RMC and TRC launch new on-demand employee transport service
This article has been translated from the original Dutch.
Operator RMC (Rotterdamse Mobiliteit Centrale) and The Routing Company offer a new form of on-demand transportation: the "Schiedam Port Express". This transport service takes as many employees as possible to their remote company premises in as short a time as possible. For this project, RMC collaborates with The Routing Company, which provides the app Pingo.
"For Pingo, we use a self-developed algorithm," says Menno van der Zee, co-founder of The Routing Company. "We don't run buses on fixed routes, but continuously adjust them to the changing situation." Travelers can let the app know that they want to be picked up. The algorithm then determines when this person will be picked up and which route the bus should take. Pingo is already being used in 12 regions across four continents, and now also in Schiedam.
Remote area
RMC is working with Pingo in Schiedam to offer a new bus service to a remote business area located on a pier. Employees of the various companies can book their ride through the app. RMC also has its own app, but it was not chosen for this assignment. "Our own app works very differently. That involves a human planner to shape the ride. That is not the case now," explains Gerry Oosterbaan, general manager of RMC.
According to Oosterbaan, it was quite a challenge to get the companies together to have all their employees transported by one carrier. "There is nobody who brings companies together to organize this kind of collective transportation," the director said. "We managed to do that now, with the support of the Schiedam municipality. They also subsidized us." The bill for the transportation does eventually end up with the companies: "We send them the bill ourselves," Oosterbaan said.
"I think it's cool that we've got this going now," Oosterbaan says. "I hope there will be a lot of use of the new service. Then we can say: this is possible and this works. Then we can also start offering it in other places," the director concludes.
