Rider Alerts Basics

When a transit agency has an upcoming stop closure planned or an immediate detour for a route, it is necessary to communicate that information to riders. Swiftly's Rider Alerts product provides a quick and easy way to push out alerts to riders on various platforms: Google Maps, Transit App, Twitter, and more. 

[Coming Soon] Overview of Creating a Rider Alert from a Service Adjustment

It is easy to create a rider-friendly Rider Alert alongside a Service Adjustment. Simply enter the details of the Service Adjustment and Swiftly will suggest rider-friendly text that will be shared with riders. You will see an in-line preview of the Rider Alert at the bottom of the creation flow. This text will update as you adjust the details of the Service Adjustment.

Once creating a Service Adjustment, you will see a draft Rider Alert in the creation flow

If you want to edit the text of the alert, simply click the “Customize” button. Note: once an alert has been customized, it will no longer auto-update with changes to the Service Adjustment form. Click “Use Default” to return to the auto-generated text.

An Alert Link can be included and often shows up in 3rd party rider apps as a way to show more information about alerts. Links can also be customized per-adjustment so if your agency has an upcoming event with a specific alerts URL, you can include that here.

Swiftly has the ability to customize templates, default alert link, and whether Rider Alerts are on by default. Please reach out to [e-mail] to make any configuration changes.

Service Adjustments can also be added from the Adjustments Log.  Simply click the bell icon on the relevant Service Adjustment to add a Rider Alert.

As with the creation flow above, Rider Alerts can be customized as needed.  To edit the affected routes, dates, stops etc., edit the underlying Service Adjustment.

Overview of Creating a Rider Alert from Scratch

How to Set-Up an Alert

This is a step-by-step guide on how to use our Rider Alerts product. 

Step 1: Click the "Add Alert" button in the top right corner.

 

Step 2: Select your time range for the alert. 

Use this field to select can always select "Now" if the alert is happening at the current moment. 

If the alert is an ongoing alert and does not have an end date you can select "This is an ongoing alert," which will leave the alert up indefinitely until the alert is manually deleted, which is explained at the end of this article.

 

Step 3: Select the route and stops that this alert affects. 

If you select a stop that serves multiple routes, the affected routes section will populate all routes that utilize that stop. You can always delete the routes that are unaffected by the alert. 

Step 4: Choose the cause of the alert.

Pick an option from the drop-down list that best suits the cause of the alert. If none of the options work, you can always select "unknown cause" or "other cause."

Step 5: Choose the effect of the alert. 

Pick an option from the drop-down list that best suits the service effect of the alert. If none of the options work, you can always select "unknown effect" or "other effect."

Step 6: Add title and description for the alert. 

Step 7: Preview and publish your alert. 

In this step, you can decide whether you want to publish this alert to Twitter. Use the blue toggle button to turn off or on the push to Twitter. Note, you must be logged into Twitter before creating the alert for it to publish to your account. 

Once you've previewed your alert, go ahead and click the blue "Publish" button. This will publish the alerts to all of your connected apps and platforms. If you are posting to Twitter, a separate window will pop up where you can edit the tweet and post it to Twitter. 

Finally, you'll see your alerts in the Rider Alerts product under the relevant views. You can always delete an alert by using the "Delete" button. Deleting an alert will delete it permanently from the Swiftly Dashboard.

Creating a Rider Alert in Service Adjustments

If your agency has purchased Service Adjustments, a Rider Alert can be created within the tool. When modifying service, turning on the Create Rider Alert toggle switch will direct you to the Rider Alert product upon clicking the submit button. Time Range, Affected Services, and Cause and Effect will populate in Rider Alerts from the Service Adjustment. 

Take Rider Alerts Beyond the Basics

Swiftly Customer use cases:

• How RTA Maryland Uses Rider Alerts to Update Passengers During COVID-19

Customer Community Training Webinars:

• Passenger Communications with Rider Alerts