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AUG / SEPT 2017 CONTENTS Official BUSRide Roundtable Discussion: Dealer Update – Small DEPARTMENTS & Midsize Bus Market Growth 42 8 UPDATE Thought leaders from small and midsize bus manufacturers and dealers offer insight on the current state of their industry, and how it can grow
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COVER STORY Official BUSRide Field Test: WorldTrans, Rohrer and KRT form a tight partnership
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FEATURES Opening a new dimension in transit seating
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Enterprise Asset Management 50 17
The Transit-Liner C2 passes muster under a keen eye on a tough track By David Hubbard
Official BUSRide Roundtable Discussion: Equal Access
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We spoke with experts from across the transportation industry to hear their thoughts on accessibility, the ADA and what it means to go above and beyond in providing equal access for all passengers
Official BUSRide Field Test: MARTA pilots the Vicinity
This Nassau agency knows it can depend on the Ohio-based manufacturer to meet its expanding expectations for safety and reliability By Richard Tackett
COLUMNS 6
DAVID HUBBARD
23 SAFETY SOLUTIONS 31 FOCUS ON: TELEMATICS By Todd Ewing 56 SECURITY AND SURVEILLANCE
By Lori Jetha
61 EQUAL ACCESS
By Angelo D’Urso
62 THE INTERNATIONAL REPORT
By Michaela Oberbauer
Official BUSRide Field Test: Transit-Liner C2 by Thomas Built Buses
Official BUSRide Field Test: NICE and TransitWorks partner for Able-Ride 45
57 DELIVERIES
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Partnered with Alliance Bus Group, MARTA is conducting an innovative program with the Vicinity bus by Grande West Transportation By Richard Tackett
Representatives of Avail Technologies and Trapeze Group discuss data integration and vehicle intelligence
By Doug Jack
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SelectCare Preventive Maintenance 52 In an interactive webinar presentation, BUSRide spoke with John Walsh of REV Bus Group to discuss the new partnership and maintenance program by REV Group and Ryder
Official BUSRide Roundtable Discussion: Alternative Propulsion 58 Experts spotlight the factors driving innovation in this unique field as agencies make the sustainable transition to future technologies
Seven steps to safety
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By Paul Comfort
Safety and accessibility: Are we there yet? 32 By Ami Sailor
Collision avoidance – today and tomorrow
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An expert from Via Technologies details the safety and technology implications of collision avoidance software, hardware and techniques
Ask the ELD Experts
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Continental, Fleetmatics and GPS Insight answer crucial questions about the forthcoming ELD mandate
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BUSRIDE | AUGUST / SEPTEMBER . 2017
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100s OF LOCATIONS, 1,000s OF TECHNICIANS
Nationwide bus maintenance for REV customers. Introducing the REV / Ryder Maintenance program, REV Group’s unwavering commitment to deliver a five-star nationwide bus maintenance program through hundreds of Ryder service locations throughout the United States. The best bus brands just got better.
Learn more at www.revgroup.com/revryder or call 1-844-473-8287 to schedule service.
