As the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic recedes, the bus sector is working harder than ever to get people back on the bus.

Software solutions specialist EPM Bus Solutions aims to assist that process with the creation of new products and techniques that can help operators achieve that goal while making them ready for the post-Covid world.

“We work closely with our clients and from those conversations, we know they are really focussed on rebuilding revenue and patronage,” says Nick Brookes, software director at EPM and Omnibus. “That’s a given, obviously, but they are also seeking to enhance their operational effectiveness as well in order to reduce costs and drive profits.”

Article featured in The ALBUM Report 2022 by Passenger Transport

Tools to enhance business processes

It means Nick and his team at EPM and Omnibus have been looking very closely at developing new tools that aim to improve business efficiency. That process has been broken down into three component parts:

• ‘Before the day’ network planning;
• ‘On the day’ control room processes; and
• ‘After the day’ processes where commercial and operational performance are scrutinised.

“Our solutions play a key role at each of those three stages,” says Nick, adding that EPM and Omnibus have been closely looking at those ‘on the day’ control room elements in order to create new ways of improving efficiency and business productivity.

Part of that process is assisted by the breadth of solutions and products EPM and Omnibus already offer to clients. As Nick notes, they cover the complex chain of processes that run throughout bus businesses and they not only help to drive efficiencies but also lead to a better service for customers. “That really helps operators to deliver an excellent customer experience,” he adds. “That’s absolutely critical at the moment.”

Control room processes

Bus operator control rooms are the hub of the business and the key to ensuring fantastic on the ground service delivery. They cover a myriad of processes such as driver absences, lost mileage or on-the-road issues that can affect punctuality and reliability like traffic congestion or specific issues that require liaison with other departments, like in the case of an accident or vehicle breakdown.

“They are tasked with providing a high-quality service to the customer,” explains Nick. “Those core tasks – making sure the staff are in, the vehicles are on the road and the service is running reliably – are key to that goal.”

But to gain greater insight into how those processes actually work, Nick and his colleagues have spent time in bus operator control rooms to observe them in action. He says it was an enlightening experience.

“One of the things that really stood out was that operators have invested in lots of different solutions in recent years,” he reveals. “There are lots of different systems in there, but we noticed it was all rather disparate – control room staff have to go to lots of different places to gather that information. When they find it, it’s not always in an easy-to-use format either.”

Nick says this means that some of the decisions made as a result of not having a centralised source of information can sometimes have significant cost implications and even detrimental impacts on service delivery. “Without a central hub, control room staff have to move from one system to another and then to another rather than it being presented in a way that facilitates good decision-making,” he adds.

A good example of that is a driver who may have been delayed on the first half of their duty, perhaps as a result of traffic congestion. Nick highlights that control room staff may have to extend their break before they can go back on the road for their second half. It’s a problem that has to be solved immediately, so having visibility of issues in a central hub enables operators to make decisions efficiently and cost effectively.

Solving the problem

“There are lots of different impacts in terms of how that situation can be managed,” says Nick. “If we have all of that information displayed and available, and particularly the key information you really need to know to make effective decisions, that’s not only going to help improve the efficiency and operation of the control room but also the wider business too.”

He says this could be the engineering department or customers services, but the key advantage is that rather than control room staff resorting to time-consuming written reports, ad-hoc emails or phone calls – all parts of the organisation are automatically informed immediately, triggering further automated processes further down that line.

“So you have this single operations platform, that brings together not only information from our group systems, but third-party platforms too. That has the potential to not only create efficiencies but really improve communication across the business while avoiding the potential for errors to creep into the data,” Nick adds. “People don’t have to resort to frantic phone calls or wade through files or emails in order to find the information they need.”

Making the right decision

Of course, bringing together all these data sources also presents the opportunity to do new things with them. In that late running bus example, the driver’s duty may be in one system and the vehicle real time information may be in another, but by bringing those two sources together control room staff can be alerted in advance that there is an emerging issue that needs solving.

“We can facilitate proactive decision-making,” says Nick. “It’s perhaps inevitable that if you have information tucked away in various different systems, sometimes you just can’t see the wood for the trees. By bringing those pieces of information together we can help people to focus on making the right decision while managing the operation as efficiently as possible.”

Integrated solutions

The first phase of Velociti Group’s development is to integrate between their new cloud-based Depot Allocation System, OmniDAS, and the EPM Traffic system to ensure that any staff-related incidents are automatically created. This streamlines the process and improves data integrity.

Getting the service out each day is one of the most important considerations for bus operators.

An incident on the road, unscheduled leave, communication and pay issues, the COVID-19 pandemic – scenarios such as these increase costs if duty allocation is not managed properly.

To remain ahead in today’s competitive market services must be delivered efficiently and with optimal resource whilst complying with legal and regulatory requirements. If COVID has taught operators anything, it is they need the right tool to work smarter. 

Allocate duties legally and with optimal resource

Sickness, booked leave, rest days and last-minute schedule changes mean that 10-15% of duties need to be reallocated on any given day. The challenge for operators is maximising the efficient use of available resources to cover this open work – and ensure duty allocation remains legal and assigned in the most effective way. 

A key function of depot allocation is to automate daily operations where no human intervention is required and come into its own when it is, making forward and on-the-day allocation a breeze. 

The controller should have clear visibility of the best matches for allocating uncovered work – and see this in an unbiased way. Information must be quick to locate and provide a summary of key details critical to making those informed decisions. For instance, only those that meet drivers’ hours, union agreements, local labour rules and company guidelines are listed. One important safeguard is the software will not let the controller make an illegal allocation and stop them at every attempt. This control of staff against relevant drivers’ hours legislation and company rules will offer assurances that drivers are only allocated to duties they are legally able to complete. 

