RideCo technology helping to improve dispatch experience for transit operations

On March 11, RideCo Director of Solutions Engineering Sam Haas and Senior Product Manager John McElroy hosted a webinar to discuss the role the company is playing in improving the experience for dispatchers in the public transit industry. 

According to Haas, dispatchers play four roles for transit agencies: 

1. Protect service integrity. 
2. Resolve field issues. 
3. Manage rider and driver communications. 
4. Handle customer service beyond tips.  

Haas explains that when a vehicle breaks down and can no longer operate service, dispatchers are manually rebuilding schedules by hand, creating what can be a stressful environment while McElroy says a typical dispatch room is loud, filled with lots of screens and can be very overwhelming for workers. 

“It’s not a people problem. It’s a tool-oporatering problem,” McElroy said. 

While agencies are starting to implement advanced scheduling technology in their dispatch rooms, not all agencies have this technology. Without the technology, RideCo calls these dispatch rooms “legacy” rooms. In this setup, Haas notes the dispatcher is the “integrated layer” between the dispatcher and the driver/rider, as they are the ones that are connecting scheduling, GPS, rider information and driver communication by flipping between systems and holding all of the information in their heads.  

According to Haas, every disruption requires a human to diagnose, find a fix, execute the fix and communicate the fix to everyone involved.The more demand grows, so does the workload. Haas says there are three pain points of legacy dispatch offices: 

1. Agency operations impact: Dispatchers are stuck reacting to problems instead of proactively managing the service. Task switching and phone-based coordination slows down resolutions. Without real-time visibility, efficiency gains are left on the table. 
2. Customer experience impact: Riders aren’t informed about changes in real time. When disruptions are not handled quickly, the rider experience suffers.  
3. Leadership/C-suite board impact: Poorly managed disruptions hurt on-time performance and increased complaints. Without visibility into dispatcher actions or driver behavior, it’s difficult to track root causes. Dispatcher burnout from high stress leads to high turnover and increased training costs. 

“This is one of the hardest jobs in transit,” Haas said. “To do this job, sometimes you need eight arms, with six of those arms holding phones.” 

Agencies that leverage management platforms with more advanced technology can modernize dispatch offices. This can lead to a dispatch office that is: 

1. Proactive: Adjusts routes and schedules before problems reach dispatch.  
2. Informed: System elevates all rides and routes all the time. 
3. Coordinated: Moves all rides and fills gaps without dispatchers being involved. 
4. Focused: Dispatchers manage exceptions, not the entire schedule. 

RideCo uses Solver technology, which allows its platform to continuously optimize rides in real time by shifting bookings even after they have been booked. 

“The more data is displayed for a dispatcher, the easier the dispatcher can talk to the driver without having to look things up,” McElroy said. 

As part of the technology, Haas notes modern dispatch offices use self-service rider tools that help with same-day booking, provide self-booking tools and give SMS notifications to riders to keep them informed and to keep calls low for dispatchers.  

“The type of person that is needed to be a dispatcher in a current [legacy] dispatch room has to have had experience,” Haas said. “In a modern dispatch office, you’re not having to hold all those policies in your head, so that hiring pool could become wider.”