Case Study: Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC)

PRTC Improves On-time Performance, Customer Service and Security

"Our on-time performance has definitely improved, thanks largely to Air-Trak."

- PRTC Planning and Operations Director Eric Marx

The Organization

Located in Virginia about 25 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC) provides a commuter bus service called OmniRide that operates along the busy I-95 and I-66 corridors. OmniRide connects commuters with destinations in and around the District of Columbia as well as Northern Virginia Metrorail Stations.

PRTC's OmniRide commuter bus fleet includes over 80 vehicles that operate during the peak service hours of 4am - 9am and 3pm - 8pm, traveling over some of the nation's most congested roads during the heaviest traffic times.

The Challenge: Improve On-time Performance, Service and Security

As a subsidized agency, PRTC needs to operate as efficiently as possible, making the most of its resources within a controlled budget. But the organization also needs to continually expand its services to accommodate a rapidly growing base of transit riders in Northern Virginia.

PRTC wanted to achieve these goals without compromising the quality of service. In fact, it sought to improve its on-time performance while meeting the demands of increased ridership.

Facing the risks and realities of Washington D.C. in the post-9/11 era, PRTC also wanted to ensure the safety and security of its OmniRide fleet, operators and passengers.

The Solution: Air-Trak Location, Tracking and Communications

PRTC began to evaluate GPS-based solutions soon after they became widely available from wireless carriers. In 2003, they selected the Air-Trak system running on Nextel® i58sr phones. According to PRTC Director of Planning and Operations Eric Marx, "We were looking for fairly robust capabilities and Air-Trak seemed to have the best features and ease of use."

The phones were deployed on all of the vehicles in the OmniRide fleet, providing real-time location, tracking and communications from bus operators to the Dispatch Center, customer service reps and other PRTC departments.

The Results: Better Scheduling, Service and Security

Improvements in On-time Performance

Improving OmniRide's on-time performance requires a combination of proactive, reactive and predictive measures at several stages, from route planning to dispatch to quality assurance. Using Air-Trak's location and tracking capabilities, PRTC is now able to capture and review data about each vehicle and route to isolate and address chronic problems.

"The route planning benefits are huge," says Marx. "Now we have accurate historical data that helps us improve our on-time performance. We can see why a certain bus is always running late, whether it's because of traffic patterns or a need for more operator training or some other factor."

Rapid Dispatch Decisions

The Dispatch Center also relies on Air-Trak location data to monitor the status of buses in real time and react quickly.

"When we have an incident, whether it's a traffic problem or inclement weather, we're able to look at the general area, see what other buses are nearby and recover quickly.

In the past, we had to call each individual bus," explains Doris Lookabill, manager of PRTC dispatch and customer service.

The afternoon is the most critical time for the OmniRide commuter service, with buses deadheading into the D.C. area and then returning again, 25 miles down I-95, for a second trip.

"With Air-Trak, our dispatchers can see if one bus is running late and quickly leapfrog or juggle other buses around. We can redeploy a bunch of vehicles all at once."

PRTC is also testing a new advanced geofencing feature from Air-Trak that will enable them to designate specific time windows for specific locations, with an automatic alert if a bus fails to arrive within that time frame.

"We're about to make the leap from real-time reporting to a predictive capability, and that's going to be another huge improvement," says Marx.

More Responsive Customer Service

In addition to aiding dispatchers, Air-Trak helps PRTC deliver better customer service by providing current and accurate information about bus locations.

"When you have people standing outside in inclement weather and they call you to find out where their bus is, you want to be able to give them the right answer, quickly. With Air-Trak, we can easily check on a bus location and relay that to our customers along with other information," says Lookabill.

"For example, if there's an accident on I-95, we can tell them whether or not the bus made it past the accident. This helps the customer know whether they should wait for the bus, or possibly make other arrangements."

Greater Safety and Security

Eric Marx will never forget the events of September 11, 2001. Carrying thousands of passengers to and from locations like the Pentagon, the State Department and Capitol Hill suddenly became a monumental task.

"There were various rumors about what was hit and what might happen, so we had to put our emergency plan into effect and pump as many buses in there as quickly as possible. There was a lot of uncertainty.

"For days and weeks after that, because of the proximity of the Pentagon to the Interstate, no one could go near there. The HOV lanes were chaotic and everything was being re-routed onto local streets.

"We had to rely on two-way communications that were completely manual. There was no way to keep an eye on everything that was happening.

"Since then, with the introduction of Air-Trak and other technological improvements, we have a pretty good picture of what's going on across the entire region."