{"id":2607,"date":"2017-07-11T05:55:01","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T12:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/industry\/blog\/uncategorized\/eastbanc-helps-d-c-tackle-the-for-hire-vehicle-challenge\/"},"modified":"2023-07-03T11:43:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T18:43:10","slug":"eastbanc-helps-d-c-tackle-the-for-hire-vehicle-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/government\/2017\/07\/11\/eastbanc-helps-d-c-tackle-the-for-hire-vehicle-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"EastBanc helps D.C. tackle the for-hire vehicle challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Power BI empowering cities \u2013 Part 3<\/h2>\n

\"Eastbanc<\/a>With the explosive growth of rideshare services, such as Uber, Lyft and Via, along with continued demand for taxicabs, limousines and other vehicles for hire, cities are challenged to protect the public while regulating the expanding industry. The nation\u2019s capital is tackling the for-hire vehicle challenge through innovative Power BI<\/a> data analytics and support from Microsoft CityNext<\/a> partner EastBanc Technologies<\/a>, headquartered in D.C\u2019.s Georgetown section.<\/p>\n

The Washington, D.C., project started in early 2015 with what\u2019s now called the Department of For-Hire Vehicles (DFHV)<\/a>, said Victor Shilo, EastBanc\u2019s director of engineering. With the mission of providing citizens and tourists with a high-quality, safe and efficient experience, DFHV (formerly called the D.C. Taxicab Commission) had multiple data sets stored in various systems. This meant there was no centralized view of all activity, including driver\/vehicle records, lost-and-found reports, number of daily trips and other key metrics. \u201cThey were collecting some pieces (of information),\u201d Shilo explained, but needed \u201cdashboards that would be updated at least daily to have a comprehensive view of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compounding the challenge was the scale of DFHV\u2019s oversight of roughly 7,000 taxi and limousine drivers, and 40,000 unique daily trips\u2014managed by a small staff of less than 60 employees, half of whom spend their time in field enforcement. Data collected over months and years was fast becoming substantial and unwieldy.<\/p>\n

The solution<\/h3>\n

DFHV needed a business intelligence system capable of processing large amounts of data while enabling internal users with an intuitive dashboard to drill down, make data-driven decisions and see anomalies in real time. \u201cFor example, if there are normally 40,000 trips per day and they only see 20,000 trips, something is broken,\u201d Shilo said, adding that DFHV needed to visualize and monitor a variety of key performance indicators.<\/p>\n

EastBanc developed a Microsoft Power BI infrastructure to meet the department\u2019s rigorous, dynamic and real-time reporting needs. Power BI, a cloud-based suite of business analytics tools, provides data analysis, querying and reporting through personalized, visually rich dashboards that make it easy to gain insights, see inconsistencies and make decisions informed by data. In other words, EastBanc and Power BI helped provide the \u201cbig picture\u201d that DFHV needed to track driver records, fleet size and structure, lost-and-found data, customer complaints, fees collected, underserved neighborhoods and more. StateScoop featured the DFHV solution in this July, 5, 2016, article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Results<\/h3>\n

With EastBanc\u2019s Power BI solution, DFHV staff members can pull up key analytics in seconds on any device at any time\u2014instead of taking weeks to manually generate reports. In addition to empowering employees<\/a> to better analyze trends, take action, become more productive, reduce costs and optimize internal efficiency<\/a>, DFHV also made government more transparent by posting a public Power BI dashboard<\/a> for residents and visitors to assess its performance. \u201cWe\u2019ve quickly moved from using the data to manage our operations to providing transparency to the public of how we\u2019re doing, and more importantly, how the industry as a whole is also performing,\u201d said Ernest Chrappah, DFHV director. \u201cWe can have robust conversations about any industry issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Please learn more about EastBanc Technologies\u2019 innovative business intelligence work<\/a>, and read parts 1 and 2 of our Microsoft CityNext<\/a> \u201cPower BI empowering cities\u201d blog series:<\/p>\n