ADEPT is a scheduling and dispatch solution like no other when it comes to performance and increased productivity.

Transcription

1 ADEPT is a scheduling and dispatch solution like no other when it comes to performance and increased productivity. ADEPT Improves Productivity to Reduce Operating Cost INTRODUCTION Demand for transportation of the elderly and disabled populations is growing profoundly. As the generational age wave continues to shift, larger demographics of Americans are nearing the threshold for requiring consistent access to health and social care related facilities. The need for transportation continues to climb along with the costs associated with these demands. From fuel prices, to the expansion of fleet vehicles and related expenses (maintenance, drivers, dispatchers, etc.), transporting eligible individuals is becoming increasingly expensive. Transportation providers must pick up and deliver passengers consistently within an accurate service window or Estimated Travel Time (ETT) or risk penalties for unreliable performance. Therefore, it is incumbent upon transportation providers to offer the most consistent service and execution possible, factoring every possible issue that can derail a reliable schedule from delivering a dependable, efficient trip. THE CHALLENGE As paratransit, non-emergency medical transportation and fixed route systems are called upon to address the growing ridership demands and associated costs, budgets continue to shrink. The demand for intelligent scheduling systems that can negotiate the multitude of rider needs becomes paramount. Inefficiency in transportation services becomes a time-consuming, financial drain that fail to accommodate the growing masses reliant on these services. GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS Demographic evolution is just one of the ongoing challenges that transportation providers must address. Geographic factors like road and traffic conditions are constantly shifting, requiring updated schedules and dispatchers who can adjust their expertise on the fly to flexibly account for any disruption to service. In addition to deteriorating traffic conditions, factors like weather, special events, day of the week, travel direction and street class are constantly placing an additional demand on schedulers to EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As paratransit, non-emergency medical transportation and fixed route systems are called upon to address growing ridership demands and associated costs, budgets continue to shrink. Shifting demographics and geographical factors are just some of the challenges compromising Estimated Time of Arrival (ETAs) - resulting in employee stress, negative on-time metrics, increased expenses and complaints. Creating realistic, flexible and issue-resilient schedules are the ideal and exception. Conventional scheduling systems rely on multiple solution algorithms with built in rules that require schedulers and dispatchers to work around their system. Marrying the human expertise of an agency s preferred scheduling strategies, StrataGen tailors its functionality around common sense or Heuristic rules for each agencyarticulatin how an agency wants routes managed to kill bad patterns-diminishing rework. StrataGen s ADEPT system addresses the toughest trip requirements first, allowing operators the flexibility to work around challenges with a host of remedies like direct ride, speed profiles and zone affinity to ensure a vehicle won t go where it shouldn t- giving operators the ability to deploy their fleets with their expertise. Continued Page 2 (888) [email protected] page 1

