Planner SOP 004: Manage Vehicle & ADA Announcements

Purpose

This procedure is to ensure that the vehicle announcements are properly maintained and loaded into myAvail. The vehicle announcements are used for ADA announcements at the stop level, external announcements at the pattern level, and periodic marketing messages. 

Operational Impact and Metrics

Operational Impact: The in-vehicle announcement system is very important to maintaining ADA compliance. While passengers are in the vehicle, it is required that they hear the major timepoint or points of interest called out. When the vehicle pulls up to the stop and the doors open, it is required that they hear the external announcement to tell them what route the vehicle is on. If the announcements are not properly maintained, the transit agency may be out of compliance with ADA regulations, and cause confusion to the riders.

Metrics: When announcement changes are pushed out to the vehicles, the user can monitor the ‘Vehicle Files’ tab within myAvail. This will tell users which vehicles received the changes, and which have not until 100% of the fleet received the change

Definitions

Frequency

1. Stop and Route Announcements – Whenever service is changed, the announcements need to be reviewed for accuracy. New announcements may need to be added based on the service change.
2. Periodic Announcement – These are used for marketing and safety purposes. The transit agency should schedule these announcements based on marketing and safety campaigns that they have scheduled.

Roles and Responsibilities

Implementation of this procedure is the responsibility of transit agency staff that are involved with transit scheduling. 

Procedure

This procedure describes the high-level steps involved to manage current announcements and create new announcements. 

Create, Edit or Delete Announcements

1. 1. Log into myAvail
   2. Click the ‘Announcements’ tab
   3. Click the Green plus arrow
   4. Fill out all appropriate fields within the pop-up window
   5. Click save icon

Edit Existing Announcement

1. 1. Log into myAvail
   2. Click the ‘Announcements’ tab
   3. Locate the announcement you desire to edit and click the Pencil icon to edit the announcement
   4. Edit the information you desire to change from the pop-up window
   5. Click save icon

Delete Existing Announcement

1. 1. Log into myAvail
   2. Click the ‘Announcements’ tab
   3. Locate the announcement you desire to delete from the list and click the red ‘X’ icon to delete the announcement

Export and Deploy Announcement Files (Upload to Vehicles) 

1. 1. Log into myAvail
   2. Click the ‘Announcements’ tab
   3. Click the “export” button
   4. Locate the export files
   5. Move the new/updated files to the appropriate folders (see supporting documents)
   6. Click “Build & Deploy” tab
   7. Click “Deploy” tab
   8. Click “Other Files” radio button
   9. Check “Annunciator Files”
   10. Enter an “Effective Date”
   11. Click “Deploy”

Supporting Documents

Related SOPs

1. SP-001-01 Planning – Schedule Data Management and Implementation
2. SP-002-01 Planning – Daily Schedule Analysis 
3. SP-003-01 Planning – Farebox and APC Exceptions & Adjustments 
4. SP-005-01 Planning – Using the Replay Tool