Friday , June 4 , BUSRide sponsored a session at the 2021 Busworld Digital Summit , focused on the impact of digitalization on the school bus industry , the services provided , and the operations and profitability of the providers . The session was moderated by Tim Ammon , student transportation consultant , accompanied by industry experts Andy Ptak , CIO for National Express ; Maureen Cosyn Heath , Southwestern Ontario STS chief administrative officer ; and GP Singh , CEO and founder of Bytecurve .
Ptak opened the session by discussing the impact of digitalization at National Express and their focus of digitalization within the school bus and transit industries . According to Ptak , National Express is currently focused on six core areas of digitalization : customer-facing , operational excellence , driver-facing , vehicle facing , routing and analytics . “ With these core areas we are really trying to answer a few questions ,” Ptak said . “ How can we increase customer satisfaction and retention ? How can we increase ridership in the transit area , and how can we make it easier for our customers to do business with us ?” National Express is addressing these issues through various service implementations such as providing access to wallets and fare payment , providing transportation services using portals or mobile apps , and recruiting and retaining drivers through increased driver engagement and improved driver safety . The recent installation of tablets in vehicles assists with driver connectivity by enabling drivers to view schedules , utilize in-cab coaching , view driver behavior footage , speeding events , and examine performance metrics . Ptak added that when it comes to driver facing , National Express is focused on reducing service failures , maximizing utilization of vehicles , and reducing the cost to operate , all through data captured via vehicle digitalization . “ We are also looking at how we can better utilize data to improve our preventative maintenance and routing procedures ,” Ptak said . “ Using fault codes directly from the engine or even using our data collected from the vehicle to schedule work orders .” Through use of modern software , providers such as National Express are able to shrink route timetables , increase efficiency , and perform route optimization studies . “ We can see accident frequency and traffic flow through intersections and through the routes and then reroute around dangerous areas ,” Ptak explained . Ptak is optimistic that by the end of 2021 , all school bus routing will be done electronically utilizing software to import data from sources , such as the Department of Transportation and various transportation entities . “ The data that we ' re collecting at all these end points is really the foundation for these core areas ,” Ptak said . “ We are using this to see how we can reduce risk and improve safety , reach our customers better through surveys , and use our data to reduce waste and achieve operational excellence .”
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