|
|
|
|
|
Main Page
From Avego FAQ
Contents |
AVEGO FAQ
General
Here you will find some answers to general questions about Avego.
1.1.01 Q. What does Avego do?
A. Avego provides software and hardware systems, as well as consulting services, for improving transport efficiency for consumers and transport operators. Using GPS technology, Avego’s real-time information systems make seat capacity known and available to passengers, provide convenient ticket purchasing options, and enable extensive reporting capabilities for transport providers.
1.1.02 Q. Who are Avego’s customers?
A. Avego's transport expertise spans customers as diverse as Transport for London (TfL), the Ministries of Transport for the UK and the Netherlands, the European Space Agency, and cities and public transport operators from Chicago to India, as well as thousands of individual consumers and private transport operators.
1.1.03 Q. Where is Avego based?
A. Avego is led by a multinational team of transport experts in the US and Europe. The company is headquartered in Kinsale, Ireland, but also has offices in Dublin, Ireland; Silicon Valley, CA; Washington, DC; and Dalian, China.
1.1.04 Q. Do you provide services for transit fleet operators?
A. Yes! We have recently launched Futurefleet - a complete end-to-end real-time management system for passenger transport operators. Futurefleet provides an easy-to-use, inexpensive and reliable way of reaching commuters and filling empty seats, thereby maximizing efficiency and increasing ridership by about six percent.
Shared Transport
General
Here you will find some answers to general questions about Shared Transport.
2.1.01 Q. Who is Shared Transport aimed at?
A. Avego Shared Transport can be used by everyone: a driver wishing to save money on his commute, a student searching for a ride to college or a tourist traveling the country. Drivers can save money, as the cost of the commute is automatically and fairly calculated and charged to the rider. Riders are provided with a convenient and affordable alternative to public transport.
2.1.02 Q. I have the original iPhone. Does Avego still work for me?
A. Sure, but not for the driver function. The driver function requires GPS capability to accurately know and communicate to riders where spare seats are and when they are arriving. The first generation iPhone provides your general location with an accuracy ranging from a few miles to a few dozen meters. In order to provide sufficient accuracy, consistently, to riders that may be waiting alongside the road for the driver's vehicle, and to match to the pick-up and drop-off locations on your route, Avego requires accuracy of at least 100 meters, which is more than the 1st gen iPhone can provide. However, Avego's iPhone Ride interface will still work very well using the non-GPS iPhone.
2.1.03 Q. I have an iPod Touch that runs iPhone applications. Does Avego still work for me?
A. Well, no, not really. The iPod Touch makes for a great internet browser device when you have access to Wifi and you're not traveling, but for most people, Avego is most useful in transit. So, while you could use the iPod Touch to book a ride while at your home, you wouldn't get the notifications you'd expect when out and about.
2.1.04 Q. Data connectivity (either 3G, Edge or GPRS) is spotty in my area. Will Avego still work?
A. Well, yes, at least partly. You can have drop-outs of data connectivity and Avego will still cache the relevant information, as well as manage riders and pick-ups. So, for example, you could pick-up a rider from a spot even if there is no data connectivity right at that spot. However, because it does rely on the phone network, you will not receive any new bookings when you are out of coverage.
2.1.05 Q. How do I know if I have a GPS - enabled iPhone?
A. The iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S are both GPS-enabled. The original iPhone is not. The easiest way to tell which you have is by the exterior appearance of your iPhone. Generation 1 iPhones don't have GPS. These iPhones have an aluminum finish on their backside exterior. 3G iPhones have either a glossy black or glossy white exterior backside.
2.1.06 Q. How does Avego obscure origination information in order to protect confidentiality?
A. On routes which are viewable in a citywide transit network, the last 500-1000 meters of the journey are not shown. In urban areas, this is sufficient to limit the identity, on average, to about 1,500 possibilities. In suburban areas, this is ordinarily enough to limit the identity of the user to a few hundred possibilities.
2.1.07 Q. Why do you use Avego credits rather then just accept credit card payments?
A. The main reason is to reduce the cost of the Avego service. Every time you make a credit card payment, the credit card company (or Paypal, etc) charges the vendor (Avego in the case, acting on behalf of the driver) at least two fees: a per transaction fee and a percentage of the transaction fee. In cases where the transactions are just a few dollars, the per transaction fee can double or triple the cost of the financial fees and in fact make small payments infeasible. We use Avego credits to reduce the operational costs of running the Avego service.
