Via tells all: the new features transforming transit so far this year.

Via’s unified platform powers end-to-end planning, operations, and optimization across transit modes. From centralized dispatch, ops, and reporting tools to driver apps, fleet management, self-serve rider booking tools (oh, and Via’s managed operations)—we’ve got updates across the board. 

A quick note: we shared all of these features in action during our live Product Updates webinar this month. Missed it and want to make sure you’re in the know next time? Sign up for our newsletter. 

Recent and upcoming releases centered on three main themes:

1. Supercharging service design

2. Empowering paratransit riders and providers

3. Making public transit the mode of choice

Let’s jump right in!

Supercharging service design.

At Via, we have always worked closely with you to design the best service for your community. We love to collaborate on this and share best practices from our experience in hundreds of other communities around the world. But–we don’t want to hold you back from making decisions on your own or making quick changes!

We now have an entirely new product for designing and updating your Via demand responsive services. 

Introducing Service Design in Remix: a map-based design tool where you can design and publish your microtransit service and service updates instantly—think: dates and service hours, service areas, travel connections, and more. Integrated with the Via operations suite, you can manage drivers, vehicles and riders based on these changes right away. Oh and the best part? Your riders will see instant changes in the Rider App!

Building a service from scratch? Service Design allows Via to create services with you in a much more visual, collaborative, and data-driven way. 

Empowering Paratransit Riders and Providers.

Recent Paratransit releases streamline critical workflows so you can spend less time on the basics and more time providing excellent service.

Swipe through the gallery below to see what's new. Then, read on for all the details! 

Elevate your riders’ paratransit experience and free up staff time with end-to-end eligibility management and caregiver tools.

End-to-End Eligibility automates critical workflows — saving you time and money, and keeping riders informed. 

A dedicated portal gives trusted caretakers real-time visibility into riders’ trips.

1. End-to-end Eligibility Management

Via’s Eligibility Manager streamlines and digitizes the certification process so riders get the services they need, your team gets time back, and your agency maximizes its budget. Go paperless, stay on top of approval timelines, juggle multiple services easily, and free up staff time. What does it include, you ask? Take a look:

• Online Rider Application Portal: Reduce admin and processing time by accepting applications online.
• Digital Application Review & Storage Center: Stay on top of reviews with a one-stop-shop to receive, track and manage eligibility applications.
• Sophisticated Eligibility Management: Manage conditional eligibility and specific rules across multiple services with ease.

Learn more about eligibility management. 

2. Caregiver Application

Keep everyone in the loop. A dedicated web app lets trusted caregivers track multiple riders’ trips. This means peace of mind for caregivers, safer travel for clients, and fewer phone calls for you. Simply assign a relationship between a rider and a caregiver and let automated communications do the rest!

Learn more about the caregiver experience.

Cut down on the time it takes to manage bookings, decrease call volume, and provide better customer service.

Making the booking process as easy for agents as possible helps them manage requests quickly and maintain excellent customer service levels. Our goal with the latest booking updates? Help agents book and manage rides in as few seconds and clicks as possible! 

Targeted booking improvements make it even faster to book any ride.

The new Bookings Management Page helps you bulk manage all rides across riders and days, in one place. 

1. Ride Booking Features

We’ve simplified our booking flow to help anyone book a ride in seconds. Reduce call times and get riders where they need to go happily! 

A few targeted improvements to the Book Ride flow keep agents moving faster: critical riders info is displayed more visibly, the rider’s home address is the default pickup address, and clear flags highlight conditional eligibility status. 

New functionality empowers agents to add a Ride Sponsor to a rider’s account or trip, and the proper subsidy and labels automatically flow into the rider app, operator app, and service reports. That’s complex funding sources, made simple!

Agents can also help riders plan intermodal trips, allowing them to easily discover and navigate the entire network.

Curious to learn more about Via’s paratransit service management tools? Learn more here. 

2. Bookings Management Page

The revamped Bookings Management pages features sleeker design, faster performance, and expanded filter and search options. The goal? We’ve said it: help agents' work both quickly and accurately with easy to find shifts and bulk actions. Impending snow storm tomorrow? Cancel all rides and notify riders with just one click. Boom - more time to focus on everything else on your plate. 

Keep live operations more nimble—real-time changes? No problem.

We know things change by the minute when service is live. So these recent updates focus on empowering dispatchers with tools to make managing live operations and changes quick and easy. The goal? Keep service running smoothly! 

Revamped Breakdown Bundle helps you recover from breakdowns and callouts in seconds. 

Ever used commenting in Google Sheets and wished you could do the same on rides and shifts? Good news, now you can.

1. Breakdown Bundle

Thanks to the new breakdown bundle features, you can instantly move riders from an impacted vehicle to another shift in a click. This fast and easy disruption response keeps service running smoothly and on-time. 

2. Operator Commenting

Ever used commenting in Google Sheets and wished you could do the same on rides and shifts? Good news. VOC (Via Operations Center) Commenting lets you do just that. Leave a note on a ride or shift to easily keep track of decisions you make or questions that arise. Bonus: all comments get logged in reports so you can look into things later as needed.

Scheduling should be fast. Now it can be.

Manage your shifts and schedules easily with new bulk functionality that lets you make changes at once and populates automatically downstream.

Ride Groups enable smoother rider, operator, and scheduler experiences, automatically.

Smart Waitlist Management gets all rides scheduled, faster than ever. 

Shift Manager provides a single, intuitive page to manage shifts across multiple days.

1. Ride groups

Rides added to a group will be smartly assigned to the same driver’s shift so you don’t have to go back and forth. This means riders and operators get greater consistency and familiar faces. And—most importantly—you spend less time scheduling.

2. Smart waitlist management

Smart Wait List digitally tracks waitlisted and unassigned rides and automatically adds them to the schedule as space opens up. Enjoy more rides served and fewer phone calls.

3. Shift manager

Create, manage, and make bulk edits on up to 250 shifts at a time. Centralized fleet and operator management keeps operations nimble.

Promoting public transit as the mode of choice: Introducing integrated transit tools.

Via supports intermodal trip proposals, connecting riders to your fixed routes.

Via’s Rider App seamlessly connects riders to the broader fixed route network, letting them take advantage of all modes easily. Learn more here.

All modes. One App.

Beyond integrating transit modes, MaaS App Citymapper provides integrated booking capabilities for microtransit, bus, and train tickets so your riders can easily access and pay for all modes in one place. Want to learn more? Read about it here.

The latest version of the Via Rider App makes it faster and more fun to get on board public transit. 

Via’s latest Rider App (rolling out now!) makes using public transit fun and easy. Here are some of the new features to look forward to: 

• Animated, branded welcome screens engage the rider from the very first tap. 
• Updated booking flow makes it faster to book rides—especially for repeat riders.
• Smarter, Sleeker Service Selector lets riders discover and book across all services available to them.
• 20+ Accessibility Improvements ensure usability for riders using large font size, color contrast, and screen readers, assistive devices.
  
  

Looking ahead...

That’s all for now! We also covered our roadmap during the live session. A sneak peek: future releases focus on live service management tools that help your team to be even more proactive during live service and focus their attention where it matters most.

We love to hear your thoughts on features you’d like to see in the future, so let us know what we should build next.

If you missed the webinar and want to make sure you’re in the know next time sign up for our newsletter here. 

Not a Via customer, but think these features could work for your agency? Fill out the form below and we'll get in touch.