When building a new timetable, are you wasting time compiling background information first before you can register the bus service with the traffic commissioner? Our timetabling solution OmniTIMES allows you to register the timetable with just the journeys and the timings. Find out more in the podcast.
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Disruption to bus services has a negative impact on the customer experience so it is important that transport operators can manage re-allocation problems on-the-spot and with the least number of processes for faster resolution.
But the impact of driver shortages and staff sickness is increasing workloads for controllers. They use multiple systems to resolve staff-related operational issues and this eats into their time, which would be better spent managing the network. How can operators streamline the recording of bus driver incidents and free up their controllers to focus on higher value work?
Operators use a range of control room systems – often disparate technology that is not integrated – to record information on absences, customer feedback, accidents, lost mileage, and monitoring punctuality and reliability. Each operational action may also require a record to be made or updated on one or more separate systems.
A staff-related incident, for instance, that results in changes to planned mileage is recorded in the depot allocation system and the bus incident reporting screen. If using disparate data sources (systems which function on their own without sharing data or working with other computer applications), the controller rekeys the same information twice; once in each system. This is not only tedious and time-taking but also makes managing disparate databases difficult as the bus operation grows.
There is also a lack of data integrity borne out of two different sources of the same information. Re-entering or transferring data is prone to human errors and lack of precision and can result in varying versions of the same information being entered into different systems. In addition, any discrepancy takes time to identify and rectify.
Furthermore, driver availability issues mean operators are cancelling and amending services in lots of different systems. If the controller is distracted and there is a delay in recording information, the data is logged incorrectly or they forget to enter it in one or more systems, this can result in out-of-date information going out to the end-customer.
Data that is manually entered in multiple systems or generated from a variety of sources can become unreliable if it is not consistent. This, in turn, may lead to difficulties with reporting and poor decision-making, and result in significant cost implications for the operator and directly impact the service to the end customer.
Operators can overcome these challenges by automating interactions between their data systems and in doing so streamline processes. For instance, staff-related changes recorded in the depot allocation system can automatically transfer to the bus incident reporting screen, meaning data only needs to be entered into one system. This reduces the time required to record the incident, therefore, increasing staff efficiencies, and allows for faster response times to solving problems as they arise.
Software integration also ensures operational data across systems is consistent. The removal of duplicate data entry points reduces the opportunities for human error, providing operators with a single source of truth for decision-making and reporting purposes.
With over 30 years’ experience in software and consultancy services, Velociti Group (EPM and Omnibus) has comprehensive knowledge of the passenger transport industry and well-established software solutions to improve operational agility.
Control360 automatically consolidates operational data from multiple control room systems into one central location, empowering operators to efficiently manage on-the-day issues and achieve significant cost-savings.
To book a free consultation, complete the online form.
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17 January 2023 – The bus industry is navigating its way through a challenging operating environment with changes in travel routines and driver shortages making the demand for bus services increasingly complex.
To overcome these challenges, bus operators need to become more operationally efficient.
In a live webinar delivered on 17th January in conjunction with the CILT UK, Software Director Nick Brookes and Product Owner Aiden Proctor discuss how bus operators can make their transport business more efficient whilst retaining and engaging their workforce.
Watch recorded webinar
Our ebook discusses how to measure the performance of each of the components which make up an efficient, profitable and sustainable bus operation.
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18 January 2023 – Newport Transport is expanding its partnership with Omnibus by moving its existing software to the cloud to increase efficiency.
The operator will migrate its timetabling, mapping, scheduling, rostering and timetable publicity software to a cloud-based scheduling platform, and upgrade its depot allocation system, OmniDAS, to a cloud-native version of the solution.
The cloud scheduling platform allows for seamless collaboration on jobs, increases accuracy with automatic file management and provides operators with a clear picture of their operation through enhanced reporting capabilities.
OmniDAS cloud provides operators with a holistic view of their operations with real-time driver and vehicle management control to enable services to be delivered safely and legally whilst minimising costs.
The cloud solutions will eliminate infrastructure costs and together provide the capabilities Newport Transport needs to streamline processes on a secure and flexible platform.
Morgan Stevens, Director of Delivery (Commercial) at Newport Transport, said “The modernisation of our processes is key to providing reliable bus services more efficiently, and we look forward to achieving this using software solutions we already know and trust.”
The operator serves nearly 8 million customers every year and is the main provider of bus services in Newport. The operator, which has been in operation since 1901, runs nearly 50 services throughout the city, including routes to Cardiff, Cwmbran, Chepstow and Monmouth. It also operates the Chepstow to Bristol service with dedicated TrawsCymru buses and drivers.
