JTA switching vendors, paying up to $3M for new unified app

JTA switching vendors, paying up to $3M for new unified app (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — JTA is spending up to $3 million over the coming five years on a reboot of its MyJTA app, saying the changes will make it easier for riders to plan, track their rides and pay in one place.

The first part of the multi-phased plan for the new app is slated to roll out at the end of October.

In that first phase, users will gain the ability to pay in the app and track JTA buses and ferries in real time — something that can’t be done in one app now.

In phase two, the transit authority plans to add the Skyway and its on-demand service, called ReadiRide, with a completion date of July 2023. Phase three, which is not yet scheduled, will add paratransit transportation options.

JTA has said that future versions of the app could include services like bike shares, scooters, parking and Uber and Lyft, as well as the ability to communicate with JTA to report issues or concerns.

“I think it’s just the convenience of not having to jump all around your phone to the different apps. One stop shopping,” said JTA COO Charles Frazier. “The problem that we’re looking to solve is that you’ve got to go to several different apps on your phone to get any of those single things done,”

The new app will mean a vendor change for JTA, moving from Passport to Moovit. The mobility-as-a-service provider, which is owned by Intel, has a contract to be paid up to $3 million over the coming five years, including licensing and development fees.

The annual license fee for features introduced in phase 1 will be $300,000, plus an additional $200,000 annually for features introduced in phase 2. Phase 3 is yet to be negotiated. Annual fees are based on the number of vehicles tracked by the app.

It is unclear how many people use JTA’s existing app, which only tracks how many people use it to buy bus fares — about 15,500 to 18,000 tickets per month.

The app has 2,600 reviews on the Apple App Store and has been downloaded more than 50,000 times from Google Play.