Hear from industry leaders

RideCo has delivered on their promises. Even as a large transit agency, everything has gone smoothly without any issues. I would encourage other agencies of our size to not be afraid. RideCo has been an outstanding partner in helping us embrace change, and I believe other agencies should be courageous and follow the lead.

One of the key aspects I’d like to highlight here is the data analytics and reporting capabilities. I think that’s crucial, especially in this digital world we live in. Our team recognizes that modern AI software adjusts to the needs of today, enhancing how we collect, present, and translate data into actionable information. This allows us to run the [VIA Link] service more efficiently and better serve the community.

We’ve received positive feedback from customers who appreciate the increased reliability and ease of booking rides. Riders have expressed greater satisfaction overall, especially with the ability to plan and manage trips more independently. It’s clear that modernizing our technology has had a real and positive impact.

Real-time, robust, and highly relevant data is literally at my fingertips when I'm balancing so many other transit issues and expectations. There have been many times where I've received a request for data regarding the performance of our microtransit service and I've been able to provide the response within 24 hours because the depth of the data is deep, and instantly available through RideCo's [Operations Center].

A lot of reservation paperwork has been [automated and] incorporated into the system. Reservations no longer require filling out forms, taking them to another department, and waiting for them to come back. Whichever department needs to see it can access it, approve, it, and everything is done right [in the system] without the legwork.

[RideCo's system] takes a lot of the stress off of the dispatchers and operators. Before if there was an interruption in service, the effort it took to move trips around and keep things on time was tremendous. Now, they don't have to worry about ... the ripple effect because the system just makes those adjustments. Our dispatchers were almost tearful because they realized how much easier it made their world.

Since implementing RideCo’s platform, we’ve seen noticeable improvements in both service reliability and customer experience. Our team has observed more efficient scheduling and stronger on-time performance. ... Riders have expressed greater satisfaction overall, especially with the ability to plan and manage trips more independently. It’s clear that modernizing our technology has had a real and positive impact.

[RideCo's system] eliminated the need for real-time adjustments that were being made by our dispatchers previously. If they noticed that a trip was running behind, they would have to look at an entire schedule and make their best determination as to what could be moved so that ride could be served. It was labor intensive. It was certainly time intensive. Right now, that is done largely by [the system].

[Our drivers don't] have to keep track of their whole manifest and worry about their trips later in the shift. They can focus on the trip they're doing. Driver Scorecards are also posted weekly in the breakroom and they like seeing scores like on-time performance and know that they are doing well.

We adopted real-time scheduling with RideCo's system, providing exact times and clear windows for when vehicles would arrive. This was a different approach for paratransit customers, but it has changed the way we handle paratransit. This is how we envisioned it, and our customers have noticed the improvement in their transit experience.

RideCo worked closely with our Eligibility Team to develop a customized workflow that matched our existing processes, including integrating with our rider ID and payment management system. The collaborative effort made the transition for our team seamless and they continue to be highly responsive and adaptive as we review and improve our processes. Over time, we've been able to leverage more of their custom features to reduce our overall response time for ADA applicants.

Driver Alerts—that’s the best thing I’ve ever seen. We have it on a big screen TV in our command center. If there’s a driver starting to fall behind, we can see exactly what’s going on. Is their schedule heavy and is there traffic in that area? We can stop the motion of that by putting [their trips] on an extra board and it’s a fast, easy move.

There different rules and ways [that users] interact with our service and that's really complicated for us as managers. But with RideCo, it's really simple for the user. They're able to put in their origin and destination, and it automatically resolves those rules to determine if they're eligible for the trip. It's really easy to navigate our whole service area.

The amount of data that we're able to pull from the RideCo platform is incredible. We're able to see through multiple avenues and lenses on how [the program] is performing and where there's challenges. We then discuss with our partners, 'How do we address those challenges?' and 'How do we find new opportunities in the data?' ... [This] is a huge benefit over the legacy platforms we used to have.

We've moved into a new era with a more modernized technological solution, and we were able to set up the platform and launch in 90 days. As a program that's very structured with policy and regulations, ADA paratransit is not an easy service to provide. To be able to configure and test it, get training in, and launch in 90 days was incredibly impressive and a partnership effort with RideCo and zTrip.