Witten said they once ran an on-time performance report and saw
there were a lot of early departures because one driver was leaving his
last post four minutes early.
"I took it to the operations manager, and it was a coaching
opportunity,” he said. “We are able to understand why things
are happening.”
Big Data paves the way for BT to go digital
for a particular stop on a particular day will be different from the
following day or even week. To accomplish this, "you need to have a
lot of good data on a trip-by-trip, day-by-day basis," Witten said.
Improving customer service and sussing out the full story
Big data also helps BT improve customer service and provide
explanations for customer complaints.
"Are you going to be able to depend on a story or the truth?” Witten
said. “If you don't have data, you have to rely on 'I think,' or 'I heard'.
Now we can say 'This is really happening.’”
For example, customer service may receive a complaint about a
pass-by when a bus is full. Administrators would check to see if there
were recorded pass-bys at the reported stop. For BT, one question
often leads to another. The administrator would then dig deeper to
see if there were more pass-bys reported in the last several weeks than
the last few years, to see if there was a trend emerging.
95 percent of BT users have mobile devices, according to their last
ridership survey. Digitally-savvy riders galvanized BT to invest in a
texting service and real-time bus map.
"We've been ahead of the curve in giving our customers what they
want,” Witten said. “We haven't had printed timetables in over six
years. Everything is in our app or on our website. Our customers
know where to get the data."
A passenger information system allows BT to make changes to their
schedule without reprinting.
Riders can text their stop number and receive a text back with
routes servicing that stop and times. So far this year, they have
received an average of 2,500 text inquiries a day versus only 30 to 40
voice calls a day.
Witten said he expects the transit rider of the next 10 years
expects to manage most of their daily responsibilities through
a mobile device. Transit is heading down a new path with data
and digitization.
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