Your passengers expect to be able to plan their journeys online, be able to get updates when there are alterations and know when "their" transport .is going to arrive. And the more they travel with other transit providers, be it airlines, overseas transit companies and other public transport providers the higher standard they expect. However, you have a tight budget and it there's only so much you can build, rollout and upgrade.
Thankfully, the mobile internet is offering you a new cost effective solution. It is rare to find someone now who doesn't have an internet connected mobile phone and AddTransit enables you to remove the need for proprietary transit information hardware by providing the same information, ready for display on your passenger's phones.
Customers used to plan their trips using paper based schedules, and then they used call centres and more recently custom built software on transit provider's websites. However, the variety of potential journeys, cost to serve and IT costs to build, maintain and stay current can really challenge an organisation. So how can customers plan their trips anywhere, at any time and using any device?
The solution now for routes and schedules is the GTFS (General Transit Format Specification). By putting your route and schedules into the GTFS format, it enables major software companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and mobile transit app providers to display your schedules for you. The GTFS format was developed because current online schedules and proprietary journey planners cannot be understood by these companies. AddTransit can help you translate your routes and schedules into the GTFS format, so that your customers can use world class services to plan their trips.
Commuters don't like delays, but they are much happier if they can stay informed and adjust their trips to allow for them. By updating your customers if there are alterations due to technical issues, medical incidents, strikes or weather related challenges, it strengthens the customer's faith in your brand while allowing your staff to focus on resolving the incident.
All passengers like it when their bus, train, tram or ferry finally comes into view. They know their trip is imminent and the wait time is now measurable. Enabling your passengers to track Vehicle Positions on online maps reassures them sooner, than your service is running to plan and if there is a delay, for them to make alternative arrangements. You can use the AddTransit GPS tracking mobile app or your existing on-board GPS hardware combined with the AddTransit API to enable vehicle tracking for your customers.
