dami Adebayo, Director of Partnerships, TRC. "This bid and partner selection process was unique in terms of its rigor and detail, which included onsite product testing with TRC and the other finalist. The outcome here is a testament to the effort our team invested in tailoring our solutions to this specific partner – from the request for proposals right through to actual service delivery."
The launch of this initiative is yet another example of realizing the One Transit operating model, seamlessly integrating deviated routes with on-demand services to create a truly unified transit system. TRC's advanced Pingo platform makes it possible to more intelligently deploy vehicles across rural communities, ensuring they receive the spontaneity in transit typically only associated with urban communities. This integration not only enhances operational efficiency, but also represents a significant move towards equitable and inclusive public transportation for all.
“We have been focused on improving the convenience, accessibility, scheduling and tracking, and overall customer experience of the public transit service we provide, and we are happy that we found a partner in TRC that can deliver on all those elements,” said RTS CEO Miguel Velázquez. “We look forward to piloting on-demand service in some of the more rural areas we serve, and leveraging TRC’s 24/7 support to ensure our customers have more access to more of the critical destinations they need to reach each day.”
Service is anticipated to start in late 2024, and aims to expand transit access in rural areas (where many residents are transit-dependent and do not own vehicles) while digitizing and modernizing RTS’ rural transit operation and providing more consistent delivery of service. RTS partnered with TRC to enhance its operational efficiency, improve fleet management, leverage comprehensive data insights and analysis, and gain real-time tracking and monitoring capabilities.
“Our partnership with RGRTA is focused on innovating, enhancing, and improving the transit experience in rural upstate areas,” said James Cox, Chief Executive Officer, TRC. “Together, we’re aiming to alleviate car dependency and eliminate transit deserts, to allow every person to fully participate in activities across the community as part of daily life. The best part is that in addition to improving quality of life, we’re helping RGRTA dramatically improve the return on investment for its existing assets – its fleet and its people – while increasing the convenience of moving people.”
The new on-demand deployment will leverage TRC’s full suite of Pingo products – including features such as Pingo Flex™ and Transit Protect™, as well as TRC’s Pingo Analytics™ next generation customer transit analytics and reporting tool.
Pingo Flex™ provides greater flexibility for traditionally fixed transit routes, delivering deviated fixed route service. Operators get more out of existing services by keeping scheduled stops, while adding on-demand elements to improve service responsiveness in high density or intermittently peak demand routes.
Transit Protect™ allows integration of on-demand transport while fortifying existing fixed routes. Operators can use Transit Protect™ to set zone restrictions in Pingo Dashboard™ – ultimately boosting on-demand access for communities underserved by public transport while restricting on-demand trips for already well-served routes.
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.
RGRTA will also rely on TRC’s in-house 24/7 rider support for prompt response to rider inquiries and troubleshooting questions.
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 over 1.5 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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