AVAIL TECHNOLOGIES:ITS ENHANCES FLEET

MANAGEMENT

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CONTENTS

About Avail Technologies 3

Why do we need maintenance intelligence? 4By Alice Wilson

Enhancing service with fleet monitoring solutions 5By Rick Spangler

Optimize the fleet for better service 6By Kevin McKay

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Founded January 1st 1999, Avail Technologies is a licensed Corporation in the state of Pennsylvania. Headquartered

in State College, Pennsylvania, also known as “Happy Valley”, Avail integrates CAD/AVL ITS systems for the public transit industry. Focusing on providing unsurpassed customer service to deliver reliable solutions that earn an agency’s trust ,is personal at Avail because we are the only employee owned and operated ITS integrator in the industry today.

By design Avail has remained a small company that concentrates on providing cost effective engineering services and progressive open architecture technologies to a target market of transit operators that share our old fashioned values approach to doing business.

This targeted approach is a huge benefit to our customers as it allows Avail to dedicate all of our resources to truly understanding the needs of your agency. Applying more than two decades of experience in the ITS for public transit industry, as patent contributors and pioneers, our award-winning staff consistently delivers valuable fully integrated technology solutions.

Behind the scenes the Avail staff works with transit professionals throughout North America, to design, develop and adopt progressive technology solutions, which provide the features and benefits that improve your daily operations. Our experience has not only taught Avail how to maximize the positive results that can be achieved through technology adoption, but it has allowed us the opportunity to perfect our approach to systems integration.

Today the results of this experience are evidenced in Avail’s unprecedented track record of 100% customer satisfaction and our staff being recognized by vendors and transit professionals alike, as possessing some of the most talented and sought after engineering resources in the Public Transit market space today. At Avail we’re real people integrating smart, reliable, and convenient ITS solutions.

About Avail Technologies

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Fleet ManagementSYSTEMS

Why do we need maintenance intelligence?

Bus purchases make up the majority of all capital costs for the average transit agency. According to the 2014 American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Factbook, there are 2.75 billion rolling stock vehicles currently in service nationwide. Bus prices can range from $400,000 to $700,000 or more based on size, manufacturer, chassis configuration and number of buses ordered. Typically paid as up-front costs with a useful life expectancy of 12 years, investing in rolling stock is big business.

Buses today roll off the assembly line packed full of technology. There are on-board diagnostic tools that monitor safety features, fuel systems, intelligent transportation systems, mechanical components and information systems to measure vehicle health and operational performance. These on-board tools are just that… on board. The ability to share, analyze trends and remotely report the status of these systems hasn’t advanced as much as the in-vehicle technology itself.

Currently the most consistent in-vehicle diagnostic information received by agencies comes in the form of the reactive Man Machine Interface (MMI) which requires the driver to monitor audio and visual notification systems in-person and communicate their observations to dispatchers.

There are some in-vehicle diagnostic systems that utilize GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular communications to transmit data. Being proprietary in nature, they do not share data airspace and they require a separate antenna for each system being monitored.

Challenges of current in-vehicle diagnostics Agencies trust the health of their very expensive sub-components

to reactive data prone to human error. Unable to be properly analyzed through trending information, small inexpensive issues can quickly grow into significant costly problems that could compromise reliability and quality of service. Even something as simple as multiple antennae on the rooftop of a bus opens the agency up to areas where a mechanical fault can result. More antennae means more holes, which means more of a chance for damaging leaks to permeate the outer shell of the bus. It also increases the likelihood of damage to the antenna itself, resulting in expensive repairs, replacement or interruption of system monitoring.

In-vehicle diagnostic systems that require maintenance personnel to use disparate software to even identify a problem are not only cumbersome and inefficient, they also lend themselves to being under-utilized, affecting overall fleet performance and reliability.

What the industry needs today Right now the industry has bus components equipped with

electronic sensors that identify failed, failing or maladjusted conditions as it relates to powertrain alarms, propulsion, braking, HVAC, fluid levels, electrical, ITS and on-board equipment systems.

Agencies are equipped to react to the breakdown of components. A part breaks. Maintenance staff uses the tools in their toolbox to fix it,

and the bus is placed back into revenue service. But how long will the repair last? How reliable is that fix?

What the industry needs today is a transit-smart toolbox that equips maintenance and operational staff with Maintenance Intelligence (MI). Focused on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Maintenance Intelligence gives your agency all the diagnostic data across every device at a glance and presents it to staff seamlessly in one centralized location. Fully compatible with any agency’s CAD/AVL system, MI puts real-time maintenance data in the hands of those who drive the business every day.

Maintenance Intelligence allows staff to evaluate condition-based maintenance as part of overall vehicle health monitoring and remote vehicle diagnostics. With MI, failure prediction capabilities become a reality by utilizing configurable tolerance conditions that automatically warn staff when a sub-component is failing or maladjusted.

