FAYETTEVILLE, NC - The City of Fayetteville, N.C., has implemented Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) software from Mentor Engineering to manage its transit, police, and fire fleets, according to a release from the company.

The City chose CAD and AVL software suite for the fixed route transit operation.

For the paratransit fleet, Mentor Engineering provided a custom integration between the rugged Mentor Ranger computers in the vehicles and Trapeze Novus software in the office.

Melissa Coleman, IT project manager, reported, “The system lets the transit dispatchers know where everything is, so if a paratransit client calls wondering where their ride is, the dispatchers can easily look and tell the customer exactly how far away the bus is.”

Additionally, the City outfitted its public safety fleet, which includes 125 police vehicles and 60 fire trucks, with Mentor BBX vehicle tracking devices, which provide real-time location information to Mentor Streets and OSSI Public Safety Software in the dispatch office.

Using the vehicle tracking functionality, “we are able to send the closest unit available to save on routing and cut down on response time minutes,” said Coleman.

Through Streets, Fayetteville staff can see the locations of all the City vehicles — transit, fire and police — on one map.

“The system has made the biggest difference in reducing overtime and increasing employee efficiency”, explained Coleman, “And for the emergency responders, it’s all about cutting down on arrival times.”