OUR VEHICLES CONNECT AND PROTECT P E O P L E A R O U N D T H E W O R L D E V E R Y D AY. www.revgroup.com
DAVID HUBBARD
The bus and coach industry has no issue with maintenance matters We recently received a compelling op-ed from the New York Times – Let’s Get Excited About Maintenance, by history professor Andrew Russell, dean of arts and sciences at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, and science professor Lee Vinsel of Virginia Tech’s Department in Science and Technology in Society. It argues for a more appreciative and enthusiastic embrace of maintenance. In particular, the piece addresses our failing transportation infrastructure, in hopes of bringing some prestige, funding and excitement to this industry basic. Russell and Vinsel contend that in today’s world, technology and innovation get all the glory; maintenance, it seems, is the neglected stepchild in nearly every industry. They set out to explain how and why this is such a predicament — beyond the general resistance at every level to allocate the necessary funding. A symptom of a deeper problem they say is Americans’”impoverished and immature conception of technology that fetishizes innovation as a kind of art and demeans upkeep as mere drudgery.” Where they define innovation as a social process to introduce new products, devices and gadgets, they also purport maintenance is even more important for the smooth functioning of daily life. They note another study that suggests roughly 70 percent of all engineers work on maintaining and overseeing existing products and equipment, rather than designing new ones. It’s not just maintenance that our society fails to appreciate; it’s also the maintainers themselves… Typically, maintenance is a blue-collar occupation: mechanic, plumber, janitor, electrician. There are white-collar maintainers (like the I.T. crowd) and white-jacket maintainers (like dentists). But they, too, are not celebrated like the inventor. Russell and Vinsel say this pervasive problem lies in exalting innovation while devaluing basic and preventive maintenance; noting that we really need to figure out better ways of preserving, improving and caring for property and equipment already in place; and applying orderly routines to follow when something breaks down or falls apart. To their point, considering the public rarely explores what lies beneath the trendy veneer, I suggest looking to the bus and coach industry to fully understand maintenance in action. Wherever our smartphones and multiplex systems are taking us, the garage is the soul of the operation where maintenance remains a priority in the effort to save lives, protect equipment, save money and make a decent living — in that order. To read the New York Times article, visit https://www.nytimes. com/2017/07/22/opinion/sunday/lets-get-excited-aboutmaintenance.html.
David Hubbard Associate Publisher BUSRide Magazine
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busride.com VOL. 53 • NO. 6 Richard Tackett
Editor in Chief rtackett@busride.com David Hubbard
Associate Publisher dhubbard@busride.com Steve Gamble
Art Director sgamble@busride.com Joyce Guzowski
Assistant Editor jguzowski@busride.com Judi Victor
CEO & Publisher Director of Sales jvfly@busride.com Mitch Larson
Business Manager mlarson@busride.com Blair McCarty
Sr. Sales and Marketing Coordinator bmccarty@busride.com Hollie Broadbent
Marketing & Sales Associate hbroadbent@busride.com
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BUSRide Magazine 4742 North 24th Street, STE 340 Phoenix, Arizona 85016 Phone: (602) 265-7600 Fax: (602) 277-7588 www.busride.com BUSRide™ Magazine is published eight times annually by Power Trade Media, a division of The Producers, Inc., 4742 N. 24th Street, Ste. 340, Phoenix, AZ 85016. Subscription rates for nonqualified subscribers, single issue prices and pricing for reprints of 100 or more are available from: info@busride.com. All articles in BUSRide™ Magazine are copyrighted and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written permission of the publisher. Copyright 2017 by Power Trade Media. No advertisement, sponsorship or description or reference to a product or service will be deemed an endorsement by Power Trade Media, and no warranty is made or implied. Information is obtained from sources the editors believe reliable, accurate and timely, but is not guaranteed, and Power Trade Media is not responsible for errors or omissions. Opinions expressed in BUSRide™ Magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher or sponsors or advertisers. Content addressing legal, tax and other technical issues is not intended as professional advice and cannot be relied on as such; readers should consult with their own professional advisors.
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UPDATE structure. Further, the Ferrones extended thanks to their vendor partners for their support over the many decades. “We have been an MCI customer for new coaches and parts since 1975,” Chris Ferrone said. “We have been a Detroit Diesel and Allison customer even longer. Our local vendor partners have been critical in the day to day operation, and include Douglass Truck parts, Interstate Power Systems and Cassidy Tires, to name only a few.” Speaking to the entire bus industry, the Ferrones insisted this is not good bye. “Rather, it is, see you soon,” Chris Ferrone said. “Thank you all for a lifetime of friendships and lasting relationships in doing business together.”
