RALEIGH -- When Josh Whiton put together a team of computer scientists to build software for mass transit systems, they frequently were given the same piece of advice.
"People kept coming to us and saying you need transit experts in your company," said Whiton, CEO of the Raleigh startup TransLoc. "We kept saying that, no, we just need to know how to write good software. That's what this industry is missing."
Six years later, Whiton and TransLoc have gone a long way toward proving their doubters wrong.
TransLoc now counts 16 transit systems as customers. This week, the Triangle Transit Authority awarded the company a $300,000 contract to create a single Web interface that will show bus locations and times for five of the region's transit systems.
The contract is unique for TransLoc, which has carved out a niche developing similar online interfaces for university transit systems, including N.C. State's Wolfline.
TransLoc's software creates real-time information out of data collected from GPS units equipped with wireless transmitters. The interface includes maps that allow a rider to see where a bus is on a route as well as updated schedules and smart phone applications.
Whiton, 30, founded the company in 2004 after graduating from NCSU. A year later, TransLoc landed Whiton's alma mater as its first customer.
Whiton said TransLoc differentiated itself early on by developing software that showed vehicles actually moving on the screen - as opposed to having their location updated every 30 seconds or a minute.
Such functionality was common in the video games that Whiton and his fellow programmers played in college.
The company's customer base includes Harvard, Princeton, the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University. The company didn't plan on targeting the university market, but that was where its product has resonated the most.
"The university student riding the campus bus is about the most wired, connected, educated transit rider in the world," Whiton said.
Whiton boot-strapped the company with his own money. Of the original four involved in designing the company's software, only Whiton and Dominique Bischof , 28, are still with TransLoc.
TransLoc's 12 employees work out of an old house that faces Moore Square in downtown Raleigh. Being close to the bus station was a strategic move, as it ensures that the company's employees take public transit and use the product.
"Most of the bad software you run across is so bad because the people writing it don't ever have to use it," he said.
The company has been profitable for several years, Whiton said, and has been expanding its customer base by about 50 percent each year.
"There's been a huge change in the mindset of the transit industry," he said. "We were almost a little bit early. We spent a couple [of] years really having to evangelize."
The company was one of six that applied for the Triangle Transit contract, which is being funded by a state advanced technology grant.
Brian Fahey, customer service manager for Triangle Transit, said the agency wanted a company that was focused on the rider.
"They have the experience of knowing how to present real-time information to the customer," he said.
The contract calls for Trans Loc to capture GPS data from Durham Area Transit, Chapel Hill Transit, Triangle Transit, Capital Area Transit and the Wolfline. The resulting interface will allow riders to see buses from multiple transit systems on the same map, better allowing them to plan trips.
Several local transit systems already use TransLoc competitors to provide real-time bus-tracking service. Digital Recorders, based in Research Triangle Park, provides the service for the city of Raleigh, while Chapel Hill Transit uses the California company NextBus.
TransLoc makes its own GPS devices that can be installed on buses, but Whiton said the company is eager to accept data from rivals.
"We'll take data from any tracking device out there," he said.
