County of Hawaiʻi Mass Transit Agency partners with Spare to modernize transit operations

Hele-On deployed Spare’s Enterprise Asset Management, Resolve, & AI Voice to streamline maintenance operations, centralize complaints, & deliver 24/7 support

HILO, HI, UNITED STATES, October 7, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — HILO, Hawaiʻi, October 7, 2026 – Spare, a provider of accessible mobility systems for public transit agencies, today announced the launch of their new partnership with the County of Hawaiʻi Mass Transit Agency (Hele-On) to modernize their transit and maintenance operations. Hele-On operates a network of services, including Hele-On fixed route bus and Hele-On Kako’o, its ADA paratransit program, that residents across Hawaiʻi County depend on daily to reach healthcare, work, and other essential destinations. With Spare, Hele-On will replace manual, spreadsheet-based processes with a single system for asset management, rider complaint resolution, and phone-based rider support. Together, these capabilities will help Hele-On improve fleet reliability, respond to rider complaints faster, and extend service accessibility for County of Hawaiʻi residents, without adding headcount.

“The need across Hawaiʻi County is big, we’re maintaining a fleet, fielding rider complaints, and answering phones for the entire county, often with the same few people wearing every hat. Spare gives us one place to manage all of it, so we can spend less time chasing information and more time keeping vehicles on the road and getting riders to where they need to go.” – Jennifer Martin, Assistant Administrator of County of Hawaiʻi Mass Transit

A more connected experience for a small team serving a large community
Hele-On’s team manages fleet maintenance, dispatch, and rider support for the entire county with a lean administrative staff. Hele-On serves some of the county’s most transit-dependent residents, riders who rely on the service not just for convenience, but for access to appointments, jobs, and communities that define their daily lives.

With Spare, Hele-On gains one system that connects vehicle maintenance, rider complaints, and phone support, replacing fragmented manual processes with real-time visibility. Instead of tracking work orders and complaints across spreadsheets, staff can manage the full-service lifecycle from a single platform.

How the Spare platform helps Hele-On deliver better service
Spare’s platform gives Hele-On one system that supports fleet maintenance, complaint resolution, and rider communication.

Key capabilities include:
– Enterprise Asset Management for work orders, inspections, preventive maintenance scheduling, and parts inventory, giving a small maintenance team greater visibility into fleet health and reducing reliance on manual tracking
– Resolve for centralized rider complaint and case management, with compliance-ready timeline tracking and contractor-level permissions
– AI Voice for 24/7 phone access to trip information, ETA requests, and rider support, reducing call backlog for a lean administrative team and helping residents reach the agency outside business hours

“Hele-On is doing more with less, and that’s exactly where we want to help. Connecting fleet maintenance, rider complaints, and phone support into one system means a small team can deliver the kind of reliable service Hawaiʻi County residents count on every day.” – Kristoffer Vik Hansen, CEO and Co-founder of Spare

As Hele-On modernizes its operations, the agency is building a stronger foundation to serve Hawaiʻi County’s residents, showing that accessible, reliable transit can be delivered even with lean teams and limited resources.

About County of Hawaiʻi Mass Transit Agency
Hele-On is a service of the County of Hawaiʻi Mass Transit Agency and provides countywide public transit services on 22 fixed and flex routes countywide, Hele-On Kakoʻo for ADA complementary paratransit service in Hilo, Kailua-Kona and Puna in partnership with MTM Transit, a shared ride taxi program with three taxi companies in Hilo, countywide senior and persons with disabilities transportation service in partnership with Hawaii County Economic Opportunities Council (HCEOC), a vanpool program in partnership with Commute with Enterprise and 23 HIBike bikeshare stations in Hilo and Kailua-Kona in partnership with PATH. Hele-On transports approximately 800,000 passenger trips a year on a fleet of more than 40 buses and vans. For additional Hele-On information, please call (808) 961-8744, TDD/TTY: 711 through the relay service, or email: heleonbus@hawaiicounty.gov. Learn more at heleonbus.hawaiicounty.gov.

About Spare
Spare is the AI-native transit operations platform that helps government agencies deliver more reliable, efficient and community-focused mobility. Built on a highly configurable platform, Spare brings together paratransit, microtransit, fixed route, and asset management so agencies can run essential services with greater accuracy, visibility and confidence. Trusted by hundreds of transit agencies and municipalities, Spare combines deep transit expertise with responsive innovation: real-time decision support, purpose-built AI and the ability to adapt systems on the fly. Spare works with major transit agencies, including LA Metro, DART, PSTA, MBTA and AC Transit/BART. Learn more at www.spare.com.

Maria Osipova
Spare
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Written By: EIN Presswire