Paratransit is one of the most complex and expensive services agencies offer. Trapeze has spent decades developing ways to make offering paratransit services easier and more cost-effective for agencies.
But challenges still remain for agencies delivering paratransit services to riders.
From staffing shortages to increased demand, agencies are hard-pressed to offer all the paratransit services their communities want and need. Trapeze developed TripBroker to integrate local, non-dedicated partners like taxis and TNCs (Transportation Network Companies) into paratransit services. TripBroker gives agencies unparalleled flexibility to leverage non-dedicated fleets within PASS.
Non-dedicated fleets give agencies flexible and cost-effective ways to deliver better paratransit services to riders, while maintaining the same service quality their dedicated fleet offers. Trapeze added TNCs as non-dedicated fleet options to give agencies more options for on-demand capacity and support for same-day or last-minute trip requests from riders and coverage during staff shortages.
Getting paratransit riders where they need to go—safely, comfortably, and cost-effectively—is a daily balancing act. Demand changes daily and sometimes hourly. Post-pandemic driver shortages leads to agencies not having the capacity to meet new service demands. Inefficient trips weigh down schedules, making trips longer for people to get to where they are going. Growing ridership coupled with the inability to add supplemental vehicles at peak times makes it harder and harder to offer the level of service agencies aspire to.
When you have last-minute changes to paratransit schedules, your well-planned route is thrown out the window. Drivers take longer to complete a run, buses burn more fuel, and passengers spend longer on the bus than they planned for. Together, all these lead to increased costs and lower rider satisfaction.
Image via Uber
While an agency can’t just add more drivers or buses to its dedicated fleet on-demand, they can use non-dedicated resources like TNCs and taxi companies to fill in the gaps and expand service to more riders. Through TripBroker, agencies get instant access to vehicles and drivers only when they need it.
TripBroker gives you the tools to tap into non-dedicated fleets—like taxis or TNCs—within the familiar PASS interface.
Giving passengers the option to opt-into using TNCs or taxis, agencies can match supply to demand, absorb increased ridership, and complete more trips at a lower cost. This flexibility lets agencies expand into new areas and offer more on-demand services without incremental capital costs.
TNCs give riders the convenience and comfort of taking a “regular” vehicle and not a paratransit bus. This means more freedom and less stigma to get where they want to go—just like everyone else. We’ve heard from agencies across North America what a positive difference it makes in people’s lives to just let them get where they want to go, when they want to go and feel more “normal” using paratransit options.
With Trapeze TripBroker, agencies can book, schedule, and outsource the most cost-effective trips (e.g. trips that weigh down the schedule) to third-party providers, adding capacity when needed, while providing full transparency of each trip to the operator and rider.
Within PASS, your agency can manage the complexity of who could be offered a ride via TNC or a taxi, with rider profiles. Reservationists can spend more time helping people in the community get where they want to go and less time trying to figure out how it gets done. TripBroker makes the processes seamless to broker trips, allocating the most difficult-to-schedule trips to non-dedicated services and lets your dedicated fleet serve the passengers who need extra support.
With Trapeze PASS and TripBroker, dispatchers can directly allocate paratransit trips to non-dedicated fleets, leveraging their on-demand networks to give dispatchers the flexibility to allocate trips based on factors like current wait times, cost, rider needs, and agency goals. Safety and security standards are maintained with rider opt-ins allowing agencies to remain 100% FTA-complaint, while offering more flexible options for riders.
TripBroker provides access to TNCs, taxi companies who use iCabbi for dispatching, as well as offering API access for partners to write their own integrations. Everything is transparent to the rider. They are notified through your communications system and don’t need to use other apps to track or book trips. With the integrated connection between the providers and PASS through TripBroker, riders get the same updates and reminders about their trips, just like they would when they ride a dedicated paratransit vehicle.
Transit agencies seized the opportunity over the past two years to implement new technologies to:
With our evolving Mobility On Demand solutions, Trapeze is here to provide more flexibility and mobility options to your riders. By working with partners like Uber, agencies have a more efficient, accessible, and equitable public transportation networks within their communities.
Our recent partnership with Uber is just one example of this dedication to support the new public transit renaissance. This partnership gives agencies new flexibility with trusted partners to provide more service to more riders within existing budgets.
Learn more about TripBroker and how it enables on-demand, non-dedicated fleets
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