Mr Stevens added: “Omnibus has in-depth knowledge of the passenger transport market and has proven experience in cloud-deployed solutions. We are confident Omnibus will enable us to continue streamlining business processes with solutions that support our growth plans.”
Peter Crichton, Founder of Omnibus, said: “We are proud to continue and build on our relationship with Newport Transport providing them with solutions that will further increase their efficiency and help streamline their processes. We are committed to delivering innovative solutions which support operators’ long-term goals and enable them to overcome their challenges.”
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Newport Transport: https://www.newportbus.co.uk
Omnibus Solutions: www.omnibus.solutions
Press contact
Harminder Sangha
harminder.sangha@epm-bus.com
07538 935 568
Intuitive. Seamless. Dynamic.
12 October 2022 – Compass Travel (Sussex) Ltd, the largest independent bus operator in the South East, has selected a package of Omnibus software solutions to improve operational efficiency, including cloud-based scheduling and depot allocation.
The cloud solutions will provide the Worthing-based operator with seamless collaboration on schedules, real-time driver and vehicle management for faster handling of disruption events whilst minimising costs, and enhanced reporting capabilities to improve service quality.
Michael Bishop, General Manager at Compass Travel, said: “Having considered other options, Omnibus software solutions offered the most comprehensive and flexible capabilities to support our operation. Since the acquisition of Omnibus by EPM Group and ongoing investment, there is a great choice of solutions and synergy between the two companies to drive innovation, collaboration, agility and efficiencies.”
Compass will migrate its existing Omnibus software (timetabling, vehicle scheduling and rostering) to the cloud scheduling platform and introduce OmniMAP, a digital mapping solution developed specifically for bus operators and transport authorities.
To reduce the administrative burden on allocators, the operator will digitalise manual allocations processes by adopting OmniDAS, a cloud-native real-time depot allocation system. OmniDAS provides users with more control to efficiently allocate and manage resources, produce timesheet and payroll information, and automate sign-on.
Linked to OmniDAS, Compass will implement driver app OmniENGAGE to automate driver requests and enquiries and streamline communication between allocators and drivers. It will also adopt data sharing solution BODS Exporter to ensure that compliant transport data is submitted downstream.
Michael, who also sits on ALBUM’s (The Association of Local Bus Company Managers) board of directors, said: “Having shared values, we are proud to extend our partnership with Omnibus. Its solutions are built on a deep appreciation for passenger transport operators of all sizes.
“Moving our existing scheduling software to the cloud and implementing new solutions will help us work efficiently and provide unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability across the business.
“With OmniDAS, our allocators will gain capability to work holistically across our Lewes, Worthing and Dunsfold depots and report on them individually and as a collective. The driver app will support staff retention by improving communication with drivers and providing them with an easier way to submit holiday requests, shift swaps and overtime requests.”
Peter Crichton, Founder of Omnibus, said: “Omnibus is delighted to further expand its relationship with Compass Travel in offering cloud-based scheduling and depot allocation along with a data sharing solution.
“Operators need to be agile to react to the changes in passenger demand and require a deep understanding of the data relating to their operation in order to achieve their business goals. With our in-depth knowledge of the industry and proven ability to provide robust solutions, Omnibus is well positioned to support operators with their challenges.”
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Omnibus Solutions: www.omnibus.solutions
Press contact
Harminder Sangha
harminder.sangha@epm-bus.com
07538 935 568
Grow patronage, boost revenue, and drive operational efficiency.
Join us, Omnibus and EPM on stand J70, on 1st to 3rd November 2022 at the NEC, Birmingham at the Euro Bus Expo 2022.
Euro Bus Expo is the passenger transport must-attend event to discover new ways to move your business forward from leading manufacturers and suppliers to the bus and coach sector. Visitors can explore and experience the latest vehicles, meet suppliers representing the breadth of the sector, and attend three days of informative seminars from some of the industry’s most respected names.
Take a seat and photo on the 1931 AEC Regent
We have the newly-restored AEC Regent 486 bus on our stand, kindly provided by Transport Museum Wythall. The double decker bus has a remarkable history spanning more than 90 years. Starting life on the roads of Birmingham in 1931, it now has a new lease of life after a restoration that cost £500,000. Visit the stand and take a look at this spectacular bus in its glory.
Book a demo of our new solutions
As well as experiencing the AEC bus, we will be hosting demos of our solutions.
Meet the team
Join us on stand J70 and speak to Software Director Nick Brookes, Client Managers Penny Johnson and Dan Newman, Omnibus’ Founder Peter Crichton, Product Owner Aiden Proctor, Client Support Paul Wreggit and IT Manager Dave Lambert on the latest passenger transport software to increase commercial, financial and operational performance.