The Ferrone era comes to a close; Aries Charter Transportation carries on After a successful 110-year run, the venerable Ferrone family of coach operators announced the sale of a major portion of their business in late June, saying they will no longer be operating buses in Chicago, IL, but have retained The Chicago Sightseeing Company. Aries Charter Transportation is the new owner of the business in the sale that also included Gray Line Tours, O’Hare-Wisconsin, Inc. and Prairie Trailways. Aries is a 27-year-old business that Ralph Trevino launched with one bus running in the Chicagoland area, and has evolved into a successful company of over 70 vehicles. The new owners say they look forward to continuing the legacy of the Ferrone family. “We are very happy to announce this news to the industry,” Chris Ferrone said. “We wish Aries Charter Transportation good luck and success with the newly acquired business.” The Ferrone family business turned 110 at the time of its sale in June. Through the years, Henry Ferrone ran the business until his passing in 1955. Having worked in the company since the mid-1940s, his sons Don and Fran Ferrone then took the helm. Chris started with the company in 1976, and all three worked until the day they closed the doors for the final time. “We competed with Gray Line for decades before we purchased the company in 1991 and made it a successful part of our daily operations,” Don Ferrone said. “We formed Prairie Trailways in 1995 when we joined the Trailways System. We are grateful to have been part of these two outstanding franchises.” The Ferrones credited their families for enduring this journey as well. “Don’s wife, Kay, and my wife, Janet, have been alongside us for the entire ride,” Chris Ferrone said. “Together, we have transported millions of passengers safely, reliably and with courtesy. We credit the dedication and hard work by everyone in the company as the backbone to our success.” He said the business would have never survived were it not for the outstanding employees who worked in all the various family businesses over the years. “We had dozens of drivers with 10 to 15 years or more with us,” he said. “Many of our garage mechanics spent 15 to 20 years with the company, and three of them joined the company 35 years ago.” Ferrone noted that Aries Charter Transportation has generously transitioned all the Ferrone employees into the new ownership 8
BUSRIDE | AUGUST / SEPTEMBER . 2017
Prevost awarded Greyhound contract Greyhound Lines, Inc., based in Dallas, TX, has awarded Prevost a contract for up to 360 motorcoaches. The three-year deal specifies the delivery of the first 60 coaches in 2017 with the option to purchase the balance over a three-year period. This is the single largest contract in Prevost history. While the company is best known for its regularly scheduled passenger service, Greyhound is a subsidiary of FirstGroup PLC – the leading transport operator in the United Kingdom and North America with revenues of over $10.8 billion per annum and approximately 124,000 employees. FirstGroup, whose U.S. headquarters is in Cincinnati, OH, transports more than 2.5 billion passengers every year.
Amy Ard joins Proterra as CFO Proterra announced that Amy Ard has joined the management team as chief financial officer (CFO). With more than twenty years of experience in finance and various manufacturing industries, Ard brings a combination of expertise leading both large public companies and private companies through significant stages of growth. At Proterra, she will support the company’s next level of expansion by aligning corporate finance with all aspects of the business, from Amy Ard engineering and manufacturing to sales and marketing and operations. Before joining Proterra, Ard was CFO at Advanced Metallurgical Group (AMG), a publicly-held global specialty metals and engineering company. Over the course of her career, Ard has accrued multifaceted corporate finance experience and has proven her unique ability to build talented teams, create operational excellence and manage cash flows for capital-intensive projects, while accurately forecasting quarterly financial earnings. busride.com
UPDATE
JoAnn Covington named as chief legal officer and head of government relations for Proterra Proterra announced that JoAnn Covington has joined the management team as chief legal officer and head of government relations. With an extensive background in intellectual property law, strategic policy development and high-tech legal consultation, Covington has a track record for advising both public and private companies through rapid periods of growth. At Proterra, she will play a significant role in devising new, innovative business models that JoAnn Covinton will enable the widespread adoption of heavyduty electric transit vehicles throughout North America. Prior to Proterra, Covington served as senior vice president and general counsel at Rocket Fuel Inc., a leading provider of artificial intelligence advertising and marketing solutions for global agencies and brands, where she led the legal, policy, and business affairs teams. Before Rocket Fuel, she acted as division counsel for Electronic Arts’ Maxis Label division, where she managed a diverse array of legal issues, including management of intellectual property assets, contractual rights and obligations, and advertising and promotions. Covington has accrued a wide variety of industry awards over the years. In 2015, she was recognized as the winner of the Silicon Valley Business Journal and San Francisco Business Times’ Corporate Counsel Award for General Counsel for a Public Company (under $1 billion in revenue), and in 2016, she received further recognition from the National Diversity Council when she was named as one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology.
