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Case Study: Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC)Fixed Route Bus StatisticsFixed Routes: 51 BackgroundLocated in Greater Vancouver, Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) operates conventional buses, smaller community shuttles, SeaBus and a fleet of state-of-the-art trolley buses. The company was created in 1999 as a subsidiary of TransLink, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority, and their service attracts over 400,000 passenger trips per day. CMBC’s Community Shuttle division started in the fall of 2002 with 16 Operators, 6 buses, and 4 routes. It has since has grown and currently to over 365 Operators, 135 buses and 51 routes. CMBC employs more than 3,800 employees, including approximately 2,600 bus operators and 650 maintenance employees working out of six transit operating centres. ChallengesCMBC used Excel spreadsheets to do manual dispatch, and later customized their timekeeping system, TruTrack, to have dispatching functionality. However the system had its limitations, including double booking and bidding. With double booking, unless the dispatchers constantly communicated with each other, they could assign a single piece of work to multiple operators. The other challenge was bidding. With the previous customized system, they had to create ‘shift codes’ and enter it into the system manually. This could take dispatchers as much as three or four days to complete. SolutionWith several Trapeze solutions already in place at CMBC it made sense to extend their current technology infrastructure with Trapeze. “CMBC views its relationship with Trapeze as one that is based on the mutual objective of providing the public with on-time, reliable and efficient transit,” said Bereket Kebede, Project Manager at CMBC. The components implemented were the Trapeze OPS dispatch system with Sign-In Terminal and Web enhancement. The OPS Sign-In Terminal enables operators to sign in at a remote terminal and receive information about the day’s work assignment. OPS Web is designed to be used by individual operators to view their bidding requests, daily work assignments, timekeeping, and employee information. ResultsAccording to Mr. Kebede, the project was a success mainly attributed to the dedicated Trapeze staff working on testing and implementing it. “The results of implementing the OPS system were the automation of dispatching and better accountability of service. We anticipate OPS to give us more efficiency, better ability to forecast our deliverable service hours and manpower.” Coast Mountain Bus Company is confident that they are just scraping the tip of the iceberg in terms of the potential of the OPS solution. The system can help improve accuracy of dispatch assignments and the overall service reliability. It can reduce customer complaints related to service and automate processing so that existing staff can easily handle it. Next StepsNext steps for Coast Mountain Bus Company include installing Sign-In Terminals on their buses, and implementing OPS-IVR. Bottom Line“The OPS system is a fully featured dispatch and employee management application for any transit industry. It is not just a dispatch system; it is a one-stop solution for all your transit’s operational needs“, said Mr. Kebede.
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