RSVP: Book your ticket
Visit the website: Euro Bus Expo 2022
at Euro Bus Expo 2022, NEC Birmingham
At a time when driver recruitment and retention are the biggest challenges across the transport sector, bus operators should consider how they can make their organisation a place where people want to work.
One such area is the process for managing driver holiday requests.
It can be quite frustrating for a driver, who at the end of their working day needs to speak to someone about a holiday request, only to find that person is unavailable or busy seeing to other drivers. It is possible for the driver to have a clear and easy way of requesting leave that does not affect their own time, such as a driver app which can be used remotely and independently when convenient.
Other options that make managing the driver’s work-life balance easier can also be available. For instance, it can be easy to swap a shift for a more suitable start or finish time or know where they might be at a given time on a given date in the future. Having easy access to duties weeks in advance and the content of those duties empowers your drivers with better management of their own time.
The benefits go beyond the time saved discussing leave or swaps with the person responsible for driver allocation; the quality of information is vastly improved, and it differentiates your organisation to current and potential employees.
Drivers who want to volunteer for overtime can also be accommodated. They do not have to scan the noticeboard after each shift or burden the allocator; they too can request overtime at their convenience or even just let the allocator know they are available.
If a driver can do all this at any time, it adds an element of fairness. The driver does not miss an opportunity to request holiday just because they could not get into the office and the overtime does not always go to the person who is in the canteen at the right time. If overtime is available through a driver app, it is available to all your drivers at the same time in the same place.
Driver requests are a time drain and fraught with inaccuracies when done manually. By leveraging technology, you can make the process a positive experience where staff are encouraged to take the appropriate leave and come back recharged, refocused and recuperated.
Drivers need support to help manage their home life around varying shift patterns and you need an efficient and fair process which makes the depot allocator’s life easier, whilst improving the level of control and accuracy of information.
Coming soon – In part 2 of our series on driver communication, we consider how you can ensure your staff are kept in the loop about operational and business decisions.
Part of Velociti Group, Omnibus has over 30 years’ experience in software and consultancy services and has comprehensive knowledge of the passenger transport industry and well-established software solutions to meet your challenges.
Our driver app OmniENGAGE enables operators to stay connected with drivers whilst reducing administration to your operations team remain focussed on service provision.
To book a free consultation to see how we can assist with your challenges and requirements, complete the online form or call 0161 683 3100.
Intuitive. Seamless. Dynamic.
23 September 2022 – Transdev Blazefield is rolling out Omnibus’ cloud-native depot allocation solution to its bus operations in the north of England after successfully using the software at Team Pennine.
OmniDAS, a complete depot allocation system for real-time driver and vehicle management, will support the group to increase flexibility and efficiency of multi-depot working and reduce operational costs.
Vitto Pizzuti, Operations Director at Transdev Blazefield, said: “We needed visibility of all depots individually and collectively to improve efficiency and manage resourcing issues such as driver shortages.
“Cloud-native OmniDAS will provide the flexibility to analyse and drill down into the data of all depots, giving full transparency of all our driver and vehicle resources across the entire operation and comply with legal requirements as well as company policies and procedures.
“Also, working from one centralised system ensures consistent processes and data integrity.”
Part of Transdev’s UK business, Transdev Blazefield is based in Harrogate and has 9 subsidiaries operating from 10 centres. They include: Coastliner (Malton & York), York & Country (York) and The Harrogate Bus Company (Harrogate) in North Yorkshire; Flyer (Bradford), The Keighley Bus Company (Keighley) and Team Pennine (Halifax and Huddersfield) in West Yorkshire; and The Burnley Bus Company (Burnley), Rosso (Rochdale, Burnley & Blackburn) and The Blackburn Bus Company (Blackburn) in Lancashire and Greater Manchester.
OmniDAS cloud is due to be rolled out at Harrogate with implementation at other depots to follow. The decision to upgrade from the legacy product comes after the successful implementation of OmniDAS cloud at the group’s newest subsidiary, Team Pennine, which was using a competitor’s product prior to the acquisition in July 2021.
Vitto said: “Proven in operation at Team Pennine, OmniDAS brings the established functionality of the legacy system with enhanced reporting capabilities and can be accessed from anywhere.”
Peter Crichton, Founder of Omnibus, said: “We are delighted to strengthen our relationship with Transdev Blazefield. OmniDAS will allow Transdev to spend more time on service provision without having to worry about time-consuming administration.”
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Omnibus Solutions: www.omnibus.solutions
Press contact
Harminder Sangha
harminder.sangha@epm-bus.com
07538 935 568
Intuitive. Seamless. Dynamic.
