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To Our Transit Operators: You Are an Integral Part of the CAD/AVL System

Published Date
Author Renee Ray

 

Today, (March 18th) is Transit Driver Appreciation Day. I’ve been riding buses and trains most of my adult life, since I began living and traveling in cities. I distinctly remember my first trip to New York, when I took charge of the subway map and navigated my mom and me from our hotel in Queens into Manhattan on our daily commute.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget about the operators who make the system run unless they do something out of the ordinary—like the occasional time I’d be running to meet the train and the operator would wait until I jump on board to close the doors. In fact, one of the things I like most about the NUMTOTs—a Facebook group for transit-lovers—are the posts of selfies with favorite drivers and the reminders to ‘thank your driver’ at the end of the trip.

Now that I work full-time in transit, I think more about the huge number of drivers who handle service delivery for the transit agencies Conduent serves. One of the most important things we focus on at Conduent is customer experience—and within that, who is the customer for the particular technology we provide?

Take for example Conduent’s CAD/AVL system. Our customers include:

  • The senior leadership at the agency who want to know system-level performance over time
  • The operations supervisor who needs a real-time dashboard to understand operations in the moment
  • The transit user who wants accurate, real-time information on where the bus is
  • AND the driver

Drivers are integral parts of the CAD/AVL system, providing data that helps inform performance and analytics. More importantly, they rely on our solution for situational awareness while they also work to operate the vehicle and enable passengers to board and alight. One of the most valuable things we do when we invest in CAD/AVL solutions is consider how our solution can be as easy and convenient as possible for the operator who will be working with it throughout every shift they work.

So, thank your transit drivers today for the role they play in our daily lives. Without them and their input, we wouldn’t be able to continually improve the transit experience.

 

 

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