2 formulate intelligent itineraries that can adapt to the challenge without consuming too many resources or time. The consistent production of competent scheduling becomes a necessity, an extra challenge for paratransit agencies since the schedules have to work within ADA parameters. In addition to the constantly shifting landscape of environmental factors there are the basic logistical issues that continuously challenge schedule integrity. Some riders live far apart, others require specific vehicles to accommodate their medical conditions (wheelchairs, etc.). Each rider presents their own unique set of needs and accessibility requirements. Scheduler philosophy plays a large part as every agency mirrors the characteristics and priorities of those managing its day-to-day operations. Some transportation providers may schedule a route with longer trips preferentially sequestered to earlier in the shift whereas other providers may prioritize routes based off of accommodating severely disabled customers ahead of all else. Based off the priorities of each agency, the execution and best methodology to achieve their respective goals (customer service versus cost efficiency, etc.) are constantly in flux and challenged. COMPROMISED TRAVEL ESTIMATES Average speeds aren t necessarily true speeds. The shortest distance isn t always the fastest route and if these realities aren t accounted for accurate Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) goes out the window. Compromised ETAs result in negative on-time performance metrics, increased call volumes, no shows, complaints and employee stress as unacceptable numbers of riders get waitlisted. The ability to sensibly anticipate and strategize around scheduling hardships quickly becomes an essential component to maintaining efficient route execution. The more corrupt a schedule becomes the longer it takes to fix and the more manual interaction is involved, driving operational costs and strain up. THE STATUS QUO: CONVENTIONAL SCHEDULING YOUR SCHEDULE, THEIR RULES Conventional scheduling services rely heavily on multiple solution algorithms to determine what routes should be scheduled and in what order. This approach seeks to solve the whole problem by weighting the solution and then scoring options to determine which route presents the lowest penalties. Scheduling engineers determine the general scheduling philosophy in house, with built-in rules and then apply their routing solution to whatever agency has decided to implement the respective scheduling engine. DISPATCH OVERLOAD If issues arise, as they inevitably will, the expertise of the schedulers and dispatchers on site are immediately called upon time and time again to remedy the challenge and put the fires out as quickly as possible. In this instance, the timeliness, ability and knowledge of each scheduler is critical. The faster they can rework the schedule and manually reenter the trip EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (Continued) By applying human knowledge at computer speed, better results surface and manual corrections are minimized. ADEPT replaced competitor systems by scheduling their experts preferred processes. In Boston (on the launch date), the ADEPT implementation helped: Reduce vehicle and driver costs by over 13% Reduce waitlisted trips by over 600% Reduce miles per trip by over 10% Increase trip per vehicle hour productivity by over 20% In New York City (within one year of deployment) ADEPT achieved: 39% improvement in customer satisfaction ratings 30% increase in trips per revenue hour Reduced call handling times by 33% Reduced cost per trip by over 10% ADEPT works for the most demanding agencies in the world because nobody else can achieves its efficiency gains. Case by case, ADEPT increases productivity, improves customer satisfaction, reduces operational costs and allows agencies to retain the priorities and expertise they know best while driving unparalleled returns. (888) [email protected] page 2

3 information, the less money and time is wasted. The longer this process takes, the more riders are waitlisted and costs balloon. Over time, as issues multiply, the schedulers must work around the scheduling system instead of working with it. Drivers will invariably react to scheduling updates or ineffective routes as directed by dispatchers and refocus accordingly as needed. Known as the roaming route, the efficiency of this reality is generally minimal and only as good as the driver s knowledge of the region and its respective challenges. EXCESSIVE WAITLISTED AND DEADHEAD TRIPS Emphasis on wheelchair-required trips, rural trips and agency drivers versus subcontracted third- party drivers is accounted into a generalized formula, resulting in a variety of outcomes based off of real-world conditions at play. Waitlisted trips are inevitable and as burdens arise in this scenario, it once again becomes crucial that dispatchers have the time and knowledge to adjust on the fly. Deadhead trips where drivers are far off course due to inadequate or poorly adjusted schedules can arise and invariably result in significantly hindered productivity. If the demands on a route shift suddenly or the original schedule lacks discipline, drivers may have to travel unacceptable distances to accommodate the sudden change. This practice can result in occasionally overshooting a targeted area to make the pick up or drop off and puts customer satisfaction in peril. Placing additional pressure on the driver and agency to avoid violating the maximum ADA ride time limits can also present safety hazards. With conventional scheduling systems, the schedulers must work around the system instead of working with it. CONSTANT REWORK If routing patterns emerge that a scheduler doesn t approve of, they rework the schedule manually to ensure his methodology has the final say. If tweaking a schedule makes regular part of the equation, as will the related operational strains. The schedule batching time for competitor systems can take hours to process so optional route flexibility is minimized and efficient time management for schedulers and dispatchers comes at a premium. THE SOLUTION SAME CHALLENGE, BETTER FILTERING PROCESS StrataGen Systems employs a different solution to address the same scheduling challenges. Marrying the human expertise of an individual agency s preferred scheduling strategies with StrataGen. StrataGen tailors its functionality around common sense or Heuristic rules of thumb that ring true for each specific agency. The so called expert in a box methodology championed by StrataGen builds on years of agency (888) w w w. StrataGen.com [email protected] page 3