CH Bus Sales hires new account executive for northeast region CH Bus Sales welcomed Eric Bantley to its sales team. Bantley will be working as an account executive for the northeast region. He will be responsible for creating new & fostering current relationships in the motorcoach industry with a focus on the following territory of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and northern New York. In his previous work, Bantley served in a variety of leadership Eric Bantley roles within sales strategy, key account sales management, international sourcing and product development. He facilitated significant revenue growth by enhancing key account relationships and increasing account distribution. Eric experienced his first exposure in the transportation industry working five years with Minnesota based operator Ready Bus Line - reporting to Tom Ready, who provided a solid training platform. In his new account executive role, Bantley will participate in regional associations by attending annual meetings, will make customer courtesy visits, facilitate sales of new and pre-owned equipment and will work diligently with CH’s customer base to ensure support and service.
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UPDATE
Albert “Al” Johnson celebrates three decades in public transit After nearly three decades in the public transit industry, Al Johnson, safety and security director of McDonald Transit Associates, has announced his official retirement as of July 31, 2017. During his tenure, Johnson has invested a lifetime of operational leadership and was an integral part of McDonald Transit and its parent company, RATP Dev North America. Johnson began working with McDonald Transit in 1983 as a part-time paratransit driver Al Johnson while serving in the U.S. Air Force stationed in Fort Worth, TX. Not long after retiring from the military, he pursued his career in mass transit and accepted a full-time role with McDonald Transit Associates as Operations Supervisor at the Fort Worth Transit Authority, also known as “The T,” where he served from 1993 to 1999. For the next two decades, Johnson was promoted into management at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, where he served as the general manager. In Colorado, he helped build the transit network from the ground up, before returning to “The T” in Fort Worth where he served as director of transportation services. Since 2015, Johnson has served in his current position as director of safety and security for McDonald Transit. As McDonald Transit’s director of safety, Johnson organized and standardized safety protocols currently in use by McDonald Transit staff across the country. Through communication and collaboration, he surveyed staff from around the nation on issues they faced and how they resolved those problems to formulate realworld best practices for resolving conflicts, and promoting better safety for both the passengers and the operators.
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John Shea joins AngelTrax executive sales team AngelTrax, a provider of mobile video surveillance solutions, recently selected John Shea to manage the company’s sales and customer relationships on the United States’ western coast. With more than 18 years of experience in sales and account management, Shea has dedicated the last six years to cultivating client relationships with fleet managers and transportation directors. As AngelTrax’s western sales executive, he John Shea will manage the sale of Vulcan™ Series mobile video surveillance solutions in California, Oregon and Washington.
WAVE announces wireless charging with AVTA Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification (WAVE) announced its Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) technology is now providing in-route charging for electric-powered buses at Sgt. Steve Owen Memorial Park and Palmdale Transportation Center for Antelope Valley Transit Authority (AVTA) in California. WAVE has completed a full OEM integration with BYD at their Lancaster, CA, manufacturing facility, now working together to help Antelope Valley Transit Authority reach their goal of being “100 percent green by 2018”.
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“WAVE is honored and excited to have been chosen by AVTA as the provider of their 50kW WPT chargers and we are looking forward to the upcoming installations of our revolutionary 250kW WPT chargers starting this year,” said Michael Masquelier, chief executive officer of WAVE. The WAVE system uses a charging pad that lies flush with the pavement, is sturdy enough to be run over all day without damage, and wirelessly charges the bus during routine stops without the eyesore and risks associated with above-ground charging equipment. In-route charging means less batteries, reduced vehicle weight, higher passenger capacity and extended vehicle range.
