In this article, you will find answers to the following questions:
What are Open Fleets?
What are the benefits of adding the Open Fleets to my service?
How do I configure them?
What are Open Fleets?
Spare's Open Fleets solution enables transit agencies to seamlessly mix Non-Dedicated Service Providers into their vehicle fleet and have all of the same abilities and privileges for the NDSPs as their DSPs within one centralized software platform.
By doing this, you can increase cost savings, improve on-time performance (OTP), and reduce wait times for riders. All of this comes together to improve overall service quality for both the agency and its riders.
Current Open Fleet options:
How do the Open Fleets work?
Open Fleet is a standardized framework that enables Spare to natively integrate third-party dispatch providers, such as Lyft, into Spare services. Open Fleets provide the base infrastructure needed to connect demand to any fleet provider — agnostic to whether they're running a Spare Platform including a Spare Driver App or their proprietary fleet management system and app.
Once an Open Fleets App is built (e.g. "Lyft"), the App can be installed into any organization on Spare. Once the App is installed, the organization will have full access to the vehicles in that fleet, all within Spare. This fleet can then be added to any service (e.g. Paratransit service), just like any Spare-powered fleet.
When a trip is created for a particular service, Spare will evaluate all fleets that are available for that service. Spare has access to several data points to then dynamically dispatch to the best possible vehicle. This includes trip cost, estimated pickup time, vehicle types, vehicle capacity, vehicle accessibility features, fare acceptance capability, minimum contractual trip requirements, and more. Based on the configuration and the business logic articulated in the Service Settings in Spare, Spare Engine will automatically decide, based on these data points, which fleet to dispatch the individual trip to.
When a trip is dispatched to an open fleet, trip details — including notes — are passed through to the external provider. Note that custom fields configured by your organization are by default not shared with the open fleet providers, and notes added after a trip is dispatched to an open fleet are not updated on their end.
How do I view the Open Fleets trip data?
Regardless of which fleet the trip ends up on, the trip data, vehicle data, driver information, vehicle location, trip ETAs, and trip status will all be available, in real-time, inside the Spare Platform. Spare Open Fleets provides a native integration layer between Spare Platform and third-party dispatch software, such as Lyft, so that the experience inside of Spare remains seamless and Spare's functionality is retained for all fleets.
All trip reporting is available in a single place, Spare Analytics. Additionally, Spare retains data that helps with trip investigations, including historical vehicle locations, and enables agencies to scrub through vehicle locations at a point in time utilizing a tool in Spare Platform called Live Map.
What will the booking experience look like on the rider's side?
The Open Fleets' deep integration extends to the self-serve rider experience. Riders booking trips for themselves through the Spare Rider App or Spare Rider Web will have the ability to book, manage, track, and complete all trips inside of a single app, even if they are matched to a fleet provider that utilizes a third-party dispatch platform.
Trips booked via a self-serve portal can also be managed and made visible inside the Spare Admin portal. This means that if a rider calls in for support on the trip, all real-time information for the trip, regardless of the fleet provider, will be made available so that the supporting agent can assist and modify the trip if needed.
What are the main benefits of using Open Fleets?
Fully automated experience: Spare does all the heavy lifting;
Everything is centralized in one place: one platform, one rider profile, one set of reports;
Full control: investigate the trips, manage requests and riders as usual;
Cost efficiency: use fleets as overflow, push most cost-effective trips to open fleets.
How do I configure Open Fleets?
The exact steps will vary depending on the particular Open Fleet, but here's the overall workflow:
The agency gets a contract amendment with Spare;
Spare configures the open fleet on the backend;
Integration testing is conducted.
Reach out to your Spare Representative to find out more about Open Fleet integrations to your service.