A new UI for Avego's iPhone app

For drivers, there are many changes that make it easier than ever to offer unused seats to other people in real time, including:

• Improved design for day and nighttime driving
• Improved information about routes and stops, including the time and distance to the ultimate destination
• Driving without having to pre-record the route
• Auto-acceptance of ride requests
• Simpler creation of routes between favorite places
• Auto-display of map view on approach to pick-up
• Reminders of scheduled departure times
• More sophisticated ride matching
• More than 20,000 new Avego stops added to the network

For riders, there is a new web-based user interface that is optimized for use with any mobile phone (not just iPhones). The Shared Transport web application includes a simpler process for booking rides and more detailed statements of a person’s journey history.

In addition to these great new features, the update also realizes improved reliability and performance, as well as compatibility with the iPhone’s new iOS4 operating system.

• Download Avego’s free iPhone app here »
• Learn more about Shared Transport »
• Follow Avego on Twitter »

Driving alone is costly, both for the planet and for your pocket. However, it’s often very easy to forget all the annual costs associated with driving your car. Fortunately, AAA releases an annual report on average driving costs, which make it easier for us to understand the financial benefits of Shared Transport.

Traffic congestion.

The latest figures released by AAA show that the average cost of driving a medium-sized car over 10,000 miles in 2010 is $0.73 per mile. Over a year, this adds up to $7,300 and includes the cost of fuel, maintenance, tires, insurance, taxes, depreciation and financing, etc.

With 87% of the 1.1 billion trips taken by Americans every day occurring in personal vehicles, there are also high social costs, in the form of increased traffic congestion, C02 emissions and reliance on declining fuel resources, with the average vehicle consuming 550 gallons of fuel per year.

By enabling on-demand real-time ridesharing, Avego Shared Transport makes it easier for commuters to lower their costs and help the environment. Not only is the cost of the journey automatically and fairly shared between the driver and the rider, but every user can also keep track of their financial and C02 savings online.

Join the Avego revolution today, by signing up at www.avego.com.

• Learn more about Shared Transport »
• Download AAA’s Your Driving Costs report »
• Follow Avego on Twitter

As the leading voice for the use of smart technology to address America’s transportation challenges, the ITS America Smart Solution Spotlight award highlights the best and most innovative use of intelligent transportation systems to address national and regional transportation challenges.

“This concept of providing real-time on-demand commuting services could play a major role in increasing interest and participation in carpooling,” said Scott Belcher, President and CEO of ITS America. “The use of intelligent transportation technology will help create a new, on demand transportation system using wasted seat capacity in cars that are already on the road. If successful, this could result in significant improvements in traffic efficiency and the environment.”

ITS America

While most people understand the benefits and efficiency of carpooling, it is typically not flexible or convenient enough to meet the demands and busy lives of today’s commuters. Avego Shared Transport uses ITS technology to make carpooling more flexible, reliable and convenient by providing a marketplace for drivers to offer their empty seats to other people in real time.

This on-demand, real-time ridesharing system, which is now available as a free iPhone application, essentially incentivizes drivers to run their car as a bus, saving money by accepting ride requests from riders along their route.

A major upgrade of the iPhone application will soon be released.

You can read the official press release here.

Avego is pleased to announce that it has partnered with VPSI to develop an integrated technology solution for the company, including providing its groundbreaking Shared Transport technology, all of which will make it easier and more convenient for commuters in the United States to join and use vanpools on their daily commute.

VPSI

VPSI is the world’s largest vanpool service provider, with a fleet of more than 5,000 vans accommodating over 25 million passenger trips annually. Avego’s end-to-end vanpool management capabilities are already being enabled in some regions of VPSI’s nationwide transportation network.

“Due to the ongoing desire of commuters to save money on their daily commutes, as well as an increased awareness of the need for energy independence, reduced carbon emissions, and the sheer convenience of not having to drive to work, VPSI has seen record levels of demand for new vanpools,” said VPSI President Jeff Henning. “Our partnership with Avego will give our vanpool customers greater information services, while allowing us to even more rapidly deploy new vanpools.”

Initially the system is being used to provide automated reporting on passenger miles traveled to government agencies, streamlined vanpool formation and management processes, extensive in-vehicle driver management capabilities, and real-time passenger information. However, the prospect also exists for matching riders with vanpools in real time, if desired by the agency or VPSI’s customers.

Avego’s system includes an in-vehicle touchscreen mobile data terminal (MDT) with GPS and audio announcement capabilities, a web application for commuters to self-organize and grow their vanpools, and extensive reporting capabilities.

To find out how to get VPSI vanpools with Avego’s technology in your area, or to see how the system works up close, please contact info@avego.com.

Sean O'Sullivan

Mr. O’Sullivan is joining other transportation industry luminaries during this three hour workshop, which takes place on January 10th (1.30PM – 4.30PM), to discuss carpooling, vanpooling, ridesharing and the use of mobile devices to enable real-time shared transport.

The workshop will focus on strategies for reshaping the political, policy, and practical framework for carpooling and vanpooling and will be a catalyst for reinvigorating and elevating this modal choice to meet transportation’s greatest challenges: climate change, energy security, traffic congestion, quality of life, environmental damage, and budget constraints.

To learn more about this workshop you can visit the TRB site here.

