The Routing Company (TRC) announced a powerful suite of upgrades to its Pingo Access product.

The enhancements introduce nine new features, designed to significantly elevate the experience for dispatchers and call center reservationists, while further solidifying Pingo as the highest-rated paratransit platform on the market.

Pingo’s New Features

With features such as round-trip bookings, rider saved addresses, quiet hours, and dispatch-to-driver communication, the upgrades deliver tangible benefits that simplify complex processes, streamline operations, and improve the quality of service for paratransit systems.

"We’re pushing the boundaries of what transit technology can do, particularly in how we create meaningful experiences for all users," said James Cox, CEO, TRC. "Paratransit is one of the most complex and critical elements of public transit, and we’re committed to ensuring that the user experience for riders, reservationists, and dispatchers is nothing short of exceptional. As we continue to invest in our platform, we’re excited about the role we play in improving the quality of life for communities that depend on accessible and equitable transit."

Six User-Centric Features

The latest enhancements focus on reducing friction and increasing convenience for call center reservationists. Highlights include:

• Smart Round Trips: Simplifying round-trip bookings to just two clicks, enabling faster scheduling for busy agents.

• Rider Saved Addresses: Agents can now save commonly used addresses and access them with a single click during the booking process, improving booking speed and accuracy.

• Saved Notification Preferences: Riders can store their preferred notification methods, reducing manual data entry for agents.

• Quiet Hours: A feature to mute non-urgent notifications during designated hours, optimizing productivity and rider experience.

• Custom Subscriptions: Riders can pre-schedule recurring trips, freeing up call center agents from handling repetitive booking requests.

• Persistent Driver Notes: Easily accessible notes allow drivers to understand riders’ needs on every trip, ensuring personalized service.

Redefining the Dispatcher Experience

In tandem, the remaining three upgrades deliver critical enhancements for dispatchers, addressing the complex needs of modern transit systems:

• Instant Service Alerts: Real-time notifications sent through the Ride Pingo app keep riders informed of service disruptions, leveraging the latest in GTFS Service Alerts.

• Priority Pickup Reordering: More than just reassigning trips, dispatchers can now customize the order of pickups and drop-offs on a manifest. These custom orders are preserved even when the global optimizer kicks in.

• Dispatch-to-Driver Communication: A two-way communication tool that allows dispatchers and drivers to seamlessly share texts, images, and voice notes, making coordination faster and more effective.

Today’s upgrade further advances TRC’s One Transit operating model, where seamless integration of transit modes create a truly unified transit system that is accessible and equitable for all riders.

The integration of two or more transit modes not only enhances operational efficiency, but it also represents a significant move towards inclusive public transportation by treating all riders as equals — whether they’re using paratransit, microtransit, or fixed routes.