More than ever before, riders and bus drivers want to feel safe. With new protocols required for bus sanitation, capacity limits, and PPE, including mandatory masks for drivers and riders, Saskatoon Transit needed to update its technology to help bridge all these changes. (Saskatoon Transit was an Excellence Award Recipient as a finalist for Canada’s Safest Employer Awards 2020.)
Saskatoon Transit currently uses Trapeze for scheduling and planning, demand response, workforce management, and intelligent transportation systems. They also wanted to take full advantage of IT solutions for real-time travel information and more innovative services.
For example, they needed accurate minute-by-minute analytics on the number of riders getting on and off buses to keep people safe, and provide riders information on vehicle crowding so they could decide if they wanted to wait for the next bus.
As demand for service has changed through the pandemic, Saskatoon also wanted to take a deeper look at peak times and aligning routes to those times throughout the day and night. Another important goal was improving the booking system and reducing wait times for Access Transit paratransit riders, when many are feeling more vulnerable and isolated..
When it comes to ease of use and trusting automated systems, some employees at Saskatoon Transit had reservations. One paratransit operator comes in the morning before his shift starts and gets his whole manifest for the entire day. “It’s a process he needs to go through to ease anxiety but in reality, a driver should only see that initial 20 minutes, because anything after that is not set in stone,” said Tracey Davis, Access Transit Manager.
“Trapeze’s paratransit software, PASS, is the system that does that for us, constantly optimizing and saying, what’s the best fit? I’m going to put you here and you there. It’s a cultural change because our operators aren’t used to that.”
Another hurdle to Access Transit is a high “no show” or “late cancel” of trips, which means wasted trips and a drain on resources.
For bus service, while the agency could track and monitor incidents such as mask non-compliance, service interruptions, and capacity numbers, there was still room to fully leverage that business intelligence for troubleshooting and decision-making.
"We want to be maximizing the functionality of every tool we have."
Making a Trapeze technology upgrade a priority for Access Transit meant easier booking options and more control for riders, as well as reducing steps in the process for clerks, freeing up their time for other tasks.
The agency upgraded to Trapeze’s PASS Version 19 that allows passengers to see details of their trip in real-time and make changes at any time of the day. Saskatoon Transit also brought in ViewPoint, Trapeze’s data and analytics reporting solution with dashboards that track indicators like on-time performance – factors that impact rider experience. The software actually compresses data into actionable advice, based on historical data and current transit trends.
“We’re looking for better reporting. We were being asked for reports that we couldn’t produce on our own,” said Cory Shrigley, Customer Support & Engagement Manager. “We needed to generate better ridership data to help assign boardings per bus stop.”
On a higher level, the agency also used the analytics and insights from ViewPoint to help inform their strategy in all areas of business, including new areas like mask non-compliance. “We’re running reports on things that add value to our daily decisions.”
Paratransit customers now have more flexibility, and more control over booking and managing their trips. The shorter booking window has resulted in less scheduling work for clerks, reducing their daily workload.
ViewPoint has helped to optimize the agency’s database, including reporting for operations and communications. The fact that Trapeze ViewPoint is integrated in all of their Trapeze solutions means they can take advantage of reports and analytics across their entire system.
“It’s really given us a good database that is reliable and that’s helped us navigate through COVID,” said Shrigley. As the situation changed with bus capacity numbers, the ViewPoint dashboard helped with decisions on where extra routes were needed, since it could easily pull information from TransitMaster.
Having solutions that work together as a whole is also helping the agency build a strong software infrastructure, said Harold Matthies, Transit Technology Coordinator for Saskatoon.
“The training and the ability to contribute during the quality assurance testing and the development was of real value,” Matthies said. “And the support from Trapeze after the implementation has been a huge benefit.”
Saskatoon Transit is now working with Trapeze to undergo enterprise business assessments on all their Trapeze solutions to ensure they’re getting the most value out of each one.
“We want to be maximizing the functionality of every tool we have. We need to fully understand how the tool is built, why it was built and how we should be using it.
Bus
Rail
Paratransit