Engie Ineo launches new features for real-time passenger information In April 2016, the Réseau de Transport de la Capitale (RTC) in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, launched its CAD/AVL system “Real Time Nomad,” developed by Engie Ineo, along with the new “Nomade” application for passenger information in real-time (available on iOS and Android). After a year of use, the Nomade application received an award from the Canadian Urban Transport Association (CUTA) for quality and innovation. New features slated for release include a personalized mobile phone alert that serves as a warning in realtime when a bus is arriving at a traveler’s stop. The alert generates a push notification on the phone together with vibration and sound. Alerts can be customized by route, departure stop, arrival stop, departure time, alerts threshold and day of the week.
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O F F I C I A L
BUSRide Field Test:
World Trans, Rohrer and KRT form a tight partnership
For Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority (KRT), which operates in the mountainous territory of Charleston, WV, two factors are imperative for vehicle procurements – safety and maneuverability.
Doug Hartley assistant general manager of Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority
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David Clawson executive vice president of bus sales and administration at Rohrer Bus
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The World Trans is the only high-floor shuttle bus in its class which tested and passed the FMVSS214 Side Impact Test.
hese factors became very important in 2016 when KRT’s monthly fleet evaluation showed that 12 vehicles were nearing the end of their useful lives. KRT operates 49 vehicles for its fixed-route service, and these vehicles were incurring higher maintenance costs because of their age. Thanks to good timing with KRT’s fiscal year, the agency was able to open bids quickly in June 2017. Doug Hartley, KRT assistant general manager, says the agency needed an especially maneuverable vehicle for the narrow and mountainous streets of its service area. “In the Kanawha Valley, our customers reside in the mountains and come to work on the valley floor,” he says. “Because of this, we’re restricted in the length and size of vehicle that we can put on those ‘feeder’ routes. Still, we need to maximize the number of passengers on each vehicle. It’s always a balance.” Established in 1971 as KVRTA by Kanawha County and the City of Charleston, KRT services Kanawha County and portions of Fayette and Putnam Counties in West Virginia. The agency’s service area is around 912 square miles and encompasses a population of about 193,063. Hartley says the agency estimates that 88 percent of the county’s residents live within a mile of a KRT route. KRT’s bid was met with a lot of manufacturer offerings, but it was the World Trans commercial bus by REV Group which fulfilled the agency’s cost, safety and efficiency requirements.
World Trans KRT’s World Trans buses are built on a Ford E450 chassis with a modular body design, allowing for up to 18 passengers. Despite its lightweight design, the World Trans vehicle undergoes an extreme amount of safety testing – more than satisfying the stringent
requirements set forth by KRT. The bus features a floor and sidewall seat track for passenger seating securement; and an impact-resistant, one-piece roof made of composite material. The bus meets or exceeds all FMVSS crash testing requirements and is Altoona tested for seven years, 200,000 miles. REV Group will build close to 100 World Trans buses for KRT and West Virginia’s Division of Public Transit and other transit systems throughout the state. REV will deliver the buses through its dealer partner Rohrer Bus, which serves the Mid-Atlantic region. “We get a lot of positive feedback on the spacious interior,” says David Clawson, executive vice president at Rohrer Bus. “The World Trans vehicle’s oversized windows breathe a sense of openness in the bus and people really like that. When the steel cage structure is minimized and the window size is maximized, it gives a real comfort to passengers as they’re transitioning off the mountains and down into the valley floor.” “Also, the increased visibility helps our drivers,” Hartley says. “That’s a very important safety factor.” Deliveries are expected to complete in January 2018.
Working together The bidding, procurement and delivery process has been made easier thanks to the close cooperation of REV Group and Rohrer Bus, in conjunction with KRT. “We’ve never had any problems during the process,” Hartley says. “Anytime we had questions, Rohrer got us the information. David’s been selling vehicles in West Virginia for over 20 years, so we have a trust where I know he won’t lead me astray. That’s the kind of relationship that you build in the industry with people over the years. It’s invaluable”
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There are many interior configurations to meet the specific needs of REV customers, especially those of KRT.