2.1.08 Q. Is it legal to charge passengers to recover driving costs?
A. This is called "carpooling", and 12 million people in the United States use some form of carpooling daily. By laws established after the oil shortages in the US (and much of the rest of the world, as well), insurance companies must provide standard passenger coverage for carpoolers on their standard car insurance policies. Expenses are recoverable only to the extent expended, of course, which means that drivers cannot charge for services on a profit-making basis. If a driver charges enough to make a profit in transporting passengers, that would make a driver a commercial driver, like a taxi driver, and that wouldn't be allowed. In the United States, Avego uses the IRS statutory 2008 rate of 58.5 cents per mile as the standard amount that a driver can recover. Over the course of a journey, Avego limits your income to insure that you are not becoming a commercial driver. This could include such fees as tolls, parking, etc. However, as of December 2008, the only thing considered is the mileage rate.
2.1.09 Q. How does Avego make money?
A. Well, probably not very easily for the next few years, actually! We recognize that to help influence driver behavior, we have to get the vast majority of all rider fees directly into the pocket of the driver. So we do that: 85% of all the rider charges go straight to the driver! That leaves 15% to cover all the expenses of the Avego network: the financial charges (transaction charges from credit card companies, paypal, etc); communications charges (SMS charges, phone call charges and telephone network services, voice notification messaging charges); hosted services and bandwidth charges; marketing, advertising and co-marketing charges; and our research and development, general and administrative, and cost of goods sold expenses. At the end of the day, hopefully there will be some profit in there for us as well... so we can pay taxes on that. :-)
2.1.10 Q. How large a critical mass will be required in order for the system to work?
A. Actually, we don't require a critical mass of people in order for the system to work.
The basic Avego application is useful as a way of helping people who already carpool to get real-time information on the arrival of their other carpoolers; and it helps carpoolers split the fare in an automated and fair way. As more people carpool, the more likely it is that a critical mass will develop for other riders.
As for the Avego idea of providing a critical mass so that a general rider can count on shared transport to deliver them to their destination, the size of the critical mass depends on the geography of the area, and on the willingness for people to wait. In most areas, there are concentrated travel corridors where a large amount of people travel up and down, or east and west across that travel corridor. These areas will see the most rapid development of critical mass, first.
In terms of the kind of service availability we think would be attractive to most people, we think in an ideal world that people shouldn't have to wait more than about 5 minutes, on average, for a ride. That means if there were 6 vehicles an hour on a route, going in the direction of the major traffic pattern, the average wait would be 5 minutes... A busy city road has more than 1,200 vehicles per hour on it. A fairly busy country road may have 120 cars an hour on it. So, in the case of a busy road, you'd need almost 1/2 of 1% of drivers to reach a fantastic level of service availability, whereas to achieve that on a country road you'd need nearly 5% of drivers using this system. In a city like Dublin, with 600,000 cars, you'd want approximately 3,000 cars on the system to have a fabulous level of service. That may seem like a big number, but we think it is achievable in the next two or three years.
2.1.11 Q. Are you planning other pilots?
A. Yes, we are hoping to do a major pilot in the Netherlands and some major pilots in the US, each with hundreds of drivers. Already, a few thousand people have downloaded the iPhone application and registered for accounts online at www.avego.com, and we are seeing some "pilots" spontaneously emerge in places like St. Louis, Minneapolis, and the San Francisco Bay area.
2.1.12 Q. Are you competing with taxis?
A. Yes, but so are regular cars. And buses. And trains. And bicycles. The truth is that no one mode of transport is sufficient for all purposes. The target "heart" of our market is the 10 mile plus daily commute, and very few people use taxis daily for commutes like that. We don't consider "shared transport" the same mode of transport as taxis, we consider it a different mode entirely. Not to mention that, in general, for riders it is 6 times cheaper than a taxi. Drivers only earn a portion of their running costs - there is no commercial or profit incentive to drivers but rather to share the cost of commuting and reduce congestion and emissions by filling up empty seats. People will always use taxis, we have no interest in trying to replace taxis. Our interest is in replacing the single occupancy, driver-only vehicle, to eliminate waste.
For Drivers
Here you will find some answers to questions about using Avego Shared Transport as a driver.
