SINGAPORE — Up until January, his morning commute involved three different transfers: Taking the train from Chua Chu Kang to Jurong East, then boarding the east-bound train to Tanah Merah, followed by a shuttle bus to the entrance of Changi Naval Base (CNB), before taking another bus to his ship at the base.

Now, military expert Raphael Kang takes a direct bus ride straight to the entrance of the base, sleeping throughout the entire trip, thanks to Beeline, a crowdsourcing bus app.

“The pain is more of not getting a seat, squeezing with people and constantly changing transport,” said the warfare specialist, who works on the RSS Steadfast.

He added that waiting for the shuttle bus that takes CNB personnel from Tanah Merah Station to the base was a “very terrible experience”.

Whenever there were events at the base or in-camp training for NSmen, he would have to queue for about 15 minutes to let two buses filled with personnel go first.

Beeline, launched last year by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) and the Land Transport Authority, is a crowdsourcing platform that matches users and private bus operators through route suggestions from users.

Based on the suggestions, demand and profitability, bus operators working with the platform will choose whether or not to offer the route for the users.

Each ride costs about S$4 and promises commuters a comfortable, direct ride to their destinations, such as workplaces, with minimal stops.

The take-up rate for the service had been slow initially, with only 300 bookings in the first two months of its launch last August, even though the authorities had received over 10,000 suggestions.

According to the IDA then, some trips during that period saw about two to three people per bus service. The IDA is now looking at partnerships with other organisations to expedite the crowdsourcing effort.

“(This is) a new approach to organise the routes because in organisations, everybody finishes at the same destination,” said Captain Wei Lai, a navy personnel who was part of the team involved in bringing Beeline to improve the commuting experience for CNB staff.

“We just need to have multiple starting points and one destination so it further optimises the crowdsourcing efficiency.”

Beeline has seen about an average of 20 to 25 passengers per route, with about 15 routes per day. Mr Liu Feng Yuan, director of IDA’s data science division, said that the response from Beeline users has been positive.

To date, the Beeline app has seen more than 37,000 downloads and received more than 32,000 route suggestions. Mr Liu added that the platform is still an experiment, and its viability is being assessed.

“We found that it’s much better when we work with the companies and organisations who want to help get their staff to work,” he said.

Other than CNB, Beeline is also working with Wildlife Reserves Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, the National University of Singapore, and the areas around one-north.

Beeline is also in active discussions with JTC Corporation and companies in Changi Business Park.

Captain Wei said Beeline provided CNB with data analytics capabilities that allowed it to enter postal codes of non-driving navy personnel into a database and draw up a heat map showing clusters of potential Beeline users.

Since January, when the pilot was launched, 5,500 tickets have been sold to CNB personnel, and 600 servicemen have boarded the buses that participate in Beeline.

Despite the healthy figures in downloads and suggestions, Mr Liu said that to further sustain the usage of Beeline, the platform needs more participation from bus operators so that more routes can be listed on the app.

Working with four bus operators currently, Beeline sees an average of 15 routes daily, a number that has remained unchanged since November.

The Beeline team is now in talks with other operators to boost the number of bus operators to 10 by year end.

“They’re happy with our analytic tools that enable them to manage operations and deliver more punctual services,” Mr Liu said.

“At the end of the day, it’s really about the Smart Nation vision. We want to use technology and use data to improve the life of citizens.”