Our 5M software game is changing, but don’t take our word for it.
“The 5M paratransit reservations, scheduling, and dispatching system used by four of our contractors has stabilized and improved performance over the past year. At a time when hiring drivers has been extremely challenging, 5M seamlessly integrates taxi subcontractors with employee drivers and gives dispatchers modern tools to be more efficient The two contractors using 5M provide more than 5,000 weekday passenger trips and in 2017 achieved an on-time performance of 91.7% in the challenging Los Angeles area.”
ACCESS SERVICES
Access Services
Access Services (Access) is the designated agency in Los Angeles County for coordinating and providing ADA complementary paratransit services on behalf of 45 member municipalities and public transit agencies. Originally created in 1994 as a private, non-profit company, it is now a public agency.
Access Paratransit has the second largest ADA paratransit ridership in the US. Over four million ADA paratransit trips are served annually, with an average of between 11,000 and 12,000 passenger trips per weekday, over a vast service area of 1,325 square miles. Because the ADA paratransit area is so large, it has been divided up into six regions, four in the LA Basin. The service fleet consists of 848 dedicated vehicles plus approximately 1,300 “ADA-paratransit-certified” taxicabs operated in semi-dedicated and non-dedicated fashion.
GLOBAL PARATRANSIT
Global Paratransit, Inc
Global Paratransit, Inc. (GPI) is one of our newest 5M users, switching to 5M in January 2019. GPI serves the Access Services’ Southern region, which encompasses 378 square miles and most of southern Los Angeles County. The Southern region also extends into Orange County to Disneyland in Anaheim. GPI operates all functions out of its Gardena facility, with a fleet of over 250 vehicles and via taxi subcontractors, noting that its primary taxi subcontractor has co-located some of its dispatchers at Global’s operations facility. In FY 2018, Global served 1.09 million trips, 57% of which were served by taxi subcontractors. See also the article about GPI in our What’s New tab.
“What a god-send 5M has been! Booking is a breeze, especially with access to more accurate location data. Scheduling is so much better – no more zigzagging routes. And word has gotten out about this and we actually have had some former drivers return to us now that the routes make sense. Our productivity and on time performance have both improved. And get this: one of our long time dispatchers couldn’t get over the dispatching tools and alerts that 5M provides. He told me the 5M was reading his mind, anticipating problems, automatically providing solutions and giving more accurate ETAs. And I can also tell you that the transition to 5M was flawless in part because of the phased approach used, but in large part due to the TSS trainers, who worked tirelessly to train my staff in record time. Additional kudos to the TSS staff who tuned the scheduling algorithms and helped set up the parameters to perfection. What a difference 5M has made!”
“The 5M system is phenomenal. I learned it in about an hour or two. With 5M, it’s all there at the click of a button. It helps us a lot with our hold time, and I can run a report on everything. One of my favorite reports is the GPS, so I can see exactly what the driver did. It will show you exactly what you need to know.”
SAN GABRIEL TRANSIT
San Gabriel Transit
San Gabriel Transit (SGT) serves the eastern region of the Access Services’ paratransit system and has been using 5M since 2007. At approximately 394 square miles and encompassing eastern Los Angeles County, the service area is the largest Access region by area. In 2016, SGT served over 915,000 trips, second most of any Access contractor. Fifty-three percent of these trips were served by taxi subcontractors.
SGT’s employee-operated fleet consists of over 200 agency- and contractor-owned vehicles. Through taxi subcontractors, SGT uses an additional 400 independent contractor resources—all certified to service ADA trips. SGT has a second, separate contract with Access Services to schedule and transport riders for eligibility trips throughout Los Angeles County, served mostly by dedicated vehicles operated separately from SGT’s ADA paratransit service.
CALIFORNIA TRANSIT
California Transit
Since 2007, California Transit, Inc. (CTI) has served Access Services’ west central region, an area totaling 119 square miles. The area includes downtown Los Angeles, several central Los Angeles neighborhoods, and neighborhoods and municipalities in the Westside. In 2016, CTI served over 502,000 trips, ranking fourth among the Access paratransit contractors. CTI’s taxi subcontractors served approximately 44 percent of these trips.
CTI’s operations and dispatch facility are located near downtown Los Angeles. Their fleet consists of 113 Access-owned vehicles and five vehicles owned by CTI. Like SGT, CTI uses multiple taxi contractors, collectively supplying 81 certified taxis.
“There is a report on 5M that I’m able to run, where I can see the cancellations and standing-time orders. So let’s say that a client has been canceling for the last two weeks, I’m able to see how many times they’ve canceled and can call them to see if they went on vacation or if they want to permanently cancel, so we can use those resources where needed.”
Benefits of 5M
Fully Customizable Solution
Effective mixed-Fleet Management
Accessible User Training
Increased Reliability
Reduced Call and Hold Times
Improved Labor Efficiency
Easy Address Verification
Responsive Customer Support
Detailed Historical Trip Information
What Our Customers Like
TSS maintains an ongoing dialogue with our customers to gauge the success of our product in their operations. Our customers have shared their favorite 5M features, and how they impact service performance:
Reduced Call and Hold Times
5M allows reservation agents to offer two pick-up times before or after the requested pick-up time for passenger convenience. Our Match-Balance algorithm eliminates the need to pre-schedule the trip to a run at the time of booking. These features minimize call and hold times.
Easy Address Verification
Reservation agents use 5M’s on-screen map to confirm nearby cross streets if needed, and identify a business name if applicable. High trip generator sites are easily set up and utilized in the system, identifying the exact parking space for preferred pick-up locations, increasing accuracy and productivity.
Effective Mixed-Fleet Management
5M is ideal for services using a mix of in-house and subcontracted fleet resources. Our software simultaneously creates runs for employee drivers, taxi/TNC drivers who request runs in advance, and taxi/TNC drivers who log into the system on the fly.
Increased Productivity
5M proactively alerts dispatchers when drivers are absent or late, or other factors that would impact service reliability. The system also provides alerts that make it easy to reassign potentially late or unassigned trips to other runs or taxi providers.
Improved Labor Efficiency
The tools comprised within the 5M system simplify and reduce the time associated with reservations and dispatching processes. This optimizes your staffing resources – and ultimately reduces the number of staff needed to perform these functions.
Responsive Customer Support
From implementation throughout the life of your contract with 5M, our team is available 24/7/365 online and by phone for emergencies to support your use of the 5M system. We also provide comprehensive training material for all updates to continue the effectiveness of 5M for our clients.
Customizable Paratransit Management Solution
Our team includes paratransit industry experts who understand policies, service models, and operating conditions that make your operation unique. They work with you to fine-tune the software to produce optimal results in your day-to-day operations.
Detailed Historical Trip Information
5M tracks everything that happens on a trip from start to finish, including messages between drivers and dispatch, how the route changed, who made changes, and so on. This information is retained in full within the system for as long as the Agency and/or client desires, and drives effective staff coaching, incident investigation, complaint investigation, and system audits.
Beyond
Traditional
Customer
Support
Our support begins by listening to the needs of our customers. We provide friendly, easy-to-understand training materials, and our system emulators allow your staff to train in simulated live environments. We will not leave the site until your staff is comfortable using the software and all your needs have been addressed.
Our 5M solution requires less expertise on site, but if support is needed, our team is available 24/7 to assist by phone and online. We also offer periodic on-site training and assistance.
We go beyond traditional customer support. Our team includes paratransit industry experts who understand your local policies, practices, and conditions and can tune the software to produce optimal results.