“Rohrer is a perfect example of one of our platinum partners, and the working relationship that we have together goes hand in hand with being able to deliver such a high-quality product,” says Brent Phillips, vice president of sales, Commercial Bus Group, at REV. “Through the bidding and specification process, our team worked with Rohrer’s team to really understand what KRT’s needs were at the local level, and then interpret those into the best possible specifications and proposals.” Clawson says that Rohrer, as a dealer who represents REV and services KRT, considers itself a bridge between agencies seeking solutions. “Because of our long-standing relationship with all parties, we are in a unique position to give advice,” he says. “I can put myself in the shoes of my customer or the manufacturer, and make recommendations from that perspective.”
Looking ahead Phillips says that the close relationship, the pipeline of REV to Rohrer to KRT, is indicative of the modern transit vehicle business model. 14
BUSRIDE | AUGUST / SEPTEMBER . 2017
Above: There are many interior configurations to meet the specific needs of REV customers, especially those of KRT.
“As a market leader, REV is aligning itself with the best dealers in the industry and really forming tight partnerships,” he says. “This ensures that not only product delivery, but total operational experience for customers is world-class.” Moving forward, the team at KRT is confident the new World Trans buses will make an impact on its entire transit community. Hartley says he predicts a reduction in operating costs in the first few years of the vehicles’ operations, and that it will ultimately translate to better service. “Riders love when new equipment comes in – it always generates a buzz,” Hartley says. “The drivers have already ‘bought in.’” “It’s a win-win for the passengers,” he continues, “and ultimately that’s what matters. We’re excited and confident that Rohrer, REV and World Trans will meet our future needs.”
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Opening a new dimension in city transit seating By Michaela Oberbauer To meet the requirements of local transport, quality seating must present all the characteristics for being the next trendsetter model for city transit buses, shuttle buses and street cars. A modern, innovative and first-class seat stands out not only by its functional design and exceptional robustness, but also by its low weight, extreme safety, space-saving shape and its modularity. Setting new safety standards The CITOS, by Kiel North America, especially developed to meet today’s stringent transit requirements, impresses by its very high safety: It passes the real 10G dynamic crash test, which is a minimum according to APTA regulations and customer specifications, without breakage. With that, Kiel even expanded the dynamic test requirements, and the CITOS stood them without breakage. The secret behind the seat’s safety is its very special new concept: high-tech engineering utilizes an innovative mix of topmost quality materials. In detail, this means the seat has a hybrid construction integrating a specially-designed metal combination which absorbs energy and ensures deformation instead of breakage in the event of a crash. The connection from seat back to seat base deforms precisely without effecting dangerous, sharp edges by breaking and splintering. Innovation creates aisle space Yes, there is an intelligent way to a more convenient passage through the bus: While its seat base features a comfortable width of 17.7 inches, the seat’s slender, ergonomically designed back is slightly narrower. In addition, the handles on the backrest even taper gently to the top allowing maximum passenger comfort and extra aisle space on the main height level. Versatile, light-weight and easy to maintain A very important feature of any seating solution is low weight. The CITOS is 20 percent lighter than most competitive products. For example, the version without fabric or foam cover only weighs 32.6 pounds per double seat, including aluminum frame and footwall connection. It is a true fuel-saving, CO2-emmision conscious lightweight seat. A further strength is the seat’s modularity in terms of comfort as well as the width. This seat comes in four different comfort levels: with fabric and foam, without fabric and foam, with fabric only, with 0.5-inch foam and with 1.5-inch molded, contoured foam. This high cushion seat is even suitable for suburban transport. Because it requires only a minimal number of parts, this seat is extremely easy to maintain and clean, yet offers almost unlimited options regarding colors, covers, and accessories such as center closeouts and color options for handle inserts. A perfect combination During its 70-year tenure as one of the industry’s trailblazers, Kiel has developed many patents, but few are as exciting and pioneering as the patented Kiel Secubar, a rotating barrier to secure the passengers sitting on forward-facing flip-up seats on the ADA area. Using the Secubar in combination with the CITOS allows the safe installation of two forward-facing flip-up seats, one on each side of the aisle. Overall, it provides room for four to five seats in each ADA area, whereas most other solutions provide only three to four seats. 16