2.2.01 Q. How much do I earn by offering my space capacity to others?
A. It depends on the number of seats you are sharing on your journey. The standard rate a rider is charged, per seat, is $1 for the first mile and $0.30 per mile thereafter. You receive 85% of these funds and the Avego network receives 15% of these funds. You cannot make a profit on your journey, or you would be judged to be a commercial driver. Therefore, we limit the overall reimbursement to the rate that the IRS has declared is the standard reimbursement rate for automobile mileage. In 2008 this was set to $0.58 1/2 cents per mile.
2.2.02 Q. I have downloaded the iPhone app and now I want to start sharing my seats with riders. How do i get started?
A. Please check our Avego Quick Start Guide for Drivers.
2.2.03 Q. Avego is no longer giving me verbal instructions alerting me to pick up and drop off passengers. Why not?
A. You've probably got your "ringer" set to off. Look at the upper left-hand side of the iPhone. The silver switch is flicked to the back (the fluorescent orange "dot" is visible). Another possibility is that the volume on your ringer has been turned down to the minimum.
2.2.04 Q. How do I exit from Driver mode?
A. You can exit from Drive mode at any time by selecting the "Cancel" option at the top left hand corner of the screen.
2.2.05 Q. Can I use the same account to act as a driver and as a rider?
A. Yes, you can use Avego to share spare seat capacity when you drive, or to find someone else to give you a ride.
2.2.06 Q. Is it legal for me to share spare seat capacity with strangers for a fee?
A. This is called "carpooling", and 12 million people in the United States use some form of carpooling daily. By laws established after the oil shortages in the US (and much of the rest of the world, as well), insurance companies must provide standard passenger coverage for carpoolers on their standard car insurance policies. Expenses are recoverable only to the extent expended, of course, which means that drivers cannot charge for services on a profit-making basis. If a driver charges enough to make a profit in transporting passengers, that would make a driver a commercial driver, like a taxi driver, and that wouldn't be allowed. In the United States, Avego uses the IRS statutory 2008 rate of 58.5 cents per mile as the standard amount that a driver can recover. Over the course of a journey, Avego limits your income to insure that you are not becoming a commercial driver. This could include such fees as tolls, parking, etc. However, as of December 2008, the only thing considered is the mileage rate.
2.2.07 Q. How do I identify a rider that I am about to pick-up?
A. Avego will provide you with a photo of the rider. Avego will also send a personal identification number to the rider, which you can enter into your iPhone at the start of a journey to further verify their identity.
2.2.08 Q. Why isn’t my vehicle on the list of available vehicles?
A. We have now updated our database of car makes and models to include all of the most popular vehicles that people drive. If your car is not listed, please contact support@avego.com to let us know.
2.2.09 Q. I’m setting up a new route, how often should I suggest stops?
A. As often as you would like. Keep in mind that, as of version 1.0.3, when you try to create a new stop you will be informed of any existing nearby stops, to ensure that you don’t create a duplicate stop.
2.2.10 Q. What are ghosts?
A. Ghosts are simulated riders that request transport from you. This allows you to experience and test the application without having to pick up real passengers. This means you can go through the process of accepting, picking up and dropping off without actually picking someone up. When you are prompted to enter the rider's PIN you enter the ghost's auto-generated PIN, "7777". Ghost names always end in RIP.
2.2.11 Q. I’ve arrived at the pick up point and have been asked to enter the ghost's PIN, but I don’t know what it is?
A. A ghost’s PIN is always 7777. So just enter 7777 whenever you are asked for a ghost's PIN.
2.2.12 Q. Why am I not being offered any ghosts?
A. The "Simulated Rider" setting must be on. To turn this on:
- Start the Avego application
- Go to "Options"
- Then go to "Settings"
- The click on the option to turn it on.
If you are still not being offered any ghosts on your journey, this may be due to one of the following reasons:
- Ghost journeys must be at a minimum the lesser of 20% of the route distance or 750 meters. Therefore your routes may be too short so please bear this in mind.
- If you route has many stops very close together over a short distance, the system may not be able to identify a journey for a ghost to take.
2.2.13 Q. When can I expect to pick up a ghost?
A. You should be offered ghosts on almost every route you drive, as long as the route is long enough to accommodate a ghost’s request for transport.
