Blaise Transit has been awarded a 3-year contract with the Nova Scotia Community Transportation Network (NSCTN) to provide demand-responsive transport (DRT) in 23 communities across Nova Scotia, Canada.
Nova Scotia’s community-based transportation programmes currently offer pre-booked services that are generally operated by not-for-profit organisations and managed using very little software.
The NSCTN now plans to leverage Blaise’s on-demand transit and dispatch management platform to improve the accessibility and efficiency of these operations.
The technology will be gradually rolled out in Nova Scotia over the next 12 months, starting with the implementation of the Blaise Engine dispatching portal to improve the efficiency of booking rides, producing reports and invoicing DRT customers.
Later, the Blaise Transit rider app and Blaise Drive navigation tool will also be introduced to allow riders to book their trips digitally and to offer greater flexibility to drivers.
Leslie Taylor, Provincial Coordinator of the NSCTN said:We are excited to work with the Blaise team on this innovative project. This new technology has the potential to better position our Community Transportation providers across the province to build an even stronger and more accessible network resulting in the ability to better serve the transportation needs of all Nova Scotians for years to come.
This project will be the largest DRT deployment in North America, incorporating over 150 vehicles. It also represents the first province-wide transit dispatch management partnership in Canada.
The Province of Nova Scotia has provided 525,000 CAD over three years to support this rollout.
Nova Scotia Public Works Minister Kim Masland said:Dependable transit makes communities stronger. I want to thank the Nova Scotia Community Transportation Network for their leadership on this project and I know that the network and Blaise Transit will work hard to develop a technology solution that meets the specific needs of our Nova Scotian communities.
Blaise Transit hopes that this project will serve as a model to other groups of transit agencies who wish to deploy on-demand transportation and dispatch management software in multiple cities.
