NimBus: managing routes and schedules for corporate vehicles

Sri Lanka, like many other Asian countries, is distinguished by quite hectic and irregular traffic. The problem is relevant for all means of transportation: traditional tuk-tuks, private cars, regular buses, corporate transport, etc. Measures to change the situation are being taken of course, and today we are going to talk about the attempt to manage corporate vehicles. Was it successful? Keep reading and find it out.

Problem

KLOUDIP, our partner from Sri Lanka that fairly frequently appears on our blog, tracks several thousands of corporate shuttle vehicles belonging to big international companies. These vehicles pick up employees in the morning at designated stopping points and drop them there in the evening as per schedule. There are some issues with the process, though:

• The primary problem is that employees have to wait for their shuttle for too long. A typical situation is when it fails to show up at a stopping point on time.

• Another problem is that drivers drive too fast rushing between stops to catch up with the schedule and be able to drop the employees on time at the final destination (office, factory, etc.).

• On the other hand, drivers are also complaining that passengers do not show up at the pickup points on time, so drivers have to wait too and then be in a hurry.

• Together with complaints from both passengers and drivers, corporate transport departments are getting complaints from the general public as well: the driving behavior of some corporate drivers does nothing but infuriate people (getting hit by a bus is not something you would obviously enjoy). As vehicles are usually branded with logos and the route number, people can easily understand what company is in charge of the matter.

Hence, several big companies owning their corporate fleets wanted the solution that could:

• Provide the opportunity for employees to have the schedule at hand – the arrival time for each pickup/dropping point and if the vehicle is delayed, or early, or won’t arrive at all;

• Give the full picture of the driving style of each driver to identify those who drive recklessly and the other way around – carefully;

• Develop a mobile app for passengers that would inform them of the ETA (expected time of arrival) and the real-time location of the shuttle vehicle they are waiting for.

Solution

It turned out that NimBus, Gurtam solution for passenger transportation tracking, perfectly fits this project. So, the partner had an excellent grounding to start with, and the rest was merely a matter of willingness to work everything out properly.

• First of all, KLOUDIP specialists trained the clients to configure and use NimBus. Now they could build routes, assign vehicles and drivers to them, create stops, and monitor the shuttle buses’ location online.

• The second part of the plan involved the development of a mobile application for passengers. The partner got it done successfully and released the iOS and Android versions of the app.

Thus, each employee could download the app and be informed at all times on the needed shuttle’s location. No more endless waiting – instead, they could do their own stuff knowing when the time is just right to catch the bus.

• The wonderful idea was to add the option of creating QR codes by dispatchers. Such a QR code contains the route, stops, schedule, ETA details, and the real-time location of the vehicle. After creation, the code is sent to the employees’ emails or posted at the pickup/dropping points where passengers can scan it. Some companies went further and placed QR codes on their intranet web pages.

• And finally, the last thing KLOUDIP did: they configured the Wialon Eco Driving module to monitor the driving behavior of each driver. The specialists look through the report and identify the driver’s weak points – they can exceed road speed limits consistently, for example, or brake hard all the time. In this case, the driver is sent to driving instructors with this report to try to fix their driving style. Only upon finishing the series of training sessions, the driver is allowed to get back to his job.

Results

All the clients were amazed at the results. See for yourself:

• Transport Departments could now monitor all shuttle routes and keep an eye on the vehicles in real time;

• Driving quality improved;

• Employees use their application daily which enables them to come to the pickup points on time without the need to lose precious time waiting;

• Shuttle services of corporate customers improved as well – drivers and passengers follow the schedule now;

• The corporate images of KLOUDIP’s clients became better. After the solution was implemented, they were able to provide a good reliable service for their employees and what is important too – to reduce the number of road accidents. 

The mobile app for passengers can be downloaded from Google Play and App Store. 

Liked the solution? Shoot us an email at marketing@gurtam.com, and we will get you in contact with the developer. If you have the project to share with the community, fill in the form on my.gurtam.com in the Marketing support section, or send us a message at the email above.