Case Study
How Procore increased the safety and effectiveness of its campus shuttle program
Industry: Construction Software
Location: Carpenteria, CA
Employees: 1,500
The Company
Procore has revolutionized the way the construction industry works. Their suite of software, which covers project management, financials, safety, and productivity, are some of the most used construction applications in the world today. At their headquarters in Carpenteria, CA, Procore offers multiple workplace experience programs, including a company shuttle program that transports over 900 employees around campus. Procore needed a way to manage the shuttle program as effectively as their applications manage projects on a construction site.
While Procore knew employees used the shuttle program, they didn’t have any way to track how many employees used it, which shuttles employees used, and how often. In order to ensure the shuttles were cost-efficient and scalable, they needed a way to capture data on employee usage and leverage it to manage the program effectively.
Industry: Construction Software
Location: Carpenteria, CA
Employees: 1,500
The Challenge
Procore’s campus in Carpenteria is spread across five different office buildings, with the buildings located on opposite sides of a freeway. They operate six shuttles that transport people between the different offices, as well as to and from multiple Park & Ride lots due to the limited parking space on campus. They also hold orientation weeks for new hires, and run shuttles from the hotel-to-campus and back for the trainees.
In order to ensure the shuttle program meets the needs of employees and remains cost-effective, Procore needed to know which shuttles were being used and when. To do this, they were looking for a way to track ridership on the shuttles and to use the data to make decisions about adding shuttles and adjusting pickup schedules. In addition, they wanted to increase safety on the shuttles by implementing a system that limited access only to Procore employees. As each rider entered the shuttle, they wanted shuttle drivers to have the ability to identify the rider and confirm that they worked for Procore.
At the start of the program, ridership data was collected by hand on a limited number of shuttles. A handheld clicker was used to count the number of riders on a shuttle, and then this data was manually logged into an Excel spreadsheet. Not only did this method not collect all of the data that was needed, but it was time-consuming and left room for human error. The manual headcount also didn’t provide a way to check that all of the riders on the shuttle were Procore employees.
Procore already used RFID badges for security to the office buildings on campus by requiring employees to scan their badges to gain access. They wanted to expand the functionality of their existing RFID badges to enhance security on the shuttles, as well as to collect ridership data. To do this, they would need RFID readers that captured the unique number of each badge, instead of the employee ID number assigned to the badge.
In order to meet the needs of employees, ensure cost-effectiveness, and to scale with the company, Procore needed to track ridership and improve security with a solution that incorporated their employee badges with an RFID reader that reads the unique number of each badge as it’s scanned.
The Solution
Procore put idChamp RS3 badge readers and iPads loaded with stratus-io in all six shuttles. The idChamp RS3 badge readers are positioned at the entrance of the shuttle, so as each person boards the shuttle, they scan their employee badge at the reader.
The stratus-io app tracks and validates smart badge scans from any mobile device without the need for manual headcounts or verification. Using stratus-io on the mounted iPad, the shuttle driver can monitor each scan and confirm in real-time that each person boarding is a Procore employee. Each scan is matched to stored employee data in stratus-io, tracked, and uploaded to the server automatically every five minutes.
Procore admins can log in to the stratus-io portal and view every scan collected on the shuttles. The scan data includes a time stamp identifying when the rider boarded the shuttle and which shuttle they rode on. They can search this data, or filter the data to view ridership on specific days, for certain times, or for individual employees.
Importantly, Procore can save frequently viewed data sets and have a report sent to them automatically on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. They can then export this data to Microsoft Excel to sort and filter the data even further, allowing them to identify trends in ridership and make decisions to improve the effectiveness of the program.
With stratus-io, Procore can track ridership, enhance security on the shuttles, and analyze the efficacy and cost of the program without the burden of manual headcounts and data entry every day.
“It’s creating security for our company that didn’t exist before.”
– Gerry Morison, Transportation Program Coordinator, Procore
The Results
With stratus-io, Procore has tracked, secured, and scaled the workplace experience shuttle program at their headquarters in Carpenteria.
Procore uses stratus-io’s real-time validation functionality to confirm that each person boarding a shuttle is a Procore employee, creating a safer environment for riders. The system increases security not only on the shuttles, but to the campus as a whole, as employees move between offices or parking areas.
Data tracked with stratus-io is used to add additional coverage to routes and to adjust the schedule of shuttles based on peak ridership times. This allows Procore to ensure the shuttles that run are full and effective in getting employees to the office on time. By using the data from stratus-io to make changes to the program, Procore increases the number of people who ride the shuttles, while decreasing the cost per rider.
Procore is also able to create incentives to get more employees on the shuttles and reduce costs even further. Procore implemented a contest for a new shuttle route that rewarded the employee who rode the shuttle the most often. As the rider’s scans are already tracked with stratus-io, Procore admins can export data for any time period from a particular shuttle and sort the data to learn who rode a shuttle the most times.
With stratus-io, Procore is able to track and analyze the data and make adjustments to the shuttle program without spending time taking headcounts or updating spreadsheets day-to-day. This ensures that the data is accurate and that the tracking process is automated and efficient, allowing them to expand the program further.
