Wynbus & The Routing Company launch transit that moves with you in The Grove Estate, Tarneit Victoria

` Print Embargo to 11:59pm Friday 16 April 

Wynbus & The Routing Company launch transit that moves with you in The Grove Estate, Tarneit Victoria

Launch of on-demand shared public transport pilot 

Launch Event - The Grove Estate on-demand shuttle

Saturday, 17 April, 2021,

The Grove Estate Sales Centre - 180 Davis road, Tarneit VIC 3029

Time 10 - 11 AM 

Monday 19th April will see the launch of Victoria’s first community based on-demand shared public transit shuttle service. Operating in Wyndham City, in Melbourne’s west in the suburb of Tarneit, the six-week pilot will provide shared on-demand shuttle rides facilitated by industry leading technology born out of MIT. 

Wynbus, a not for profit organisation based in the Wyndham City region has partnered with The Routing Company to deliver the on-demand shared transit pilot. Passengers will use The Routing Company’s Pingo transport app to book rides on the service.  Funding to develop the service has been generously provided by Frasers Property. 

The Routing Company is led by Australian CEO James Cox, who launched UberX in Sydney and was part of the team that built and launched the UberPOOL product globally.  Video message from James Cox here

“This technology gives public transit a tool they’ve never had to solve on-demand transit economically for the first time while complementing their fixed route network. The future of public transit involves smaller shared shuttles, with no set routes or timetables, serving the needs of the community by providing cost effective door to door services.” Said Mr Cox. 

The pilot will operate within a defined service area, in Tarneit. The service area, covering the  Grove Estate development is yet to be properly serviced by public busses, cutting the community off to connections to the train station and other central points. 

The on-demand pilot hopes to capture the interest of local residents connecting to train services at the Tarneit train station as part of their morning and evening commute replacing use of personal cars and encouraging more local residents to use public transport. 

The pilot will assess demand in the area for public transit services and test the latest in on-demand routing technology, facilitating a fully automated door-to-door service with no set routes or timetables.

Consumers download the Pingo app for free from the app store (or via the link on Wynbus website),  create a profile, and then they can request a ride from and to anywhere within the defined service area, just like they would a taxi or rideshare service.

The service will be operated with 10 seat shuttles, permitting  a maximum of 6 passengers at any given time to adhere to Covid safe recommendations. 

Approved transport operator Local Transit has been contracted by Wynbus to provide the accredited and insured drivers and vehicles.

Service snapshot: 

Location: The Grove Estate, Tarneit Victoria - see map for area of operationDates of Operation - Starts Monday 19 April and concludes Friday 28th May

Days: Monday to Friday (not operating on public holidays) 

Times: 7:00am - 09:00 am  - last ride  requested by 08:59am - last drop off by 09:30am 5:00pm - 7:00pm -  last ride requested by 06:59pm with last drop off by 7::30pm 

Cost: AU $2 (+GST) per trip via the Pingo app. TRC provides rider payment processing via a secure payment processing Partner. All payments details are securely held by the payment processing partner 

Fleet Partner: PTV approved provider Local Transit have been contracted by Wynbus to provide the vehicles and accredited drivers

Vehicles: Passengers will be riding in a 10 seater shuttle however passenger capacity will be capped at 6 to meet Covid Safety requirements.

Wheelchair access: Vehicles will have wheelchair access. 

Customer service and help:  Email  - gthelp@wynbus.org.au

Rated rides:

After each trip, Pingo riders can leave feedback on their experience and rate their ride on a scale of 1 to 5 stars.

Safe, clean rides:

Rides are provided by fleet operator local transit. All vehicles meet required standards and all drivers are accredited by the PTV Victoria. All vehicles are insured per the requirements.  All drivers have undergone the required screening and licencing checks per the PTV requirements. 

Covid Safe ; Riders are asked to observe Covid safe requirements per the Passenger Transport Victoria Guidelines. These are subject to change and riders are asked to check these requirements.  

Masks are required to ride. Riders are asked to wear a mask at all times for their safety and those of the drivers and other riders. Riders who do not wear a mask or who refuse to wear a mask will not be permitted to use the service. 

