August: SEAT - Ohio

August is rolling right along, and before long, summer will be coming to an end. In the meantime, we’ve got another awesome customer to tell you about!

Our August customer spotlight is South East Area Transit (SEAT) in Ohio, whom we want to recognize for the innovative work they’re doing in the communities they serve throughout the state.

SEAT offers fixed-route services in Zanesville and Guernsey County, E&D – ADA transportation, non-emergency medical transportation in three counties and countywide demand response in two counties. Earlier this year, SEAT was asked to work with collaborative healthcare agencies in their region to investigate and combat the rates of rider cancellations and no-shows that these agencies were experiencing on a regular basis.

Because of their success in those projects, SEAT moved into the role of “mini-broker” to lead in coordinating transportation in the counties SEAT serves, as well as educating agencies and the public about how to use SEAT. Now, SEAT works with over 20 organizations in southeast Ohio to schedule rides (riders call a central number, and SEAT schedules the trip with the appropriate provider). They also have many agencies using CTS’ rider portal to request rides on behalf of their consumers. SEAT’s Director, Howard Stewart, said, “we went from scheduling a hundred trips per day to over 5,000 trips per month.” SEAT’s Operations Director, Andrea Thompson, noted that their ridership has increased, and the overall number of trips taken has increased by 48 percent. Scheduling of the trips has also become more efficient and streamlined, increasing trips scheduled by 76 percent over the same time last year!

 Wow—impressive numbers! The directors at SEAT also discussed their effort to coordinate with other local, private transit systems to serve their ridership using ParaScope, CTS’ mobile app.

Thank you, SEAT, for seeing the value in our products and for being an ambassador for CTS in the state of Ohio! It’s exciting to see our software used in new, creative ways to solve problems many states are facing today, and we’re proud to support such an innovative and forward-thinking group!

Keep up the great work!