Fleet Leader Interview with Karim Rayani of Access Calgary
Access Calgary
Since 2001, Access Calgary, in Alberta, Canada, has been providing shared-ride, door-to-door transportation for people with disabilities who are unable to ride transit buses and trains. Dispatching trips to its various service providers, which include paratransit buses and taxi cabs, Access Calgary wanted a more efficient way to communicate with all of these providers, so they turned to an ITS solution. Karim Rayani, Manager at Access Calgary, reveals the highlights and challenges of ITS adoption.
1. Why did you decide to invest in an ITS solution?
You have to provide your employees with the tools to do the job well or you can’t expect them to deliver. Before ITS, we were relying on 2-way radios for communication. When you’re managing 230 vehicles in rush hour it’s challenging with a limited staff. We had no way of knowing the location of our vehicles so when a customer called to find out where their vehicle was it took a long time to get an ETA.
To meet customer expectations we needed to minimize wait times and provide them with accurate information on a bus’s location, rather than giving them a generic response. We saw an opportunity to improve efficiencies with better communication and real-time vehicle location information.
2. Can you give us an overview of how your ITS solution works?
We installed rugged in-vehicle computers in our paratransit vehicles. Drivers use the computer to login, get trip information or changes, and enter job details. That information is sent in real-time to our head office. The computer’s GPS gives our dispatchers an accurate view of every vehicle’s location.
3. How has your organization changed since implementing this technology?
Before, we relied on a driver sample size of 10 percent. Whatever those drivers had written in their daily manifest is all the information we had. Now all vehicle and driver information is automatically delivered to us, so we can look through historical data to see issues that need to be addressed or areas to improve efficiencies. Communication is faster and voice traffic has dropped significantly.
4. What do these changes mean to your organization?
On-time performance is one of the biggest benefits. We’ve been able to increase our productivity and minimize our budget. If we didn’t have this system we’d be paying more for the same number of trips.
Data entry time has been significantly reduced with the canned messages. Now drivers can just enter a couple of key strokes and messages are sent and received. Also, with a reduction in radio traffic we’re more productive.
5. What has been the response from your staff and customers?
Drives were initially concerned about the big brother aspect of the system, but now they appreciate not having to worry about paperwork. Instead, they just press a button on the keypad and it helps them do their job. This system makes work more manageable with fewer errors. Our staff appreciates that, and so do our customers. We’re able to give our customers more accurate ETAs so they can better plan their time. Everyone, from dispatchers, support staff, drivers, and customers are also enjoying a quieter work and vehicle environment with less radio chatter.
To learn more about Access Calgary’s technology solution, click here.
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