Bus Pass

About the Program

Category: Transportation (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

Palm Tran provides public transportation services for residents and visitors in Palm Beach County. With a fleet of 158 buses and 34 routes, Palm Tran travels to every major destination in Palm Beach County – from Jupiter in the north to Boca Raton in the south, from Palm Beach in the east to Belle Glade in the west, covering an area greater than the state of Rhode Island. Palm Tran, through Palm Tran Connection, is also responsible to providing paratransit programs and services for senior and individuals with disabilities. Unlike the regular bus service, private contractors provide Palm Tran Connection’s on-the-street transportation services. Palm Tran is required to distribute bus passes to non-profit agencies for sale to the public. Prior to the development and implementation of the Bus Pass Tracker Application, the distribution and sale of bus passes was a manual process making it difficult to effectively track metrics. Palm Tran, in partnership with Information Systems Services (ISS), developed a web-based online system compatible with various web browsers and smart devices. This application enables Palm Tran to administer the distribution of the monthly bus passes to their Transportation Disadvantaged (TD) clients, regular clients, and non-profit agencies. This provides Palm Tran the real time management of the distribution of bus passes by the non-profit agencies. Automating the process also prevents the possibility of the same client receiving multiple monthly bus passes from multiple agencies. The centralized database feature of the application provides the ability to create various management reports to maintain the accountability of the bus passes assigned to agencies. The Bus Tracker app also enables the rider to purchase a bus pass from any agency and provides the capability to store scanned documents of the client’s Photo ID, Legal Status, and Proof of Income, which helps to determine the authentication and eligibility of TD clients. Use of the Bus Pass Tracker System has been steadily increasing since the introduction of the system in May 2013.