Headquartered in Monticello, Illinois, Piatt County Public Transportation (Piattran) is a demand-response operation whose mission is to serve all the public transportation needs in the largely rural Piatt County area. Established in 1988, Piattran provides door-to-door service with a fleet of paratransit buses and smaller vehicles.

Assessing their operations, Piattran decided that to be efficient they needed new processes. As Finance Manager Tia Blakeman explains, “We were looking for a comprehensive paratransit management software and MDT solution to streamline every point of our operation—we needed it all.”

With a mandate to provide the most economical and eco-friendly service possible, Piattran needs to operate at peak efficiency to provide superior customer service to their riders. In order to meet these needs, Piattran selected a joint technology solution from CTS Software and Mentor Engineering.

Piattran chose CTS Software to supply Trip Master Enterprise Edition (TMEE) paratransit management software. TMEE provides a complete package of routing, scheduling and reporting functionality. Seamlessly integrated with TMEE and installed in each vehicle are Mentor Ranger® rugged mobile computers. The joint solution allows Piattran to easily make on-the-fly schedule changes and collect accurate data for operational planning, while providing greater flexibility in all areas of their operation.

With the new CTS/Mentor system, dispatchers always know where each vehicle is and how many seats are available, making it easy to rearrange and update the schedule in real-time without needing to use the radio, since the ride details automatically appear on the driver’s Ranger. Piattran is also able to complete more rides each day. “We are able to meet nearly all of the same day requests that we get,” says Blakeman. “Before, we always tried to accommodate same day requests but seeing where they could fit into the schedule could be difficult. Now we have the necessary knowledge to easily see where the most effective placement will be and seat almost every request that comes in.”

With their new technology in place, Piattran is looking forward to the future. “We are so happy with the system,” says Blakeman. “It has solved all of the functional problems that took so much of our time and effort. The ease of scheduling and improvement in communications with our drivers was imperative for what we do and the reporting and billing components are fantastic. Now all of the tools that our staff need to effectively get the job done are right there.”