MANAGEMENT
The C Suite Unplugged:
Do You Have What it Takes to
Orchestrate a Transit Masterpiece?
arlier this summer, I wrote an article for
Mass Transit Magazine about the three
primary issues that are keeping transit
CEOs up at night: aging infrastructure,
decreasing ridership and paratransit
cost escalation. Th ese burning issues
are keeping many from creating a transit
masterpiece in their city.
How can you successfully address these pain
points and start to move onto proactive improvements
for your transit system? It involves performing
a root cause analysis of each of these
issues and then designing and implementing an
appropriate strategy to overcome the root causes.
For example, in almost every city in America,
the cost of providing paratransit service is
escalating faster than the increases in the transit
system’s annual appropriations. Th erefore, in every
major transit system there are conversations
just like this one going on now:
A transit CEO meets with his/her CIO, CFO,
and COO about paratransit cost escalation —
the CEO wants to know why the costs are going
up an average of 8 percent per year when
overall agency funding is only increasing by half
that amount. Th e COO might say, “Well, the
price of the contract escalates with our paratransit
providers go up each year and that’s a
fi xed amount we can’t change.” Th e CEO might
then say, “Well, what can we change to cut the
increases in cost?” Th e CFO may respond, “Is
there some way we can reduce the increasing
number of trips we provide on paratransit by
encouraging them to try fi xed route, which is
much cheaper per passenger to provide?” Th e
CEO might then add, “Why do we put almost
all our passengers on the most expensive mode
of dedicated, contracted service? Isn’t there some
way to analyze real time and book the trip with
the lowest cost provider — between our taxi
providers, our paratransit providers and/or
Lyft ?” Th e COO chimes in, “I also wish there
was some way we could increase our passengers
per hour productivity from 1.2 to 1.4 without
overly impacting on-time performance — that
could really reduce cost.”
Now, the team has uncovered some real potential
solutions through a root-cause analysis
and identifi ed areas where technology can help
implement those solutions. Th at’s where the idea
of a transit technology stack comes in.
A Transit Technology Stack
A technology stack is a relatively new term used
to describe the soft ware products and tech tools
that an organization is currently using by category.
For transit, the tech stack can show C-level
executives what types of technologies they currently
have, in each of their core areas, and any
gaps where tools are missing and things aren’t
running smoothly, so a solution is needed.
Reviewing your technology stack helps
you analyze and then prioritize where you
need to put your money in order to solve
your problems. Th ese could be tech tools to
12 | Expo Daily | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | OCTOBER 10, 2017
address paratransit cost escalation, better asset
management to inform you on repairing or
replacing aging infrastructure, or improved
route planning and customer tools to attract
more riders. It can also help you analyze what
you need in order to jump to the future of
smart cities or autonomous shuttles.
Technology stacks help you, as a CEO, understand
the right questions to ask your COO
and CIO. Understanding how to assess your
technology stack and see what you’re missing
and what those gaps really mean (i.e. are they
causing safety issues?) and you’ll have a better
understanding of the root causes of and potential
solutions to the challenges in your agency.
Understanding the root causes of your
challenges is how you start orchestrating
a transit masterpiece — where, just like in
a symphony orchestra, you bring together
diff erent people, instruments
and ideas to create one unique
sound — one masterpiece.
By Paul Comfort
E
Paul Comfort, Esq. is a VP of
Business Development with
Trapeze NA.
» Visit Trapeze Group at booth 2819.
