Paiva added that the system is also valuable for decision support in the event of systemwide events or restrictions . “ When we must limit the numbers of passengers per bus , it creates the potential for riders to be ‘ left behind ’ at busy stops ,” he said . “ When we have completed the full system upgrade , we can see these situations developing and quickly deploy another vehicle to follow an at-capacity bus . It will really help our riders get from Point A to Point B with minimal delays .” Aragon agreed that Palm Trans ’ planning department will see many measurable benefits from the system , with upgraded abilities to decipher fleet usage , ridership , and business intelligence data . “ When it comes to performance management , Palm Tran has a sweeping ability to track key performance indicators ( KPI ) and to push those KPIs directly to the Board ," Aragon said . " A new level of system oversight is now possible .” The system ’ s vehicle health monitoring allows Palm Tran to access dynamic information from the fleet faster than ever before . Using myAvail , the agency proactively maintains its fleet by monitoring realtime bus status , thus reducing road calls , and increasing efficiency for the maintenance department .
Mobile Trip Planning Riders interface with the system via a Palm Tran-branded myAvail app as well as an SMS service . The app provides riders with trip planning enhanced by Google search , quick access to service alerts , integrated email and SMS notifications , navigation to the nearest stops , real-time graphical bus tracking , and vehicle capacities . Paiva worked with Avail to ensure that the app was branded specifically for Palm Tran , as opposed to an app featuring many other agencies . “ I thought it was important to use an app specifically for Palm Beach County ,” Paiva said . “ It is easier for our riders to find it on the Apple or Google Play stores , and they do not need to navigate around other agencies in the same app . It does the job we want , without additional items which we do not need .”
Training , Training , Training As part of the project , Avail created an enhanced training plan for Palm Tran . “ We specialized this training plan for the agency , which will really catapult Palm Tran to the next level of understanding its incoming data ,” said David Mugica , director of business development at Avail Technologies . The training plan , Mugica said , is aimed at utilizing each component of myAvail to its fullest advantage – from the operator to operations , marketing , customer service , training , and the maintenance department .
16 | BUSRIDE . COM | AUG / SEPT 2021