STS Maricopa County
Same-Day Scheduling Equals Better Service with Less Fuel Consumption
Challenges
The Special Transportation Services (STS) Group of Maricopa County, Arizona, provides special needs transportation to elderly, disabled and low-income individuals across a 9,224 square-mile service area. This 62-vehicle fleet was finding their paper-based dispatch system increasingly inefficient. STS Maricopa County needed technology that would enable them to make real-time schedule changes and communicate quickly with drivers. They also wanted to implement an Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system to track vehicle locations across their broad service area.
Solution
To meet these goals, STS Maricopa County chose Mentor Ranger®, a rugged in-vehicle mobile computer that includes integrated navigation software. GPS is a standard component of Mentor's solution, enabling the collection and transmission of vehicle location data. Dispatchers view real-time vehicle location information on a map so they know where each of their fleet vehicles are, and whether those vehicles are on route and on schedule. In addition to Ranger, STS Maricopa County uses Mentor XGate® middleware, which sends messages between the mobile application and host application. And, XMobile Manager® (XMM) is used to remotely update the software programs running on Ranger.
Results
With Ranger, STS Maricopa County now has the ability to make immediate changes to driver schedules, and drivers can view these changes on their in-vehicle computers. According to Arleen Schenck, Field Operations Manager at STS Maricopa County, "Ranger provides more flexibility and has allowed for shorter lead times for schedule changes." Also, the combination of electronic trip manifests and AVL data means a potential for reduced gas usage, and far greater organizational efficiency.
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We now schedule appointments 14 days in advance to right up to the time of pick-up. Same-day or one day advance scheduling is now done with ease. 