Sean O’Sullivan is founding partner at Avego and previously co-founded MapInfo, a $175 million software and services business, headquartered in New York State.

Held at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, the Software Industry Awards recognizes world-class contributions by indigenous software firms to Ireland’s smart economy.

Avego at the Software Industry Awards

Avego was also selected as a finalist in the “Technical Innovation” and “Sales Achievement” categories, and was the only company to be a finalist in three categories.

Speaking at the awards, ISA Chairman Paul Sweetman said: “The companies and individuals that we have recognised tonight have generated fantastic value for customers and investors this year. These talented individuals will drive Ireland’s future economic growth.”

This award is the second award that Avego has received recently, having already won the “High Potential Start-up” award at the IT@Cork awards in October, and demonstrates Avego’s excellence in providing software for improving the efficiency of passenger transport.

2009 Software Industry Awards Winners:

Company of the Year 2009: Openet
Emerging Software Business Award: Avego
Sales Achievement Award: Percana
The Technical Innovation Award: iTab
Corporate Social Responsibility Award: Norkom Technologies
Collaboration of the Year Award: Local Social
Software Person of the Year: Paul Kerley, CEO of Norkom,
Student Medal: Yuandong Zhu of UCD

More information about these awards is available here.

The conference, which was attended by 4,000 transport professionals, provided a perfect venue for Avego to present our products to key influencers of transport policy from all over the world.

Avego would like to thank everybody who visited Avego’s stand at the exhibition and we look forward to following up with the many new contacts and friends we made at the conference.

Employing 15 engineers and support staff, the China office will provide Avego’s Shared Transport and Futurefleet solutions for the Chinese, Japanese and Korean markets, as well as export China-manufactured Avego hardware solutions to the worldwide market.

The official opening of Avego's new office in Dalian, China

Avego’s focus on improved efficiency of passenger transportation networks has enabled it to double its staff in Ireland over the past 12 months, even during the difficult challenges of the current financial crisis, as it continues to expand its international presence.

The official opening was attended by Minister Kelleher; Chairman of Enterprise Ireland, Hugh Cooney; and Ireland’s Ambassador to China, Declan Kelleher.  Present from the city of Dalian were the Chinese Government’s Dalian High Technology Zone’s Vice Deputy Li Wei Ming, Bureau Director David Mao, Dalian Software Association Director Shun Pen, and Jeffrey Tan, General Manager of the Ascendas IT Park.

Speaking at the opening, Minister Kelleher said:

“Avego is a leading Irish exporting software company and one of the most prominent software companies in their field.  This announcement marks a significant step in their successful exporting strategy.  The establishment of this office in China will enable Avego to better access the potential in the Chinese market.  The company’s success in this market will help the further growth and development of their Irish base in Cork.”

Minister Billy Kelleher

The office, which includes a China Network Operations Center, is located in the Dalian High-Tech Zone.  Dalian, a city of 6.2 million people, is one of the most highly regarded places in China for the development of software, and also one of the fastest growing cities in China.  Avego is thought to be the first Irish technology company to establish in the city of Dalian, as well as the province of Liaoning, a region to the Northeast of Beijing with a population of 42 million people.

“We are thankful for the tremendous reception and co-operation we’ve received from the Chinese government in the establishment of our Asia-Pacific headquarters,” said Sean O’Sullivan, Managing Director of Avego Ltd.  “We look forward to working with transportation operators to face the unique challenges present in the massive and rapidly modernizing China.  Our staff in Ireland, China and the United States are combining efforts to produce products that will improve transportation networks worldwide.”

Sean O'Sullivan, Avego's Managing Director

Making its American introduction one year ago in California, Avego has been providing its software and hardware solutions to transport operators in North America, Europe and Asia.  Avego’s iPhone application has been used in over 60 countries worldwide, and sparked a global media buzz on its release, with Avego being feature prominently by The New York Times, CNN, Fortune, and named by Silicon Valley’s San Jose Mercury News, as one of the most innovative technology companies at that time.

The article considers the most promising iPhone apps for drivers, bikers and commuters and prominently features Avego’s iPhone app as one of the apps that can most improve the daily user experience of transportation.

Slate.com

“The most promising app I saw is the carpooling app Avego (currently in a “launch & learn state”), which is described as a “cross between carpooling, public transit, and eBay,” with a user reputation/feedback mechanism included; it also would include a payment function—i.e., a way to help out with gas money—which, as one rideshare expert put it to me, “is always awkward in person.”

The article was written by Tom Vanderbilt, the author of the New York Times bestselling book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us). Tom also maintains a blog at HowWeDrive.com.

• A real-time multi-window view in Futurefleet Manager
• An improved user interface for creating new routes more quickly
• An improved driver interface on the Futurefleet MDT
• Support for one-touch urban ticketing and one paper ticket per item
• Driver shift support
• Driver screen recalibration
• Support for the internationalization and localization of Futurefleet and the Futurefleet MDT
• Support for 12 and 24 hour time view in the departure board
• Several back-end optimizations

Driven by feedback from Avego’s customers, this latest release is designed to enable operators to further enhance their operational efficiencies and avail of expanded in-vehicle capabilities.

Any operator interested in learning more about how Futurefleet can improve their operations services, passenger services and in-vehicle services capabilities should contact Avego’s sales team.