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Trapeze Client Honored for Innovation

NEXUS Call Center receives UK National Transport Award

June 27, 2003 (Manchester, UK)—Trapeze client, Nexus was recently awarded the National Transport Award for Technology & Innovation in recognition of its integrated UCALL DRT and Care Services Dial-A-Ride operations.

Nexus is the PTE responsible for transport in the Tyne and Wear region of England, which includes the City of Newcastle. In 2002, the organization launched UCALL, one of the first urban DRT schemes in the UK, to provide transport to the under-serviced West Newcastle area.

At the same time, Nexus consolidated the call centers for UCALL, the Nexus Care door-to-door service and Traveline, the regional transport information service for North East England.

Nexus uses a number of Trapeze products to manage client information, scheduling and real-time dispatch.

“We need to deliver all of the information passengers require, including fares, timetables, journey planning, DRT journey booking and special needs information,” explains John Usher, the Call Center Customer Service Manager. “To do this we needed to harness technology to bring extra benefits to our customers and to drive the growth of our call centre and services.”

With 60,000 calls per month and more than 14,000 registered users, Nexus relies on Trapeze PASS to automate its booking, scheduling, dispatch and client management for the Nexus Care Service. To manage the flexible routing requirements of the UCALL service, Nexus uses Trapeze FLEX. Both applications interface with on-board mobile computing devices installed in all 24 vehicles to provide real-time information to the call centre and dispatchers.

“The technology provides the flexibility of operation essential to the successful delivery of a demand responsive transport system,” Mr. Usher says. “The multifunction nature of the call centre provides a tailor-made service ranging from initial enquiries about public transport schedules through to individually customised journeys.”

The call center operates from 7:00am to 8:30pm seven days per week with a staff of 41. More than 97 percent of all calls are answered within 30 seconds.

The National Transport Awards were presented on June 5th at the 6th UK Chairs of Transport Conference in London, England.

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About Trapeze
Established in 1990, Trapeze Software delivers proven scalable, innovative technology solutions for public, community and commercial passenger transport. A growing number of organizations throughout Europe and North America use Trapeze integrated solutions to increase efficiency, improve service and control costs. Trapeze Software has offices in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada and the United States.


About Nexus
Nexus is the Passenger Transport Executive responsible for transport in the Tyne and Wear region. In addition to the UCALL and Nexus Care services, the organisation also operates a light rail and ferry service and oversees the non-commercially operated public bus routes in the region.