Mobisoft News

As part of the OpenDRT project partly funded by the Technology Strategy Board, Mobisoft have launched the portal for a trial in the West Lothian area.

The portal is available on http://www.OpenDRT.co.uk

"This really gives us the opportunity to start opening Demand Responsive Transport to a much wider audience" says Jeff Duffell the Mobisoft UK Operations Director. "The OpenDRT portal will allow DRT schemes to give much better visibility to their services and allow smaller transport providers to start offering flexible services".

Shropshire Council has won a prestigious national award for its innovative ShropshireLink service.

The service, launched in November 2008 to make it easier for rural residents to access essential services and onward travel, won the category Dedication to Access for All at last weeks National transport Awards.

Judges praised the huge improvement in accessibility for rural residents and the innovation shown in the way that the service operates.

Martin Taylor-Smith, Shropshire Councils Cabinet member for strategic planning and transport, said: This award is a reflection of the dedication and professionalism of all of the frontline staff involved in both the booking line and daily driving operation of the ShropshireLink.

Since its launch, the service has gone from strength to strength. In June 2010 it provided 2329 trips, enabling rural residents to access essential services or onward travel in their local market towns.

However, we are not resting on our laurels - we have a commitment to continue to build on our success. A number of improvements to the service will take effect from 26 July 2010 following feedback from a user survey conducted last year.

Picture from left to right are Grant Stott (host), Andy Goldsmith (Assistant Director, Public Protection, Shropshire Council), Matt Johnson (Senior Transport Policy Officer, Shropshire Council), Sir Moir Lockhead, First Group, Award Sponsor)

For the third year running Mobisoft were pleased to sponsor the prize draw at the Association of Transport Co-ordinating Officers (ATCO) Conference and Exhibition, held this year at the Hilton Hotel, Bradford, on 16th - 18th June.
Dave Hewitt, North Lincolnshire Council, won first prize: a Nintendo DSi XL with case and Classic Games selection, but then passed it on to Anita Ruffle, Lincolnshire CC, for an extra donation of 50 GBP!
Tim Davies, Devon CC won 2nd prize: a Nintendo DSi XL, and Linda Banks won the 3rd prize: a Sony Electronic 7 Photo Frame. Altogether a total of 785 GBP was raised for Transaid an international UK development charity that aims to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods across Africa and the developing world through creating better transport - more info here: www.transaid.org/

Navigator Deluxe is a full-featured Global Positioning System (GPS)-based navigation tool, which is fully-integrated with the MobiRouter DRT booking system on the iMAX line of mobile computers.
Navigator Deluxe utilizes the same GPS information used by connected software applications to accurately determine the current vehicle position. When a driver requests navigational assistance to a destination, Navigator Deluxe calculates the route between the current location and the destination using advanced navigational algorithms.
The route is then highlighted on the map, and urn-by-turn directions are provided to assist the driver in reaching the destination.

Optimal Routing

Navigator Deluxe can be configured to the fastest or shortest route as needed. It is flexible to provide the most optimal route to save time, reduce cost, drive ore efficiently and better serve customers.

Ease of Use

Navigator Deluxe on the iMAX mobile computer
product line is designed for easy operation in a mobile environment. For dispatched jobs, the address is transferred directly from defined application program interfaces (API) into Navigator Deluxe.
For non-dispatched trips, the driver has the ability to enter an address or select optional point of interest to get navigation instructions.

Voice Guidance

Turn-by-turn voice guidance allows drivers to concentrate on the road. This enhances both driver and customer safety day and night.

Benefits

Quick and easy navigation to hard-to-find locations

State-of-the-art navigation at your fingertips - no more map books

Integrated with dispatch applications for one-touch operation

Easy to use searchable address/point of interest database

Voice guidance allows drivers to focus on the road

Further literature: DDS_Navigator_UKA4_Datasheet.pdf

In what is becoming a regular event a group from Mobisoft decided to tackle a walk to the summit of Helvellyn in the Lake District.
As you can see from the picture they didn't go for the simple approach!

Mobisoft and sister company Stratagen have combined their development teams from Seattle, Vancouver, UK and Finland to develop the next generation web based multi transport scheme management tools.
The Stratagen Adept routing engine, currently in use by the largest of the North American Paratransit agencies forms the cornerstone of a web based solution capable of handling any scale of shared transport operation.
UK developments for Integrated Transport Units will continue, to develop a Subscription Generator solution capable of rapidly re-optimising large numbers of pre-booked regular trips.
Early trials of the web based components will form part of the Technology Strategy Board project in the UK (see Mobisoft.co.uk web site). Mobisoft Oy, Finland, will introduce a web based vehicle location and analysis system into Helsinki, which will then be offered to UK and NA users.
"This is an amazing opportunity to gain traction from all of our development teams working towards the same ends", says Brian Dawson, the Development Director in Seattle. "We have long realised that although transport providers around the world have different requirements there is also a huge amount of overlap and similarity."

Mobisoft has been successful in winning a contract with Suffolk County Council to provide a system for their Integrated Transport Unit.

The new systems will support the planning and booking of transport for Suffolk County Council Childrens and Adults services and provide highly flexible Demand Responsive Transport for the general public.

Mobisoft are developing an interface to the Suffolk Onboard web site so that requests for transport can be captured via the Internet.

"Mobisoft had the broadest solution to meet the needs of our Passenger Transport Unit (PTU)", says "Derek Cocker who runs the DRT services. "It is also a well established system, which was important to us as we wanted to be confident that it would fit our needs without major development".

After several years based at High Cogges, near Witney in Oxfordshire UK, the Mobisoft UK team is moving to new serviced offices. From October 5th Mobisoft UK will be operating from the Oasis Park at Eynsham, a few miles closer to Oxford along the A40.

Tim Price, who has been responsible for managing the move says, "We are looking forward to the additional facilities this move will give us, especially the larger Training Suite."

Letters about the move have been sent to all Mobisoft customers and contacts but please see the Contact page for new address details.