Additionally, each drivers’ route and vehicle type training should be automatically captured so work is only assigned to staff who have prior knowledge of both. To ensure quality decision making, the controller needs to be alerted at the point where work is being considered where relevant experience is lacking. This adds another layer of confidence when making those quick decisions and potentially helps to prevent incidents that risk reputational damage. 

An important part of the reallocation decision process is the financial impact on the business. With bus driver wages accounting for around 41% (1) of operator costs, the controller needs to know when allocation choices will have a negative impact on pay. This way only the best driver in terms of legal rules and cost is chosen for the work. The simplicity to quickly identify available drivers and assign duties to them means the operator’s non-driving paid time can also be reduced. 

These capabilities become extremely important as operators not only look to rebound from COVID, but also to continue to respond to significant national and local drivers of change such as transforming for net zero, meeting Bus Service Improvement Partnerships (BSIP) requirements and shaping for future work.   

Quickly capture planned and real-time data

Schedules do not always go to plan in a live environment. Any number of situations can arise from unfavourable traffic conditions, accidents and vehicle incidents to driver absences and lateness. Far rarer are national emergencies such as the restrictions imposed on operators at the start of COVID. In all cases, bus operators must respond quickly and effectively to real world changes. 

To do this effectively, operators need to capture operational activities as they happen such as planned and unscheduled leave and events relating to accidents, complaints and disciplinary action. At the same time documents and DBS checks, data relating to CPC training and the expiry date of each driver’s CPC card, and issued equipment need to be recorded along with driver route and vehicle knowledge.  

Operators also need to better track their vehicles to quickly resolve allocation issues. The controller needs to see the assignment of buses to specific trips with all available, used and out of service vehicles displayed. The traffic office also needs visibility of allocated and unallocated running boards that are identifiable with mismatched buses as well as supplementary information on vehicle data, branding criteria and parking locations. 

For the smooth running of the business, it would be helpful for the operator if all this data could be captured automatically by one easy-to-use system that did not burden the busy controller. The traffic office’s workload can further be reduced by empowering drivers to manage their own duties, holiday and swaps. 

Benefits of payroll integration

Paying drivers correctly can be a challenge for bus operators. To avoid under and overpayment and retain a motivated workforce, pay needs to be accurate and account for actual hours worked, including overtime, duty rates, duty changes and so on. A depot allocation system with payroll integration is one way round this, and it can have multiple benefits for the operator and drivers. 

Firstly, it can save money. A controller who can see the cost of allocation can assign work to a driver who, for example, needs to meet their guaranteed paid hours and is legal to do so rather than one who would be on overtime. 

Secondly, it can increase efficiency because pay is calculated at the point of allocation. Also, it would be useful for the operator to have a system that automatically recalculated pay if a driver was involved in an incident and pushed into overtime. This would remove the burden from the controller and reassure drivers and the operator that payment is accurately recorded against hours worked. 

Finally, the controller needs a simple process to close the day or week and the finance department wants a fully accurate payroll-ready file that requires no data manipulation. Operators can reduce the risk of errors and improve efficiency if they were able to pass data between departments or teams without the need to share files and emails. By doing so, they would remove the need to create multiple versions of the same document. In terms of payroll, the traffic office will have a hassle-free way of sharing payroll data with finance, with neither team having to rekey information. 

Cross-departmental processes can also be streamlined with other teams to benefit the business. Analysts can extract data on drivers’ hours, overtime, mileage, etc for reporting purposes to identity timetable inefficiencies. 

All these scenarios reduce business risks and maximise productivity when making those quick decisions and put the operator in a stronger position to manage costs – and increase revenue – when responding to changes in the market and operating environment.  

Configurable around operator’s needs

When making those important decisions operators need to maintain strong union relationships and ensure compliance with local labour rules. This is achieved within rotas and duty plans – but also in the allocation process. To do this efficiently, operators need highly parameterised systems that can incorporate the complexities of the local labour agreements and provide multiple parameters to accommodate different labour rules across depots.   

As no two companies work the same, the depot allocation software must be entirely dynamic and configurable around the operator’s unique working practices. In terms of forward allocation, the operator needs to allow for a wide range of driver needs and have the flexibility to accommodate specific and complex requirements to ensure driver preferences are met. 

Also, the operator needs to define special days and may want to set a balanced holiday number so the same number of drivers are off all the time. In terms of payment, they may want to set pay rules, pay grades, pay codes, holiday and sickness entitlements and work guarantees. 

A system with a wide number of configurable options is available which allows for multiple levels of security so the operator can choose to use it effectively throughout the business.  

Conclusion

Bus operators are obliged to operate every duty, particularly one that is publicly funded, and they face potential penalties and reputational damage if they fail to do so. In the case of a subsidised route, the penalty can be higher than the loss of direct revenue from not running a service. Once an operator gets into the position of not running a route, bringing the service back on schedule can be a horrendous challenge.  

Highly configurable depot allocation software that gives real-time control over driver and vehicle management will help operators address allocation challenges. A system that is one source of truth for data which allows users to allocate and manage resources, produce timesheet and payroll information and automate staff sign-on – so the traffic office can focus on service provision. 

How Omnibus can help

With over 30 years’ experience in software and consultancy services, our depot allocation software enables passenger transport operators to better manage their resources in real-time.

Our software solutions are trusted by public transport operators and local authorities, and implemented in mainland Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

To discuss your depot allocation requirements, please contact us on 0161 683 3100 or complete the online form. 

(1) Source: Understanding Buses by Chris Cheek