Meet ViaAlgo, the brain behind Via's 500 worldwide deployments. In our ViaAlgo Features Series, get to know her expertise, honed by delivering millions of rides all over the globe.
ViaAlgo is our routing, dispatch, and passenger aggregation algorithm. ViaAlgo’s chief task is putting together an efficient schedule and keeping track of ways to optimize it further. She’s the foundational technology behind our 500+ partner agencies’ ability to lower costs while improving service quality in their transit services — whether microtransit, paratransit, fixed route, NEMT, campus shuttles, or an integrated network of multiple modes.
ViaAlgo is smart: she has learned from 10 years worth of data from millions of rides all over the globe. With such a big dataset to work with, she always has a good reference point to help guide her decision-making — data from years-long service in Australia might inform a new launch in Nebraska. She’s learned how to effectively do things like direct a rider to a specific corner that will enable the least waiting time, or aggregate a group of riders together that will use the least vehicle miles and gas. ViaAlgo also knows that for some situations, a human mind can be more effective than a computer — and so she offers dispatchers the flexibility to be as hands-off or hands-on with ride management as they need to be.
ViaAlgo isn’t flashy: she works behind the scenes to continually optimize the daily Ride Plan, while also powering the tools dispatchers use to manage daily service, like the variety of smart reassign features for individual trips. We know ViaAlgo is doing her job when we see key performance metrics like on-time performance and time onboard improve, vehicle utilization increase, compliance with ADA and other regulations maintained, and dispatchers empowered to better utilize their time.
Via partners have reported:
Dramatic improvement in on-time performance and average trip duration:
- Example: Hampton Roads Transit in Virginia operates one of the largest paratransit programs in the United States. After switching to Via, they saw a 9% increase in on-time performance and a 44% reduction in average trip duration.
- Example: After working with CapMetro to replace a traditional Dial-a-Ride service in Austin, Texas, the new Via-powered service saw a 200% increase in vehicle utilization.
- Example: High Valley Transit in Summit County, Utah, saw a 150% increase in vehicle utilization after commingling their paratransit service with a new microtransit service and switching to Via software to power both services.
- Example: After switching to Via for software and operations, Green Bay Metro registered a rate of .01% missed trips
- Example: Hampton Roads Transit operators saw a 30% reduction in call volume after introducing a paratransit app and automated trip reminders by phone and SMS.
- Example: In Green Bay, 20% of paratransit trips are now booked through the Rider App.
- ViaAlgo Introduction: Lower costs while improving service for paratransit
- ViaAlgo's Routing Engine: Better routing balances increased productivity with reduced time onboard
- ViaAlgo's Assign AI: Increase efficiency servicewide
- ViaAlgo's Unassigned Rides: Easily find and dispatch requested trips not yet assigned to drivers
- ViaAlgo's Reassign Assistant: Move today's trips with guidance from our efficiency-maximizing algorithm
- ViaAlgo's Manual Assign and Protected Ride features: take control of your service with intuitive manual tools
- ViaAlgo's Aggregator: Powering efficient, ADA-compliant commingling
