Good Friends Go

Overview

• Three year partnership between Arvida Group and Liftango
• Servicing eight Arvida locations around Christchurch, New Zealand
• Launched in May, 2021
• Fleet of four vehicles

Arvida Group Limited is one of the largest operators of aged care and retirement villages in New Zealand. Arvida Group partnered with Liftango to offer their members exclusive access to Good Friends Go, an On-Demand Transport service enabling residents to connect and travel in a convenient manner.

Service area includes:

• Christchurch City
• Riccarton
• Addington
• Sydenham
• Cashmere

The Problem

Arvida Group was seeking a solution that provided their members with more choice in how they plan their days. Maintaining independence to stay active and socially connected is challenging for residents who are reliant on transport to move around their community. This called for a bespoke solution that enabled members of Arvida Good Friends to access transport at a time and place most convenient to their schedule.

The Solution

Liftango developed a personalised On-Demand Transport solution for Arvida Good Friends members under the brand name Good Friends Go. Members included Arvida residents across eight villages in Christchurch as well as people who live independently in the community.

The service included a membership feature that would only allow current and new members of Arvida Good Friends to access the On-Demand Transport service. This membership module now affords the ability for operations staff to customise membership types and assign access to specific passenger profiles creating a private network for approved passengers.

Liftango commenced remote deployment and training of operations and Call Centre staff amidst COVID-19 lockdowns in April, 2021. The service launched with its first passengers in May, 2021 and has continued to grow its usage throughout the Good Friends membership base. For more information visit the Good Friends Go website here.

Through the Good Friends Go App or Call Centre, passengers can book trips on the fleet of four vehicles servicing the area. The fleet is made up of one hybrid Toyota Camry, one hybrid Toyota Yaris and two wheelchair accessible Mercedes Sprinters.

The solution in brief

• Custom design passenger and driver App
• Customer Service and Operations Portal
• Custom membership module
• Website design and hosting
• 24/7 Technical Support
• Operations and Call Centre training
• Pay-as-you go or subscription payment methods

The Results

• 16% of trips completed are wheelchair accessible trips
• Average trip time just over eight minutes
• Peak travel times are at 11am and 2pm
• Expanded the service zone in June 2021 to the north

Learnings

Understanding the member offers and identity management system in place across the Arvida Group was critical to the successful design and development of the bespoke membership module. Multiple user experience research and design sessions were conducted to ensure delivery of specific requirements.

As live data flowed into the system, Arvida Group was able to systematically identify and action a zone expansion to meet the needs of their members. This resulted in the expansion of the zone to the north and inclusion of additional hubs or points of interest. This made it easier for passengers to ‘quick-select’ a hub and remove the need to type their address every time.

The data-driven approach to zone expansion has worked on a number of Liftango project deployments. This approach allows for service modifications to be made once adequate data is available to validate assumptions. This not only minimises the risk of straining existing vehicle assets but minimises operation costs until appropriate demand can be established.

This partnership has helped to establish a valid use case and level of service benchmark for aged care and retirement village operators. Consequently, it not only validates this type of solution within the industry, but translates to the wider cohort of community transportation operators providing similar passenger profiles with essential services.

For more information on how Liftango can co-create a solution for your transportation needs, get in touch here.