The Routing Company lets you hail a ride — on public transit

The Routing Company is rolling out apps that bring the convenience of on-demand ride-hailing to public transit.

Led by CEO James Cox, formerly the global head of product operations at Uber, the 40-person Boston startup has developed rider, driver and fleet management software to rapidly assess where riders want to be picked up, and how to gather them into a shared bus or shuttle efficiently.

Unlike carpool-style services such as Lyft Line and Uber Pool, which only place two to several riders into a driver’s vehicle, The Routing Company can group 18 people into a bus or shuttle with the vehicles arriving to pick up a passenger between 2 and 12 minutes from the time they hail their ride.

Riders can be picked up where they are, rather than walking to a stop on a fixed route.

Cox told CNBC that, because about half of buses and shuttle services are run by public transit agencies and half by private sector companies in the US, the startup works with both. But The Routing Company hopes its apps will make bus- or shuttle-hailing a standard offering by public transit agencies around the world.