Bus operators have invested in multiple control room software systems from depot allocation to incident management in order to run a smooth operation.
To maintain operational efficiency, they need to work in harmony as often an action or data point in one system has an impact in another.
But without integration this can lead to double entry of data, which is an inefficient use of time and can lead to inaccurate data. Also, the team can make poor service decisions if all the relevant information is not easily accessible to them.
Control room teams and engineers rely on each other for information. The engineer needs to know when a vehicle has broken down, what to expect when attending or dealing with a breakdown and if a driver has reported a vehicle fault. In most instances, the engineer only discovers a vehicle problem when they receive a message from the operations team, and this does not always include all the key information they require to efficiently deal with the problem.
The depot controller needs support from the engineering team to keep the service running by providing the required vehicles. They need to know when a vehicle is available after being worked on by the engineering team. The receipt of this information can be slow, and this results in a delayed resolution to a time-critical problem.
Communication between controllers and engineers can be poor or slow due to several reasons. The control room and engineers are often based in different parts of the site and can be completely remote from each other. But more importantly, both functions use different software tools, so email and phone calls are the current means of communicating and sharing data.
An operator’s engineering teams use a range of software solutions and providers to manage vehicle maintenance, inventory and costs. Integrating these third-party solutions with your vehicle allocation and incident management systems can improve operational efficiency by automating data flows.
For the engineer, this means that when the depot controller records a vehicle defect, the data is automatically populated in the system with the relevant incident categorisation against the correct vehicle. Time is saved as there is no need to enter the data manually; the system is updated automatically as soon as the driver reports the incident to the operations team.
For the depot controller this means that when a vehicle is taken off the road for maintenance it is automatically marked as not available for allocation. Similarly, when it is released by the engineering team using their software system, the vehicle immediately appears as available in the depot allocation system. The controller does not waste time chasing the engineer on the vehicle’s status.
The controller can also supply details of vehicle incidents, with details of the bus and any defects, straight to the engineering team. This saves valuable time as there is no need to rewrite the information in an email or relay it over the phone. Furthermore, the controller does not need to then mark a vehicle as unavailable in the allocation system because that is updated automatically as soon as the engineer takes it off the road. A double timesaving for the operator!
With over 30 years’ experience in software and consultancy services, Velociti Group has comprehensive knowledge of the passenger transport industry and well-established software solutions.
We offer an end-to-end solution. For engineers and depot controllers, we can integrate with engineering software solutions to improve your operational efficiency by automating communication and data transfer. As soon as an incident occurs, it can be logged through the Bus Incident Reporting Screen (BIRS) in the EPM Traffic system and reported to engineering. Engineering can quickly process the issue and make the vehicle unavailable, and this is then automatically updated in OmniDAS.
To book a free consultation to see how we can assist with your challenges and requirements, complete the online form or call 0161 683 3100.
Grow patronage, boost revenue, and drive operational efficiency.
20 July 2022 – Transdev Blazefield is using Omnibus to revolutionise operations at its subsidiary Team Pennine – and streamline work processes and collaborative working across locations.
The operator bought the former Yorkshire Tiger business from Arriva in July 2021 and took the decision to move the team onto OmniDAS, the new cloud-native complete depot allocation system.
Since implementation, the solution has transformed forward and on-the-day planning at Team Pennine’s operations in Halifax and Huddersfield, both in West Yorkshire.
Vitto Pizzuti, Operations Director at Transdev Blazefield, which serves Lancashire, North & West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, said: “This is a significant milestone for Team Pennine and Transdev. As a group we are proud to deliver a quality and reliable service for our customers and to do this we need the best tools for our team to do their jobs.
“We are excited to be the first to adopt cloud-native OmniDAS. The solution has revolutionised Team Pennine, giving the team the capability to manage its pool of 120 drivers from a single platform.
“This enhanced collaboration between Team Pennine operations will streamline work processes, giving our depot controllers the time to focus on more important tasks. This increase in operational efficiency will also significantly reduce the risk of errors within the business.”
Vitto added: “The Omnibus team has the expertise and a thorough understanding of the UK bus market to deliver solutions which confidently meet operator requirements.”
Peter Crichton, Founder of Omnibus, said: “Decades of experience and industry knowledge go into the development and enhancement of our solutions. As a result, we offer unmatched capability and flexibility for improving efficiency, reducing costs and mitigating risk.
“We’re delighted OmniDAS has improved efficiency at Team Pennine and look forward to continuing our trusted partnership with Transdev Blazefield.”
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Omnibus Solutions: www.omnibus.solutions
Press contact
Harminder Sangha
harminder.sangha@epm-bus.com
07538 935 568
Intuitive. Seamless. Dynamic.