4 best practices to shortcut known problems and builds them into the scheduling system so they can be sensibly adjusted to each agency s preferred style and set of priorities. AGENCY EXPERTISE REFLECTED IN SOLUTION Articulating how a scheduler wants routes managed proactively addresses the issue of bad patterns, teaching the engine to automatically prevent reoccurring issues, therefore diminishing the amount of manual rework involved. ADEPT is focused on the individual agency s heuristics and applying them into the system, easily automating those preferences moving forward. By allowing the agency to customize the position preference of multiple criteria in the filtering process of the strategy hierarchy, the greater effect the agency has in controlling the deployment and implementation of its practices in reality. ADEPT takes advantage of the individual agency s knowledge. The capacity for human intervention is always there, but with the agency expertise built into the strategy language, the strategy engine minimizes this necessity by executing strategies that make the most sense for the respective agency. SPEED PROFILES ADEPT utilizes Speed Profiles to determine the true average speed for any roadway at any time of day, enabling schedulers and dispatchers to execute the most accurate schedules possible. Speed Profiles eliminates the guesswork from traffic speed calculations by processing bi-directional street and segment level traffic speeds in five minute increments for any class of service area- delivering comprehensive route clarity through advanced accountability standards. Gathered from billions of GPS data points, Speed Profiles improves ETAs and customer satisfaction by demonstrating the smartest route options, informed by up-to-date, real-world traffic patterns. ADEPT minimizes manual rework on schedules by incorporating each transportation provider s policies and rules into the scheduling process. AUTOMATED TRUMPS MASSAGING ADEPT is built to minimize manual rework by incorporating each agency s priorities to ensure it passes their eye ball test. Agencies can add preferences, remove or reorder them as they wish. With multiple strategies built into the system, schedulers have a library of options they can choose and tweak as desired to tailor each schedule in a way that makes the best sense for each scenario. With bad patterns identified and automatically prevented, schedulers can apply a series of defectfree cookie cutter strategies to their schedules without having to labor over the manual rework that was commonplace with previous timeconsuming scheduling systems. minimizes manual rework on schedules (888) [email protected] page 4

5 by incorporating each transportation provider s policies and rules into the scheduling process. PRIORITIZATION GUARANTEES BEST ROUTE FOR BEST TRIP ADEPT controls what gets delegated to the waitlist, knowing trips that minimize impact on promise times and are easier to work back into the schedule as opposed to wheelchair trips, etc. that reduce flexibility. Prioritizing trips that accommodate more severely disabled riders addresses the most demanding amenity requirements foremost therefore minimizing the potential for scheduling challenges that could compromise ETT and ETA. Among the strategies identified and built into the ADEPT scheduling engine is the ability to identify rideshare patterns or clusters where multiple trips are centered near a general area. By prioritizing peak bottleneck rush hour routes first, the strategy allows for more flexibility and a better ratio of demand to resource ability. The scheduling framework also prioritizes longer trips first, which are harder to work in than shorter ones. By addressing the toughest trip requirements first, the flexibility to work around unforeseen same-day schedule deviations is maximized. The system also identifies remote rural routes early in the prioritization process as they re harder to incorporate once waitlisted. By scheduling pick ups for these earlier, it s easier to deliver accurate promise times. The system also prefers to delegate as many rides as possible to full-time drivers over part time and third party drivers so that additional expenses are kept to a minimum. MAXIMUM FLEXIBILITY ADEPT knows how many routes have the most slack time and spare capacity to maximize flexibility and balance loads as prioritized. ADEPT factors vehicle capacity and timeframe reliability in all instances giving schedulers time to consider a variety of patterns and determine which trip takes what route. By automatically generating these options flexibility and efficiency are maximized. SOLVING FOR TRADITIONA SCHEDULING PROBLEMS ADEPT solves common scheduling dilemmas that hinder efficiency in conventional systems with a host of intuitive strategy preferences that decrease expenses, travel times and passenger dissatisfaction. GO NORTH A typical scheduling issue that needs remedying is the go north problem (see Figure A), where a passenger s drop off point is directly south but because of schedule prioritization the vehicle goes the opposite direction to accommodate another passenger, frustrating the passenger and adding time to the route. StrataGen built a direct ride rule into ADEPT (see Figure B) to enforce that once a passenger boards a vehicle, every intervening stop after their pick up is making progress towards an efficient drop off. Balancing WRONG WAY / GO NORTH PICK DROP Figure A: Scheduling Efficiency Barrier; Go North ENFORCE DIRECT RIDE PICK DROP Figure B: Scheduling Efficiency Solution; Direct Ride (888) [email protected] page 5

