QRyde has partnered with the Montachusett Regional Transit Authority (MART) to deliver door-to-door transportation services to seniors across North Central Massachusetts. The program focused initially on two communities in that region. The Ipswich and Leominster Councils on Aging, as is the case with COAs in general, provide programs and support services to improve quality of life for seniors in their communities and included among those services is transportation.
While both of these Councils partner with regional transit authorities, including MART and Cape Ann Transportation Authority (CATA), they faced challenges in terms of meeting all of the transportation needs of their seniors, and coordinating both their and the Authorities’ resources. Using QRyde facilities, including ride booking and dispatch portals and driver app, the COAs were able to implement a program that simplified their transportation tasks, and provided the data necessary to meet the reporting requirements of their transportation partners. Most importantly, they were able to successfully meet the transportation needs of their seniors and do so with tools that were not burdensome for their staff and drivers.
Over past few months, QRyde has partnered with MART to implement similar programs in Sterling, Shirley, Lancaster, Bolton, and Hardwick. In each of these communities, QRyde has trained COA staff and drivers, and rolled out QRyde ride booking, dispatch, and driver app software, enabling these communities to implement responsive and reliable transportation programs for seniors in their communities. All of these COAs are now able to book and manage rides for seniors needing to get to medical appointments, go shopping, or attend social activities at Council centers. Council staff no longer have to manage the process on paper, or juggle multiple systems. The QRyde centralized system enables COA staff to track and manage rides, review ride status, reconcile ride information, and review on-time performance of drivers.
Over the next few months, QRyde and MART will roll out similar transportation programs for Councils in Ayer, Ashburnham, Templeton, Harvard, and Lunenburg. If you’d like to learn how QRyde can help your agency optimize transportation programs, click here to request a demo.
Chelsea, MA – Today concludes seven (7) months of unique food delivery services to approximately 2100 meal boxes to veterans within the City of Chelsea, MA. Initiated during the height of Covid-19 within Massachusetts, emergency food delivery was initiated through Ben Cares, Dept. of Housing and Community Development, utilizing the QRyde Corporation of Lowell, MA. QRyde is a transportation solutions company who uses a unique services model to schedule and coordinate the deliveries through 3rd party transportation providers who provide non-emergency medical transportation services in MA
“Chelsea was proactive in identifying the Veterans’ needs”, said Ben Cares, “they were a high priority group who needed assistance”. This assistance came in the form of at home deliveries of a packaged meal. Each week, approximately 80 – 100 individual meal deliveries were made. Ben Cares said, “This not only provided emergency food and nutrition, but also provided an opportunity for contact and checking on our Veterans in a non-intrusive manner”. Any perceived health or other issues observed during the deliveries were immediately reported and checked out.
QRyde utilizes a unique software and local delivery venders to make the food distribution a success. “Our model is very versatile”, said Mital Parikh, Director of Micro-Transit Services, “whether moving people or, in this case emergency food deliveries, we can make it happen”. QRyde operates locally and nationally to work with transportation systems and public agencies to meet their transportation needs. The food and deliveries were funded through the City of Chelsea through the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (MAPC) funds. The Chelsea Community and Housing Development Department has been active on many fronts during the pandemic for its citizens. Other activities by the City of Chelsea included transportation to seniors.
REAL Services of South Bend, IN, provides programs that promote nutrition, self-sufficiency, education, and protection for 30,000 people in northern Indiana each year. They offer services in 12 counties across Northern Indiana, including Elkhart, Fulton, Jasper, Kosciusko, Lake, LaPorte, Marshall, Newton, Porter, Pulaski, Starke, and St. Joseph.
The staff and volunteers at REAL Services work tirelessly to provide 2,000 people in the community with access to food each day and prevent more than 5,000 older adults from moving to nursing homes to receive the care they need.
Real Services contracted with QRyde in March 2021, we’ll be providing them with our industry standard software to schedule their more than 14,000 trips annually for seniors to medical appointments and other important needs. They will also use QRyde to schedule meal delivery for their Meals on Wheels program under which REAL Services provides nutritious meals five days a week to neighbors in need.
To learn more about our new clients at REAL Services, please visit their website.
The city of Chelsea is partnering with HBSS Connect Corp to use our services to help expand an existing emergency food distribution system which serves vulnerable families afflicted with COVID-19.
The expansion of this program will soon include providing vaccinations for residents impacted by COVID as well as other beneficial resident communities such as seniors and veterans. The program also provides low cost transportation options for residents to access employment and other vital needs.
Residents will be able to access transportation options through contracted, 3rd party providers within the city via the QRyde app, a community operated call center, as well as a QRyde call center in order to book on-demand rides.
All Points Transit (APT) of Montrose, CO recently selected HBSS for a 5 year contract to provide the QRyde software suite. The mission of All Points Transit is to promote independence and accessibility for seniors, persons with disabilities, and the general public by providing safe and reliable transportation in their service areas – Montrose County, including the communities of Montrose, Olathe, Nucla, Naturita, Norwood, Paradox, Bedrock and Redvale; and Delta County, including the communities of Delta, Cedaredge, Hotchkiss, Paonia, Orchard City and Crawford.
HBSS will provide a cloud based portal to APT which will include dispatch and scheduling services, driver tablets, Integrated Voice Response and contactless fare card system. HBSS is pleased to partner with APT on this important project. HBSS will work with the team at APT to deploy and implement the software over the summer. To learn more about our new clients at APT, please visit their website.
On May 7th, the Montachusett Regional Transit Authority (MART) and its technology consultant – HBSS Connect Corp, jointly announced the expansion of workforce transportation in five communities: Sterling, Shirley, Bolton, Ayer and Lancaster, as well as the Devens Enterprise Zone. “We are initiating new microtransit services with QRyde technology supplied by HBSS Connect Corp”, stated Bruno Fisher, Deputy Administrator at MART, “which we will deploy to expand our prior success with microtransit in Fitchburg to other communities in our service area.”
HBSS Connect Corp is headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts, where it developed its proprietary “brokered transportation technology”, called QRyde. Previously in 2020, MART utilized the QRyde technology in a pilot microtransit project in Fitchburg which was highly successful. HBSS President and CEO, Himanshu Bhatnagar stated, “Our mission is to implement door-to-door transportation at public transit prices.” The QRyde technology is used to schedule riders to be picked up at home and taken to their destination using existing transportation resources (providers) that have open seats. “This model has proven successful for employers, employees and other groups seeking transportation”, Bhatnagar said.
The grant funded pilot program will officially kickoff on Friday – May 7, 2021 at 11AM at an event to be held at Devens at the Hilton Garden Inn. Senator Jamie Eldridge (D – Middlesex and Worcester) will deliver keynote remarks. The event is also expected to be attended by several regional employers and several local Councils on Aging, as well as elected officials and representatives from each of the five communities. In addition, representatives from MART and HBSS will present a brief program on the planned expansion of services and the goals of the program. This program will be used to provide transportation supports to the workforce of the Montachusett and Devens region.
The implementation will be rolled out using an app for personal use, in addition to a call center. “All parties will be trained and supported during this rollout. It is expected to be operational over the next several months” Fisher stated. This project is a collaboration to raise the effectiveness of the existing shuttle and van services already operated or managed by MART and is funded through a competitive grant awarded to MART by the MassDOT. It is intended to assist employers, employees and local Councils on Aging to provide transportation to work. Bhatnagar said, “Working with MART again will be a great assist to the region’s workforce transportation needs.”