2.2.14 Q. How many ghosts can I pick up?
A. The number of ghosts you can pick up is generated randomly between 1 and your car's maximum capacity minus 1. So if you have a car capacity of 2 you will only ever be offered 1 ghost.
2.2.15 Q. The Avego application closed while I was recording a new route, do I have to start the route again?
A. No, you can resume recording from where you left off once the application loads again.
2.2.16 Q. I am setting up a new route and my passenger is suggesting the stops for me. Do I have to pull over to suggest the stop?
A. Yes, you must pull over. The Avego application has a safety feature that does not allow stops to be created while you are moving.
2.2.17 Q. When I looked at my Driver Routes page online, the usage count on some of my routes seems a lot lower then it should be. Am I doing something wrong?
A. No, if you have edited any of your routes online, eg. added a stop or blocked stops, your “Usage Count” for that route will be reset to 0.
2.2.18 Q. There are stops on my route that I don't think are safe or don’t like, how can I stop them from coming up?
A. You can block them from your dashboard on the Avego site.
- Log in to your online account.
- Go to the "Driver Routes" tab.
- Click the route which is displaying the stops you don't like.
- A list of stop on that route will appear on the right of your screen.
- To block a stop just click on the name of the stop.
- Once you've clicked all the stops you want blocked, click save and those stops will no longer appear on your route.
For Riders
Here you will find some answers to questions about using Avego Shared Transport as a rider.
2.3.01 Q. How much does it cost me to ride?
A. Our pricing will eventually vary by country. However, this December 2008 release has been set to charge everything in US $ at the US rate, which is $1 for the first mile and $0.30 thereafter. That's about half the cost of driving, about the same cost as public transit, and about six times cheaper than taking a taxi.
2.3.02 Q. I’m trying to book a ride, but it says I have no credit in my Avego Wallet. What do I do?
A. In order to travel as a rider using Avego, you have to be prepared to pay the driver, to partially reimburse them for the cost of the journey. To do this, you need to "top-up" your credit using the Avego Wallet.
2.3.03 Q. Why do you use Avego credits rather then just accept credit card payments?
A. The main reason is to reduce the cost of the Avego service. Every time you make a credit card payment, the credit card company (or Paypal, etc) charges the vendor (Avego in the case, acting on behalf of the driver) at least two fees: a per transaction fee and a percentage of the transaction fee. In cases where the transactions are just a few dollars, the per transaction fee can double or triple the cost of the financial fees and in fact make small payments infeasible. We use Avego credits to reduce the operational costs of running the Avego service.
2.3.04 Q. Do I need to use the Avego iPhone application to book and take rides, or can I use a regular mobile?
A. While the iPhone Avego application makes it easy to see whether you have any immediately available services in your area, you can use any mobile phone, via SMS/text messages or e-mail, to: (a) book rides, (b) receive notifications, (c) receive receipts of your journeys, and (d) rate drivers.
2.3.05 Q. I'm not seeing any services available in my area. Am I using the application correctly?
A. Well, actually, we expect it to take a good many months and even years before people have excellent service availability in many parts of the world. Depending on where you are and the rate of adoption of Avego in your area, you may not see good services the first several times you use the application. But, never fear! When you use the application to search for service availability between two places, Avego registers your interest in that area, and as services become available over time, you will be sent a message indicating when services are improving in your area. You can even register the frequency and time of day of your travel so that we can better match you with drivers as their services become available. Remember, Avego is literally building a new form of transit network, and that takes time.
2.3.06 Q. If I use Avego as a rider, will the driver pick me up from my house?
A. No. Avego, will direct both the driver and the rider to a convenient pick-up location. You may, however, suggest a new pick-up location, or Avego "stop", using the Avego application.
2.3.07 Q. How do I know that it is safe to get in the car with a driver?
A. Avego does not vouch for every driver, but Avego does provide a self-correcting feedback mechanism. Users can rate each other following a journey. Riders may also select to restrict their shared transport matches to people they already know and trust. Remember, you are responsible for your own safety.
2.3.08 Q. Can I eat or drink while on an Avego Shared Transport journey?
A. No, please have respect for the driver and their vehicle.
Troubleshoot
Here you will find some answers to general troubleshooting questions about using Avego Shared Transport.