Video message from James Cox here

The Routing Company CEO, James Cox said, 

“We are extremely pleased to partner with Wynbus to launch a pilot of on-demand shuttles using our Pingo rider app and world-class routing technology.” 

“This technology gives public transit a tool they’ve never had to solve on-demand transit economically for the first time while complementing their fixed route network. The future of public transit involves smaller shared shuttles, with no set routes or timetables, serving the needs of the community by providing cost effective door to door services. “

“Our routing technology facilitates multiple pick-ups and drop offs in shared shuttles without long delays or service disruptions.“

“When compared with the status quo of large expensive busses servicing set timetables and routes, the business case for public transport improves dramatically by using this state of the art routing technology and smaller more environmentally friendly vehicles. By using The Routing Company’s technology governments could be saving money and adding more public transport services while complementing their existing fixed route networks.  The customer experience of an on-demand door to door service is also far more attractive to passengers in many situations.” 

“We have been working with Wynbus on a proposal for a larger pilot covering a broader area in Wyndham City and hope this smaller pilot in the Grove Estate is the first step toward securing support from all levels of government for a more extensive pilot of on-demand services .” 

The Routing Company CEO Mr James Cox will be available for interviews via video conferencing. Pre-recorded footage of James Cox available here

To arrange an interview,  or for more information please contact Brad Kitschke, Brad@theroutingcompany.com or 0403 809 630 

Background

Frasers Property 

Frasers Property is a leading property developer that has spearheaded growth in the Grove Estate.  Frasers property has provided funding support to Wynbus to allow it to research, plan and manage and oversee the six week on-demand pilot.. 

Wynbus.

Wynbus is a social enterprise established to provide affordable and inclusive on-demand mobility in the City of Wyndham,Victoria with a specific focus on ensuring that the needs of the disadvantaged and disabled are met. Wynbus seeks to provide on-demand public transport in new growth areas and servicing unmet demand. Wynbus seeks to invest its revenues into providing door-to-door shuttles for the people of Wyndham, in particular the disabled, disadvantaged, elderly and infirm and citizens who have traditionally found it hard to access public transit services. Between August and October of 2019, Wynbus operated an initial trial of shared shuttle services in the suburb of Point Cook. 

The Routing Company. 

The Routing Company is a transport technology company that partners with cities and other mobility providers to power the future of public transit. TRC’s proprietary technology – born out of a groundbreaking 2017 MIT study – powers an easy-to-use platform that helps cities and other transit providers solve the problem of how to deliver reliable, accessible on-demand transit sustainably and at scale. The Routing Company raised $5m from The Engine in December 2020.

The Routing Company has developed industry-leading technology and a routing engine that overcomes the complexities of calculating multiple pickups and drop-offs in shared vehicles, whilst guaranteeing a consumer certainty of arrival time while allowing fleet operators to achieve optimal efficiency.  

Our technology,  inspired by several years of research at  the world renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has solved a problem that other routing engines still struggle to overcome -  how to deliver an effective and efficient ride-sharing solution with multiple pick-ups and drop offs.  The underlying mathematics developed by The Routing Company's co-founders enables the technology to handle 15+ individual pick up and drop offs, whilst delivering fleet efficiency and certainly to customers.  

To do this, the real-time routing engine constantly recalculates the optimal route for each vehicle on the platform. This allows the fleet provider to operate the services with the lowest number of vehicles needed to serve an existing rider base and increase the geographic area those vehicles can serve effectively.  In the long term, this means investment in smaller, more environmentally friendly fleets that are more cost efficient to operate which will allow a greater number of services for the same outlay. 

The Routing Company has provided its Pingo app, routing software and technology to this trial. The Routing Company has launched similar on-demand services in the United States and Europe, with the Grove Estate Trial being the first for the market leading technology in Australia. 

More services for Wyndham City 

Wynbus has been working with The Routing Company for more than six months with the aim of developing and delivering a larger pilot of on-demand shared public transit services in the broader Wyndham City region for  a period of 3 months. Proposals for the service have been presented to Local, State and Federal Government along with local stakeholders and the business community.   This initial pilot on the Grove Estate is an important first-step toward proving the need for this service and securing support for a larger service operating in the broader City of Wyndham.   A copy of the proposal for the broader pilot can be downloaded from the Wynbus Website.