There’s no longer a need to solely rely on communications from a driver about failed parts, or wait for the bus to return to the garage to be inspected by a technician. This means maintenance staff can be proactive, working to prevent breakdowns before a part fails and thus minimizing repair costs behind the scenes with little to no impact on quality of service.

Maintenance Intelligence also gives agencies the capability to analyze mechanical trends not only for individual parts, but also across manufacturers, makes, models, even production years to know what the most reliable pieces of equipment are. The use of one centralized on-board computer that connects to all of the sub-components eliminates the need for antenna farms, still allowing an agency to gather data while the bus is on the road.

The benefits of maintenance intelligence Using MI, agencies can reduce in-service breakdown instances and

improve overall fleet capability to enhance rider experience while providing an unsurpassed quality of service. The reduction of false alarms and the ability to analyze and calculate the cost of breakdown repair versus preventative maintenance helps optimize operations by saving time and money.

Centralized data allows agencies to gain fleet-wide perspective to make transit-smart business decisions. This same data can be shared with peer agencies to help create a cohesively reliable fleet that connects a regional community. Comprehensive information that can be shared with manufacturers will help them improve their product offerings, resulting in safer and more reliable buses to your doorstep. With Maintenance Intelligence, everybody wins.

Alice Wilson serves as product manager for Avail Technologies, State College, PA, an ITS technology solutions provider for transit operators throughout the United States. Visit www.availtec.com for more information.

By Alice Wilson

Something as simple as multiple antennae on the rooftop of a bus can open agencies up to areas where mechanical faults can result.

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Fleet ManagementSYSTEMS

“Role-based” dashboards help turn raw information into proactive answers.

Data generated by a great fleet management system can be shared with any user anywhere.

Enhancing service with fleet monitoring solutionsAvail Technologies, State College, PA, is an intelligent transportation systems (ITS) solutions provider for transit operators in the United States, specializing in CAD/AVL solutions for fixed route and paratransit. In an interview with BUSRide, Rick Spangler, vice president of Customer Relations at Avail Technologies, answers a few critical questions about fleet monitoring.

What are the essential elements of a comprehensive fleet monitoring system?

As an ITS provider, we’re about providing tools to help solve tech problems. We’re constantly asking ourselves: What do our customers need and how can we tailor our tools and services to meet that need?

There are two types of users we encounter most often, internal and external users. Internal users are the transit agencies – what tools can we provide the transit agency to monitor their fleet? External users are their riders – what can technology do to enhance the rider experience?

Within the subgroup of internal users, there are many different departments at each transit agency. These can include operations, maintenance, planning, dispatch, customer service, marketing and administration.

For operations, the best fleet monitoring program provides tools that monitor the health of the service in real time. This includes everything from vehicles in use, drivers working, schedule adherence and other data.

Maintenance is concerned about the health of the fleet – so the best software also provides pre-trip monitoring, vehicle health monitoring and preventative maintenance monitoring.

Planning is focused on the overall level of service. They have to monitor running times, dwell times, passenger counts, demographics, fare collection data, etc. The best tools will help them process that data and then refine the agency’s services.

How does fleet monitoring software effectively coordinate the disparate interests at a transit agency – operations, planning, administration, etc.?

When agencies are looking for a solution, they need to be mindful of these disparate interests. Each of these departments has different specific needs to accomplish their individual goals in support of the overall agency objectives. Not having a uniform system only exasperates these differences. You need an integrated solution that ties everything together, so that operations data feeds right into planning data, which feeds right into maintenance data. The exchange of data should be seamless to enable efficient workflows within the organization.

Open architecture, the basis of Avail’s platform, is a great way to accomplish this. Any data generated by a comprehensive fleet management system can be shared with any user in the system on any tool, no matter the tool’s vendor. Many agencies have already made significant investments in software tools, and it’s unrealistic to expect them to rework their entire system to achieve seamless integration.

Software that offers “role-based” scenarios is another great way to turn data into information. One tool can serve every user in an agency, but agencies can tailor various user interfaces so that each department only receives the information necessary to do their job.

How can fleet monitoring software help operators to enhance the rider experience?

When we think about the passenger in 2015, they have far more insight to agency operations than they have in previous years. Before, they only had access to the printed schedule. Now we’re giving passengers real-time information tools that are as mobile as they are.

In some ways, the riders are now just as proactive in monitoring service as agency employees. This helps transit agencies to attract choice riders. Rather than just the transit-dependent population, agency services are being used by millennials, professionals and students. They’ve got websites and apps with real-time vehicle tracking information – and if the vehicle isn’t really where the agency says it’s going to be, those riders are the first to call that to the agency’s attention.

Real-time Passenger Information (RTPI) is a great tool to not only communicate with your riders, but also stay on top of fleet service levels. Passengers, your advocates in the field, should be able to look at a transportation center’s sign, the app on their smartphone, and be on the phone calling into the voice system – and all of the information should match. If the information doesn’t match, riders will often alert customer service agents and the issue can be addressed. This type of interaction helps make riders feel empowered and in control of their transit experience, while at the same time helping operators maintain reliable service levels.

