Andrew McKechnie has spent 35 years in transit. He started at TransLink (originally BC Transit), where he spent a decade then moved into the transit software world, where he spent the last 25 years in roles such as deployment/implementation, product management and nearly another decade in solution engineering, helping agencies navigate some of the biggest platform decisions of their careers.

Now he's joined Spare as a Principal Solutions Engineer, and he's more energized about the industry than ever.

A transit nerd, by his own admission

Andrew grew up in South Burnaby. Both his parents worked in transit. For 10 years, he took the bus every day to school at 41st and Granville. When he came out the other side of school, he took what he figured would be a temporary job pulling fare boxes for BC Transit while he looked for something more permanent.

That was 35 years ago.

"I was going to just take my transit job for a couple years while I looked for the real job," Andrew says. "But I found out I loved it."

That love hasn't faded. He still notices every bus, paratransit vehicle, and microtransit van he passes. He wonders what's happening inside, how the trip was dispatched, how the rider got there at that exact moment.

He also keeps an old farebox by his front door. Whatever change ends up in his pockets at the end of the day goes into it. Once a year, he empties it and spends the money on something fun.

"I will admit, I am a transit nerd," he says. "And that's why I like this business."

Why Spare, why now

What drew Andrew to Spare wasn't just the product, it was the pace.

The transit industry has been through major technology transitions before. The shift from paper-based systems to legacy software took 10 to 15 years in many cases. What Andrew sees happening now, the move to modern cloud-native software built with AI, is going much faster, and agencies are driving that urgency themselves.

"The switch from legacy to modern software, software built for the cloud, built natively with AI, seems to be happening much faster," Andrew says. "People have a desire and a taste for it. They want it faster."

Spare, to Andrew, is at the center of that shift. Not as an up-and-comer, but as an established company already making a real dent. "Spare has the biggest, fastest impact on this business, which means also the biggest, fastest impact on individual people's lives."

That matters a lot to him.

What cross-functional experience actually means

Andrew has worked in implementation, product development, and nearly 10 years in solution engineering. That combination shapes how he shows up for customers in a specific way: when agencies ask hard questions about timelines, outcomes, or what a platform transition actually looks like, his answers come from experience, not estimation.

"I have a feeling and a flavor for what happens in an implementation. I understand what it takes to build and what the process looks like," he explains. "So now when customers ask those questions, the answer is more informed, more aligned with the real outcome rather than 'I think it'll be like this' or 'I hope it'll be like that.'"

This matters when agencies are making high-stakes decisions about modernizing systems that have served them for 20 years.

Curiosity over judgment

Ask Andrew what agencies need most from a technology partner, and he doesn't lead with features or platform capabilities. He talks about curiosity.

Every agency has a unique story. Unique processes, unique constraints, unique histories that explain why they do things the way they do. The instinct to jump to a solution after hearing one or two sentences, assuming you already know the answer, is exactly what erodes trust.

"When customers ask questions, they need their tech partners to be curious about why they're asking, instead of being judgmental," Andrew says. "The difference in how you present that 'why' is genuine curiosity versus judgment."

That curiosity extends to what the solution actually needs to be. Sometimes it's a new platform. Sometimes it's a process change. Sometimes the best outcome for an agency doesn't involve selling them something new at all.

"The answer shouldn't always be 'let's sell them something brand new and it'll fix everything,'" he says. "Let's understand the problem and see if we can solve it, whatever the solution looks like."

What he's excited to build

Two things stand out for Andrew when it comes to Spare's platform: the AI impact and the unified approach.

He's seen what happens when agencies are stitching together disparate systems, the overhead, the gaps, the time spent on problems that shouldn't exist. A platform that brings operations, scheduling, rider experience, and fleet together natively is a different kind of offer. Tighter integration changes what's possible.

"Spare’s unified platform is one of the things that excites me," he says. "A real one-stop shop, with native integration, not a collection of systems trying to talk to each other."

And the team he's joined matters to him too. He wants to be in a room with people who care about the work beyond closing deals.

"We want to improve the agencies Spare partners with," Andrew says. "I like not being the only person who feels that way in the room."

Looking ahead

Andrew's goal is straightforward: help agencies modernize. The ones still running on legacy platforms deserve a partner who understands what that journey actually involves, and he brings all of that to every conversation.

"Every day it feels like I can improve and affect and have an impact on people's lives," Andrew says. "That's what's kept me in this industry. And Spare is the one doing the most of that right now."