6 between efficiency and customer service, schedulers have the capacity to adjust the common sense parameters for how stringent this setting is. The ability to restrict overshooting can be tailored to agency preference based on a set of how many miles or percentage points the vehicle can deviate from the direct ride mandate. The function being, as a rider gets closer and closer to a drop off, the potential for deviation gets tighter and tighter, therefore forcing a pattern where every on board passenger is always getting closer to their destination. Direct ride is enforced for each passenger as their trip is scheduled, therefore every intervening stop limits how much the vehicle can get off route; eliminating the potential for bad possibilities. ROAMING ROUTE/GRAND TOUR Another operational dilemma is the roaming route or grand tour (see Figure C) where a vehicle travels over a vast geographical area in the course of its shift, wasting an inordinate amount of resources. ADEPT corrects this tendency by enforcing zone affinity (see Figure D), utilizing driver familiarity with a region to mitigate getting lost and dictating a primary zone of service for each route so roaming is kept to a minimum. Zone affinity provides the ability to limit a route s service area to a specified geographic area. This allows the user to keep trips in specific service areas grouped around certain routes. ADEPT identifies a strategy layer for each route and prioritizes different service zones a vehicle can frequent on a level of tiers from primary to secondary, last resort and forbidden. This common sense approach to enforcing zone affinity controls routes-a vehicle won t go where it shouldn t giving schedulers and dispatchers the ability to deploy their fleets with the local knowledge they know is best. CASE STUDIES ADEPT replaced conventional scheduling systems for both MTA New York City Transit and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority as each agency recognized the benefits of a personalized scheduling functionality that could truly tailor around the nuances of their experts preferred processes. In both settings, ADEPT produced profound efficiency improvements in terms of savings and customer satisfaction- a clear upgrade from the conventional scheduling technologies it displaced. CASE STUDY: MTA NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT In an MTA New York City Transit case study issued after StrataGen s implementation, ADEPT was able to demonstrate a 30 percent increase TYPICAL INEFFICIENT ROAMING ROUTE SERVICE REGION GARAGE R101 Z1 Z2 Z3 Z4 Z5 Z6 SERVICE REGION R101 Z1 Z2 Z3 Figure C: Scheduling Efficiency Barrier; Roaming Route/Grand Tour MORE INEFFICIENT ROUTE AFTER ZONE AFFINITY GARAGE Z4 Z5 Z6 Figure D: Scheduling Efficiency Solution; Zone Affinity (888) [email protected] page 6

