As Demand-Responsive Transport services continue to spread across the United Kingdom, it is crucial to think strategically about their future to ensure long-term sustainability. With funding often limited, finding innovative ways to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of DRT schemes is essential. This includes optimising fleet management, streamlining call centre operations, and improving financial performance to reduce costs and increase service reliability.
Spare envisions a future where owning a car is optional, and getting around is sustainable, convenient and affordable for everyone. They leverage artificial intelligence and advanced data analytics to optimise routes, predict demand, and improve the passenger experience. Additionally, Spare’s innovative approach to service commingling — integrating various transportation services into a unified network — enhances resource utilisation and expands service reach.
At TRANSPORT Smart Class, London & South East England 2024, General Manager EMEA, Antoine Lunet showcased how cutting-edge technologies, like AI-driven fleet management and integrated service operations, empower DRT providers to break through current limitations, ensuring these schemes survive and thrive in the coming years.
Last year, Spare and Uber announced a transformative partnership that integrates Spare’s cloud-based on-demand transit platform with Uber’s extensive driver network. This collaboration empowers transit agencies to enhance microtransit and paratransit services using Uber’s network.
Adrian Ulisse, Global Transit Partnerships Lead at Uber, joined Antoine at the podium and also contributed his extensive experience across the smart mobility sector to the roundtable sessions that followed the presentations and Q&As.
Presentation highlights:
- What is your system portfolio and how are you organised?
- What is your most complex mobility solution today?
- Where is it in operation? How many trips does it handle? How many transport products does it handle?
- What other mobility solutions do you have?
- Do you have experience with carpooling products, including integration with these from more traditional DRT systems?
- Do you have experience with integrating DRT into regular route traffic?
- Do you have experience with Dial-a-Ride?
- How many trips do you handle annually?
- How are these trips distributed across different types of transport?
- Spare by numbers – 32k Trips/day; 20k Active vehicles/day; +97% OTP across Paratransit services; 94% of partners have experienced PPVH growth within 6 months; +40% Successful implementations; +50% Trips booked through API; +200 Agencies worldwide; 15 million total boardings;
- Pioneering the world’s most innovative transit solutions e.g. PSTA, DART, CapMetro;
- Eligibility Management; Spare Rider App & Web Portal; Driver App; Operations & Analytics;
- On a Platform level; On a Fleet level;
- Breaking through the limit of your DRT Platform…
- Rider Experience – Relentless focus on providing the best rider experience; Integration of multiple modes of transit, providing accessibility for all riders; Iteration and continuous improvement of product:
- Automate and Integrate – Fully integrated multimodal trip planning, booking and payment, available as app and web app; Bring in your GTFS and GTFS-RT feeds, providing multimodal capabilities and real-time fixed route data; Bring microtransit services to 3rd party trip planning tools with Spare Open API and GTFS-Flex feed export;
- GOPASS – A multimodal end 2 end Integration – Trip Planning; Booking Confirmation; Purchase; Trip Validation; Driver Approaching; End of Trip;
- Automate and Integrate – AI Voice; Ticketing; Spare Flow;
- Enable customers to book, cancel, and get ETAs over the phone – AI Voice complements your call centre operations with an automated agent that makes checking ETAs, booking and cancelling rides easy
- Fleet-sharing algorithm and Commingling – Spare’s advanced, shared-ride capability is used to re-invest existing resources back into your transit program: One fleet, many services; Increase fleet productivity and passenger per vehicle hour; Reduce operating costs by allocating resources effectively; On Demand and Paratransit;
- Multi-Provider and Carpooling ready – Spare’s patented Open Fleets technology provides the tools to connect with multiple dedicated and non-dedicated fleet providers, including being AV ready…
- Reduce Operational costs – Less vehicle purchase, no deadhead km or idle times;
- Improve user experience – Low wait times, wider coverage, longer service hours;
- Increase Ridership – Serve those trips that you are currently rejecting;
- Open Fleets in West Sussex – West Sussex County Council, Uber, Nabogo, Local Taxis (ex. MTI, iCabbi, etc), May;
- 1 Million+ Trips completed on Open Fleets;
- Proven at Scale…
- DART – Dallas, TX – The World’s Largest Microtransit Service, Powered by Spare:
- Launched in 2019, with contract recently renewed until 2032;
- Key Innovations: MaaS App Integration (GoPass) – A single app that allows users to plan, book and pay for their trips over multiple modes; Comprehensive first mile, last mile service planning – Led by internal transit planning team; Integrating Dedicated and Non-dedicated Fleets through Spare Open Fleets technology – Accommodating surges in demand while balancing wait time;
- Key Stats – 185k Trips Per Month; 97% Rider satisfaction rating (GoLink passengers “love it”); Today, the average cost per trip is $13 and “we’ve continuously seen the cost/trip go down (“DART loves it”); 9 min Median wait time; service began with 4 zones and grew to 40, making it the largest on-demand service in the world (“go from pilot to scale with a proven playbook – begin with one or a few zones and growing organically”); 700 Square miles; LA’s service zones are similar to the scalable growth plan that was implemented in Dallas for GoLink, and the DART use case is also relevant to the UK
If you satisfy our regular delegate qualification criteria but were unable to join us in London on October 10th for the live in-person event at Greencoat Place Conference Centre, CLICK HERE and complete the short “Download form” (located at the bottom of the post) to receive a unique link enabling free access to the presentation video recordings and slides (including the film footage and slides from Antoine and Adrian’s initial presentation).
Those qualifying to receive the rich presentation content from this event include commissioning, procurement, trialling, partnering and policy leads, senior influencers, strategic decision makers, programme managers and planners from local authorities (e.g. city, borough, metropolitan, district and county councils); public transport operators; regional transport partnerships, sub-regional transport bodies, combined authorities, integrated transport authorities and passenger transport executives; highways authorities and road operators; government and supporting national transport agencies; non-governmental organisations; fleet operators, parking operators, prime contractors etc.
