Benzinga | Aug 16, 2021 08:37AM EDT

Everbridge Reports Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Of Austin, Texas Continues To Expand Its Use Of Co.'s Platform

Everbridge, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVBG), the global leader in critical event management (CEM), today announced that the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority of Austin, Texas, commonly referred to as Capital Metro, continues to expand its use of the Everbridge platform for real-time, streamlined operational communications connecting operators with dispatchers and intra-agency safety officials.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210816005375/en/

Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Expands Use of Everbridge Platform to Enhance Employee and Community Safety (Graphic: Business Wire)

As Austin's leading public transportation provider, serving a metropolitan population of over two million, Capital Metro operates bus, paratransit services and a commuter rail system known as the Capital MetroRail, connecting people, jobs, and communities by providing quality transportation choices to Central Texas.

The transit leader's MetroAccess program serves as a demand-response, shared-ride service for people whose disabilities prevent them from riding other bus and rail services. The MetroAccess service complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), employs 350 vehicle operators, and manages 240 vehicles.

"The Everbridge tool directly enhances customer satisfaction, reduces overall risk and enhances operational safety and efficiency," said Suzie Edrington, Director Demand Response Operations at Capital Metro. "The key is that vehicle operators feel that they are heard. This unique use of Everbridge taps into the eyes and ears on the road and fills a gap in the transit industry particularly in serving individuals with disabilities."

"Capital Metro's commitment to the safety of their commuters remains evident in their creative approach to streamlining internal processes and prioritizing the feedback of their employees," said Erin Edwards, Senior Director of State and Local Government at Everbridge. "We are honored to serve the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and to provide critical event management (CEM) solutions that help ensure the safe transit experience for their customers across Austin."

Prior to using Everbridge, Capital Metro was challenged with a disconnect between the MetroAccess frontline operators (hundreds of bus drivers) who had onsite feedback from commuters, and the operations and support teams who could respond to and make the desired changes for the continued safety and quality service of all.

Leveraging the Everbridge Platform, Capital Metro significantly increased its ability to institute systemic operational improvements by creating an efficient means to communicate frontline operator feedback directly to the transit agency's security and support teams.

In addition, the Everbridge platform helped Capital Metro shift operations during the COVID-19 pandemic to deliver over one million meals to those in need. So, instead of bringing people to food (i.e. grocery stores) as transit typically does, they brought the food to the people, reducing the spread of the virus while ensuring those in need were fed. During a recent snowstorm, drivers brought people to shelters, got patients to dialysis, and distributed water when the municipal water system shut down.

The successful digital transformation of the MetroAccess systems helped to mitigate countless incidents while also addressing liability and risk. Capital Metro receives around 700 reports from frontline operators per year via Everbridge's automated communication methods. Today, feedback remains easily and immediately evaluated by agency staff, and implemented into their operational system at scale. This shortens the time to implement improvements by weeks and months, providing frontline workers with the assurance that their input is used and valued, and dramatically increasing the volume of productive feedback the agency receives.

With Everbridge, Capital Metro benefits today from information they never had previously, provides validation to their frontline union-backed operators, and helps thousands of customers navigate their communities and move safely through the world with better experiences.

Everbridge solutions are used by over 1,500 municipalities, counties, cities, states and countries in every major region of the world including Europe, Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. In the transportation vertical, Everbridge serves the world's leading transit authorities, including more than 400 aviation customers around the world, including seven of the top eight U.S. airlines by market share, andmore than 90% of large hub North American airports.

Everbridge solutions are implemented in more countrywide deployments than any other provider, enabling the Public Warning system for many of the most technically-advanced countries including Estonia, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greece, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Peru, and multiple countries across the Middle East and Africa; entire states including California, New York, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Florida, Odisha, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, D.C. and the United States Virgin Islands; counties within 49 of the 50 U.S. states and within all of Canada's provinces, many of the largest cities in the world, and in support of the most populous Native American and First Nations tribes and indigenous populations across the globe. Everbridge also powers the front-end of the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) gateway for the U.S. Federal Government to supplement their own communication channels for issuing live emergency and Presidential Alerts in the United States.