7 in trips per revenue hour while reducing call handling times and workflows by 33 percent (see Figure E). During the rapid service growth that New York City has continuously experienced (almost 20 percent growth in average ridership year to year) since implementation, ADEPT has maintained productivity even as daily ridership expanded from 7,500 trips per day to over 27,000 at present. Pivotal to ADEPT s value proposition is its Figure E: Right on Time: How IT Can Drive ROI in Paratransit Scheduling by Howard Ende, 2005, Paratransit ability to drive cost-effective functionality Division, NYCT, APTA Presentation. Case Study observations derived from within one year of deployment without sacrificing the customer experience. After implementation, ADEPT successfully pushed customer satisfaction ratings to unparalleled heights, driving a 39 percent improvement in service satisfaction ratings the highest year over year improvement in customer satisfaction the MTA New York City Transit has ever recorded. ADEPT enables the expertise of each agency to inform the design and application of its respective scheduling engine to execute the smartest routes possible based on its specific priorities. NEW YORK METRO TRANSIT AUTHORITY PERFORMANCE METRIC IMPACT COMMENTS Trips Per Revenue Hour Increased by 30% Call Handling Time Reduced by 33% On-time Performance Up from 90% to over 95% Total Trips Per Day Increased from to more Able to maintain productivity than 28,000 during rapid service growth Cost Per Trip Reduced by 10% Customer Satisfaction 39% responded service Highest year over year improvement was better in customer satisfaction CASE STUDY: MASSACHUSETTS BAY TRANSIT AUTHORITY In Boston, StrataGen replaced the incumbent scheduling system by delivering similar gains in efficiency while incorporating the characteristics and personality of the preferred scheduling methods there. In a side by side comparison (see Figure F), ADEPT was pitted against the competitors product with a challenge to demonstrate who could route 2,720 trips best. ADEPT instantly reduced driver and vehicle costs by over 13 percent, efficiently serving the same number of Figure F: Case Study for Boston MBTA BOSTON MBTA CRITERIA COMPETITORS PRODUCT ADEPT % CHANGE COMMENTS Total Trips 2,720 2,720 Total Riders 2,393 Amb 2,393 Amb 654 WC 654 WC Routes Used % Reduced driver and vehicle costs or recaptured capacity Waitlisted Trips 73 6 Fewer trips to massage, schedule 42 with Massage consistency and scheduler time savings Miles Per Trip % Fuel and maintenance savings Trips/Vehicle Hour % Improved productivity Process Time 2.5 to 3 hours 1 min In-day optimization, run what-if tests 30 seconds 3 Step Batch 1 hour - Scheduler time savings Massage 1.5 to 2 hours - Scheduler time savings (888) [email protected] page 7

8 passengers with just 290 routes as opposed to the 335 the competitor s system required. In addition to immediate cost-saving demonstrations, ADEPT was clearly the better customer-oriented solution, taking the competitor s 73 waitlisted trips and dwindling it down to six. Not only did ADEPT accommodate Boston area riders better but it significantly reduced the amount of manual rework the dispatchers had to address, saving operational time and money. Further reductions in fuel demand were instantly proven as miles per trip dwindled by over ten percent and the productivity of trips per vehicle hour improved by over 20 percent. ADEPT increases productivity, improves customer satisfaction and significantly reduces manual scheduling and associated operational costs while minimizing waitlisted vehicles. CONCLUSION ADEPT enables the expertise of each agency to inform the design and application of its respective scheduling engine to execute the smartest routes possible based on its specific priorities. Not only does ADEPT tailor itself to best accommodate the characteristic of each agency and region but in so doing eliminates hours of rework and unnecessary operational expenses. Ultimately with ADEPT, the agency is in control: it is their rules and policies, married with StrataGen s extensive agency best practice knowledge and experience. ADEPT enables the expertise of each agency to inform the design and application of its respective scheduling engine to execute the smartest routes possible based on its specific priorities. ADEPT works for the most demanding transit agencies in the world, large or small, because no other routing and scheduling solution can demonstrate its level of allencompassing efficiency gains, much less on any scale. Case by case, ADEPT increases productivity, improves customer satisfaction and significantly reduces manual scheduling and associated operational costs while minimizing waitlisted vehicles. WHY STRATAGEN StrataGen s integrated hardware and software transit solutions effectively handle between 30 and 30,000 trips per day. Many of our customers achieve at least 15-20% efficiency gains when switching from competitive systems, and up to 70% when replacing traditional pen and paper or spreadsheet scheduling. ABOUT STRATAGEN StrataGen Systems, Inc. is the global leader in smart scheduling solutions for paratransit, demand response, and non-emergency medical transportation. By applying your schedulers and dispatchers knowledge and best practices, StrataGen provides the most flexible solution to help you plan smarter schedules and optimize day-of-service operations. With deep visibility into your operation s performance, you can drive maximum efficiency and quality of service. Aligned with Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) standards and with solutions built on an open architecture, StrataGen is committed to helping you achieve your goals by offering a comprehensive solution based on deep expertise and understanding of transit operations. The StrataGen team is dedicated to building a partnership with you for your longterm success. (888) [email protected] page 8