D&G Bus, part of Centrebus Group, operates in Cheshire, Staffordshire and extends into Derbyshire and creates roadside publicity for stops not managed by a transport authority.

Following its expansion to include Chaserider, D&G’s managed bus stops have increased to 1,000, of which the new brand accounts for 70%.

The discrepancy is due to Chaserider’s stops being closer together and responsibility for maintaining displays in Stafford, Cannock and Lichfield resting with the operator.

Challenge

It immediately became apparent to D&G that a purpose-built solution was needed to prevent roadside publicity becoming a full-time job. As well as accelerating productivity, the solution needed to provide stop-specific displays with return journey times to reduce the high number of customer enquiries. It also required capability to combine timetables for rural stops with a case only on one side of the road. Achieving this in a spreadsheet was proving very complex with an increased risk of errors. 

Solution

An existing customer of the Omnibus scheduling suite, D&G implemented OmniSTOPdesign, which simplifies the creation of timetable publicity. Four key features stood out to D&G:  

• Timetable data is taken directly from OmniTIMES, ensuring accuracy and data integrity 
• In-built database to store case information and easily assign templates to stops 
• User-configurable templates provide complete freedom over style, size and format 
• Batch create PDF output in-house and without third-party software or support 

Result

OmniSTOPdesign has enabled D&G Bus to optimise roadside publicity, increase online sales and improve customer satisfaction.

“We wanted to make timetable publicity administration faster and more efficient. It now takes 3 seconds to create one panel instead of 15 minutes. We wanted to spend less time answering enquiries by providing better information. We generate thousands of pounds a week more in online ticket sales by adding our app to displays. Passengers can also access real-time journey information by scanning a QR code.” – Chris Almond, Centrebus Group Commercial Officer 

When you have 800 bus stops in your network and it takes up to three weeks to carry out a service change, you need fast and accurate timetable publicity software that you can rely on. There is simply no room for error.  

This was the case for Yellow Buses which carries approximately 14 million passengers on its 110-strong bus fleet across Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and East Dorset.

Since returning to local ownership and management, the long-standing Omnibus customer recognised the need to accelerate efficiencies throughout the business, starting with its publicity material.

Challenge

Yellow Buses’ commercial team were creating a generic PDF of the timetables for each stop and inserting it into Adobe InDesign backing templates. The output looked good – but the process was slow, taking approximately three weeks for the graphic designer to do each stop. And at one point, the team were sending the PDFs to a commercial printer for final production.

Additionally, the operator has four bus stop sizes in its network. Using OmniSTOP software (now replaced with OmniSTOPdesign), the team “would get so far before having to change the templates to get the timetables to fit in, which was very difficult” – Kevin Brolan, Commercial Assistant, Yellow Buses.

The operator required a similar easy-to-use tool but one which produced displays quickly and cost-effectively. The aim was not only to adopt an efficient software solution, but to reduce costs. There were four primary objectives:

• Reduce the time taken to create information displays
• Ability to tailor templates to requirements
• Promote other services – internal and external
• Reduce production and labour costs

The next generation timetable publicity solution, OmniSTOPdesign, had already been released and successfully deployed elsewhere – and Yellow Buses was keen to procure the application.

Solution

The upgrade to OmniSTOPdesign – a sophisticated publishing application developed in consultation with bus industry experts – was seamless and Yellow Buses appreciated the smooth transition. The solution addressed the operator’s key objectives and included additional features giving Yellow Buses complete control over template design from one piece of software. The solution included:

• Creating templates to any paper size from a range of layouts
• Working in real-time to assess and create different outcomes
• Automatically generate a line-of-route map for each service
• Option to add graphics in any format to enhance the displays
• Customising all text elements using preferred fonts and font sizes

“OmniSTOP was quick but the way we were using it, with graphic designers, meant progress was slow. OmniSTOPdesign is straightforward, very user friendly, logical and adaptive. The potential OmniSTOPdesign provides is endless. It doesn’t matter what size roadside material you have; templates can be tailored to exactly what you need,” – Kevin Brolan

Result

Since the upgrade, Yellow Buses has gained significant benefits which have improved business processes such as batch producing displays. The operator is now also utilising employees in an optimal manner.

Yellow Buses has been successful in:

• Reducing the time taken to create displays from weeks to hours.
• Saving a vast amount of budget in every service change by removing the need to utilise a graphic designer.
• Using colour branding on routes to make information clearer for passengers.

“We are very satisfied with Omnibus and its solutions – OmniBASE, OmniTIMES and OmniSTOPdesign. The intuitiveness of them working together has saved us valuable time and improved our operational efficiency. Without Omnibus we wouldn’t be able to do our jobs” – Kevin Brolan