2.4.01 Q. What is the most recent version of Avego's application?
A. Version 1.0.3 is the most recent
2.4.02 Q. How do I check what version I have?
A. To check what version of Avego's application you have, you can:
- Turn on your iPhone.
- Load the iPhone app.
- Select "Options".
- Select "About".
- The version number of your application is display at the top of the screen.
2.4.03 Q. How do I update my version of Avego?
A. To update your version of Avego you can:
- Select the "App Store" icon on your iPhone.
- Then choose the “Updates” tab.
- Select the Avego update.
2.4.04 Q. My application displays the “Loading...” and does not go away
A. There are a number of causes for this problem. One example is when your iPhone changes from a WiFi network to GPRS/EDGE, this transition is not always handled properly by the iPhone(or network) and causes the app to stay on the "Loading..." screen. To fix this try and restart the Avego application. If the issue is not resolved, put the iPhone into sleep mode for 30+ seconds, by pressing the small button on the top left of your iPhone, and try launching the Avego application again. If the problem persists please contact support@avego.com and describe the symptoms and the time the issues occurred.
2.4.05 Q. My application closed unexpectedly. What caused it?
A. This may be caused by problems such as :
- Loss of GPS/GSM signal
- Incoming calls causing the iPhone app to minimize.
- iPhone memory issues - other applications sharing memory may cause the Avego app to close unexpectedly. Re-open the application and it should continue from where you were. If there are any problems when you re-launch the app, please contact Avego's support team, detailing the problem you are experiencing (see below)
2.4.06 Q. How do I contact Avego’s support team?
A. Avego's Network Operations Center team is available to answer your queries. Please e-mail support@avego.com and provide as much detail as you can able the problem you are experiencing , such as:
- The name of the route being driven or recorded
- User Activity (driving, recording, other)
- Date/Time
- Location (roughly) when the problem happened
- After restarting the application, did the iPhone app recover or did it return to the main menu screen?
- Was any rider information missing when you restarted the iPhone app?
- Any other information about what was happening at the time, for example:
- Did you receive a phone call?
- Did you receive an SMS?
- Were you running an iPod in the background?
2.4.07 Q. When I’m setting up a route the distance from the last stop turns red. Why is this?
A. The text turns red when the distance from the last stop is greater then 2 kilometers/miles. This is to encourage you to suggest a stop.
Futurefleet
Here you will find some answers to general questions about Futurefleet.
3.1.01 Q. What is Futurefleet?
A. Futurefleet is a complete end-to-end real-time management system for passenger transport operators.
3.1.02 Q. Where can I learn more about Futurefleet?
A. You can learn more about Futurefleet here, or watch some videos about Futurefleet here.
3.1.03 Q. Do you provide custom services for transit fleet operators?
A. Yes, just contact us at transit@avego.com for more details.
3.1.04 Q. What is Futurefleet's Transportal?
A. Futurefleet's Transportal is a dynamic customer interface that you can quickly configure and plug in to any website. The Transportal provides customers with the ability to plan a journey, book tickets, browse transport options from any stop on your network, and view your most up-to-date schedules.
3.1.05 Q. I am interested in trying out Futurefleet for my fleet. What do I do now?
A. Contact sales@avego.com to learn more about our Futurefleet pilot program.
3.1.06 Q. I have already defined my stops, routes, schedules and ticket prices in a separate file. Can I easily integrate this information with Futurefleet?
A. Yes! With Futurefleet, you can quickly and easily import all your content. You can even export all of this information as a GTFS file, which you can then upload to Google to ensure that your services can be looked up by your passengers directly in Google Maps.
Ticketing
4.1.01 Q. I want to purchase a ticket online, what payment method can I use?
A. You can pay using credit card or via a PayPal account www.paypal.com
4.1.02 Q. I have purchased my tickets online, how do I retrieve them?
A. To retrieve your ticket details you:
- Go to the website where you purchased the tickets.
- Open the "Journey Planner" page
- Click on the "Bookings" tab.
- Select the destination of the tickets you purchased.
- Enter the email address you used in the transaction and click "Search".
- The details of your tickets should be available and a link to a "Printer friendly version" should appear.
4.1.03 Q. I used PayPal to pay for my ticket and I am still waiting for my ticket reference details.
A. Your ticket reference details will be sent in an email to the address used on PayPal, as soon as PayPal has sent us notification of the transaction. This notification can take up to 30 minutes.