Durham CC extend DRT service to non-emergency patients 2008/09
Durham County Council have extended their use of the MobiRouter booking and scheduling system at the end of last year to incorporate non-emergency patient travel in the Sunderland and Teeside areas. The buses run to and from the Sunderland Eye Infirmary; the Sunderland Royal Infirmary; Hartlepool Hospital; University Hospital North Tees and the James Cook Hospital; servicing set stops at set times there, and then pickiing up and dropping off passengers in flexible time zones in the catchment area. The journeys are booked on an ad-hoc basis, but the call centre are able to combine the trips into logical routes using MobiRouter.
The routes giving the relevant pick-up times are sent automatically, using gprs technology, to data terminals in the buses, which have street mapping installed enabling the driver to pinpoint customer addresses.