The Routing Company (TRC) is partnering with the Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority (PDRTA) to launch a new service in Q4 2024. The contract includes a pilot phase followed by an extension for up to three years. The initial deployment of the service is focused on transitioning PDRTA’s paratransit services. Workforce transit is expected to phase into deployment in early 2025.
PDRTA is the public transportation authority serving the six-counties of Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Marion and Marlboro that together comprise South Carolina’s Pee Dee region. Serving a predominantly rural area, PDRTA is the largest transit authority in the state and the third largest in the country by square mileage, providing paratransit, demand response, workforce development transit, deviated fixed routes and fixed routes to its rural residents, as well as those in the cities of Florence and Dillon. PDRTA supports nearly half a million fixed route and demand response rides per year.
TRC will leverage its full Pingo product suite to provide PDRTA with greater control, data transparency, reporting and analysis over its existing services, ultimately shifting the agency from manual Microsoft Excel-based operations to data-driven, automated, demand responsive routing and scheduling. By using the Ride Pingo app, TRC says the agency is giving its riders a new and more convenient way to book, pay and track trips at their own convenience.
“We are focused on improving the experience for all users of transit, including drivers, dispatchers and riders – and leveraging real-time data and insights to directly inform how we improve our transit network design in the future,” said Don Strickland, executive director, PDRTA. “We are thrilled to partner with The Routing Company in making this happen and in providing a significantly better dispatcher experience while driving better fleet efficiency with a real-time, demand-responsive software platform that routes, schedules and reports on local transit ridership. Together, we are improving the convenience and accessibility of transit in our region while setting the foundation to ready us for scalable future growth in ridership and transit modes offered.”
PDRTA will leverage Pingo’s real-time demand routing and tracking to gain a deeper understanding of its transit operations while tapping into the capabilities of Pingo Analytics™ to generate custom National Transit Database compliant reports, eliminating the agency’s reliance on Microsoft Excel and Paper-based reporting. PDRTA also expects to use Pingo’s offline capabilities, including real-time turn-by-turn navigation for drivers and dispatch-to-driver communication, to improve the accuracy, on-time performance and reliability of transit trips.
“TRC has been innovating its Pingo product to best serve its rural partners since inception, with a goal of making transit more accessible, efficient and flexible for all who use it – especially those who traditionally do not have access to transit,” said James Cox, CEO, TRC. “Not only does on-demand transit improve the quality of life for rural residents, it dramatically improves the utilization and flexibility of existing assets for transit agencies while saving time for riders, operators and dispatchers through elimination of manual processes.”
