CAT launches mobile app in months-long awareness push

A screenshot of the new Chatham Area Transit mobile application, which allows passengers to track buses in real time.

After years of development, officials with Chatham Area Transit say they’re ready to roll out the agency’s new smart phone app.

CAT Marketing Director Shalonda Rountree told the CAT Board of Directors on Tuesday her office is in the midst of a push to raise awareness of the new app, which allows passengers to access route information and view real-time tracking from their Apple or Android phone. While CAT will be officially launching the app at an event Friday at the intermodal transit center downtown, CAT CEO Curtis Koleber said the CAT app is complete. It is available for free download in the Apple and Google Play stores.

“I know it took a long time to get the CAT app and it’s fully launched,” Koleber said. “We want to let the board know exactly how we’re going to promote this to the public.”

Rountree said it’s clear to CAT staffers that more awareness is needed as only 100 or so people had downloaded the app as of last week. She said CAT plans to use a multifaceted approach of advertisements, brochures, videos and informative documents to spread the word about the software through the end of the year.

One of the app’s earliest beta testers, CAT Board Vice Chairman Bill Broker, said one of the best facets of the new tech is the flexibility it will provide for CAT’s riders.

“The app is great, and nine times out of 10 I have no difficulty with it,” Broker said. “You can see where the stops are and everything, but the real important thing to me is you can determine when your bus is supposed to be there.”

Meanwhile, in other business Tuesday:

• The CAT Board approved a change order on a recent purchase of new vehicles for the Paratransit fleet. Although the board approved the purchase of 30 new vehicles at its meeting last month, the cost was ultimately higher than anticipated. The change order increases the cost for the vehicles by about $20,000 to $2.27 million, and reduces the number of vehicles purchased to 28. Koleber said that once the new vehicles are received, they’ll be outfitted with new tablets to make for quicker manifest changes in the Paratransit program. CAT Chief Operating Officer Mike Brown said the new purchases are part of a larger transformation effort in the Paratransit program, which is aimed at increasing customer satisfaction, streamlining the eligibility process and increasing productivity, among other improvements.

• CAT Chief Financial Officer Terri Harrison announced that the agency received a clean financial audit for the 2017 fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017. CAT Board Chairman Howard French said the audit showed a vast improvement over CAT’s financial position during the same period last year, when CAT was still reeling after two former high-level staffers received federal prison sentences for defrauding the agency of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Last year at this time … everything was bad,” French said. “I think we have to give CAT staff a well done on this. They took ownership of it. When you look at our results, we got a million-dollar pickup, which is huge.”

What: Official public release of CAT app with demonstrations and swag

When: 11 a.m.- 1 p.m., Friday

Where: Joe Murray Rivers Jr. Intermodal Transit Center, 610 W. Oglethorpe Ave., Savannah

Source

http://savannahnow.com/news/2017-11-28/cat-launches-mobile-app-months-long-awareness-push