Fleet Monitoring systems are now capable of providing answers and not just data, empowering the riders and operators in a way that keeps them ahead of the curve.

Rick Spangler serves as the vice president of Customer Relations at Avail Technologies, an ITS technology solutions provider for transit operators in the United States. Visit www.availtec.com for more information.

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Fleet ManagementSYSTEMS

Optimum fleet monitoring gives dispatchers the tools to share information with passengers, so they are more informed on services.

Optimize the fleet for better serviceBy Kevin McKay

Inviting a holistic approach to running smoother transit operations, real-time diagnostics, GPS, maintenance intelligence, and monitoring systems contribute to an optimized fleet management system. A cohesive suite of technology helps realize greater cost effectiveness and a more seamless and efficient use of fleet resources. In addition, it makes life easier for your ridership, as you strive to provide them with consistent, reliable and safe bus transportation.

Fleet optimization comes down to two essential objectives for the company: use information technology to effectively operate the fleet, and translate that information into noticeably enhanced experiences for the passengers.

Optimizing dispatchThe process begins by simply knowing where the vehicles are in

the yard and where drivers need to go. While the dispatcher typically has access to and control of this information, something as simple as installing a kiosk where drivers can locate their own assignments and the physical location of the vehicles can create organizational efficiency that translates into saved time and resources.

Current fleet management solutions allow dispatchers to monitor when drivers arrive on-site, log-in and drive to their correct destination at the correct time. An integrated information technology system allows dispatchers time to proactively address any situation before riders begin calling in to complain.

Today’s technology has the capability to track the number of passengers onboard each vehicle at different times throughout the shift and detect any overcrowding or under-utilization. This ability to virtually see the bus gives dispatchers insight that goes well beyond traditional GPS-based vehicle tracking.

Fleet management systems help dispatchers prioritize their focus and tasks, whether they are monitoring 20, 100, or more vehicles. Imagine a scenario where a number of buses could be running late because of inclement weather or other unforeseen circumstances. It’s that one bus in particular with a critical transfer point that needs immediate attention. Fully integrated fleet management systems help dispatchers connect people and places more efficiently and reliably by calling those critical ride points to their attention.

Avail Technologies works to change the paradigm of fleet monitoring systems. An operator who knows and understands what has happened in the past has a good idea of what conditions and situations will affect services in the future. It is all a matter of using the monitoring system proactively as a tool to achieve fleet optimization, as opposed to reacting to circumstances.

The best ITS vendors directly involve the dispatchers to determine the two or three most worrisome scenarios that affect the efficiency of the fleet and customer service. Discussions focused on how everyone can use the answers and not just the data from the monitoring system help the team become more aware of critical issues before they arise, and identify where and how it may be possible to make better use of the technology for resolving problems.

Optimizing the passenger experienceYour network of riders are your single greatest asset, your advocates

in the field. A ridership that experiences fewer interruptions in service and more accurate real-time information not only exhibits fewer complaints, but it also becomes an agency’s greatest form of advertising on the road. Reliable real-time information sets the stage for better planning, which improves service to help achieve optimal levels. Fleet management systems that obtain the most accurate information become the penultimate tool that helps an agency carefully analyze all that is occurring on a daily basis every day, and use that data to reduce interruptions and increase efficiency.

This data analysis can also point to previously unseen ways to leverage the agency’s various transportation modes, such as paratransit, fixed route, commuters, express or BRT, to deliver optimum service that is reliable, convenient and cost effective. The beauty of an optimized fleet management system is that it helps determine the “what, where and when” necessary to make sure the entire transit system is running as expected.

Optimum efficiency prepares an agency to better execute crisis intervention practices — traffic jams, rainy weather and snowstorms, and public events in the community are all unexpected and uncontrollable events which are more easily managed when an agency has optimized data at its fingertips.

Fleet monitoring tools give dispatchers the information to run the service with minimal interruptions, while at the same time sharing real-time service alerts with passengers sooner so they can make informed transportation decisions. From a passenger perspective, running late is rarely permissible, but if the agency lets the passengers know in a timely manner that service will not be as expected, riders remain in control of their individual transportation decisions. Some riders may choose to wait for a late bus, and others may opt for an alternate mode.

Although inconvenienced, if an agency includes the customer by keeping them informed, chances are they will continue to be satisfied with the overall service. Fleet monitoring aids with the more efficient allocation of vehicles and drivers (which in turn increases company profits realized from an understanding ridership) enhances the rider’s experience, and ensures the most effective use of available transportation modes.

Kevin McKay serves as the vice president of programs development at Avail Technologies, an ITS solutions provider for transit operators in the United States. Visit www.availtec.com for more information.

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