FleetBeat

LYNX Meets Growing Ridership Needs while Reducing Fuel Costs

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

The Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority, otherwise known as LYNX, operates 290 fixed-route buses in Florida’s busy tourist cities. With their existing dispatching processes, LYNX had no way of knowing the exact location of their buses or if buses were running on schedule. This impeded their ability to improve on-time service rates.

To meet this challenge LYNX implemented a Transit ITS solution. Since the implementation, LYNX can now provide quick and accurate answers to “Where’s my bus?” questions. In addition, David Burnett, Deputy Chief of Operations at LYNX, says that: “This technology helps us deal with the rising price of gas by reducing idle time for drivers. For example, if there is an accident on the expressway, dispatchers can instantly see which buses are going to be affected by viewing the AVL map and can re-route those drivers so they aren’t stuck idling.”

 Click here to read more about how a Transit ITS Solution has improved operations at LYNX.

In the News: Is Your Data Fresh and Local? A Self-Assessment Questionnaire for Bus and Rail Operations

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Imagine if you could reduce your operational costs by 20% based largely on existing resources and communications infrastructure. The American Public Transportation Association has indicated that poor data quality can potentially add between 10 and 20 percent to your operational budget. They have put together a self-assessment questionnaire that underscores best practices and helps organizations to identify areas of inefficiency. It is designed to generate discussion and help stimulate action. Click here to take the questionnaire

In the News: Automatic Vehicle Location’s Role in Fleet Optimization

Friday, August 14th, 2009

It’s true that AVL/GPS systems now come with more capabilities than ever before, like the ability to collect telemetry and other data from the vehicle, and to support richer applications. As this article points out, they also deliver route optimization and planning, and when connected to navigation, allow fleet operators to realize efficiency improvements of 15 to 20%.

Read about these and other AVL/GPS trends, as well as vendor selection tips.