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This new Kiel system, compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), consists of the Secubar itself, which is easily engaged and secured by flipping down the longitudinal seats and effortlessly operated with a foot pedal; and the tower providing the mounting position of the upper belt for a fully controlled three-point securement system. With the stabilizing bumpers, it creates a safe position for the wheelchair and its occupant on the bus. Using original Q’Straint parts and features, it provides all the original functionality of the Q’POD system designed and tested by Kiel in cooperation with the Q’Straint. Further important features are a mechanical and electrical time reset function and a stop request button. Another advantage: With the Secubar solution, the bus floor remains easy to clean, as nothing needs to be screwed and bolted there. Michaela Oberbauer serves as general manager of Kiel North America. Kiel is a trendsetting seat provider to transit systems around the world including seating solutions for buses and trains on the local, regional and intercity level. Visit www.kielna.com.
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BUSRide Road Test: ®
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O F F I C I A L
BUSRide Road Test: ÂŽ
The Transit-Liner C2 passes muster under a keen eye on a tough track By David Hubbard
Ed Swaim (at left), product manager for Thomas Built Buses, and Mark Ashcraft, safety and training coordinator for Arrow Stage Lines
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On the heels of its February debut at the United Motorcoach Association (UMA) Motorcoach EXPO in 2017, the newest version of the Transit-Liner C2 from Thomas Built Buses is on the road for a coast-to-coast dealership tour after more than three years of extensive research and development. The company says it is anticipating an enthusiastic response to what it sees as a perfect complement to most motorcoach fleets — given its purpose-built engineering and design, and its extensive range of customized options that transcend into the realm of motorcoaches. Thomas Built Buses delivered the demo model to Auto Safety House, Phoenix, AZ, where BUSRide conducted this Official Road Test. busride.com
Celebrating 75 years in business, Auto Safety House serves a variety of operators in Phoenix, Tucson and throughout the Navajo and Hopi Reservations in northern Arizona. Auto Safety House has represented Thomas Built Buses for many years. “We have always held Thomas Built Buses in high esteem and we appreciate our relationship with the company,” says Del Anderson, bus sales manager at Auto Safety House. “We are thrilled to introduce the Transit-Liner C2 to our customers. We believe this bus can realistically meet the higher expectations of motorcoach operators running more expensive equipment for specialized applications.” BUSRide began discussing the Transit-Liner C2 in February during UMA Motorcoach EXPO in St. Louis, MO. In a sit-down interview on the bus, Thomas Built representatives Ed Swaim, product manager, and Mike Stotler, service manager, explained the concept for this entirely new vehicle – which they believe operators will perceive as the bridge between specialty buses and coaches. “Thomas Built did not set out to design its version of a cross-country coach, but rather a purpose-built, heavy-duty product best suited for shorter day trips, employee shuttles and local charters,” Swaim says. “The essential difference between this bus and most cut-away and composite-type buses is our proprietary Transit-Liner C2 chassis, engineered to integrate only with this bus body. We have moved a step beyond body-on-chassis.” The durable all-steel Transit-Liner C2 is built to the same exacting standards as a traditional Thomas Built school bus – focused on safety, reliability and durability. However, thoughtfully-designed exterior window treatments bring the design much closer to the look of a motorcoach.
Options, options, options Fully customizable, the Thomas Built business model is to outfit each unit to the specific needs of each customer. The available options can include coach-style seating, overhead storage, video systems, tinted windows and more. At the end of the day, it’s very likely that no two orders will be the same. Comfort amenities include power outlets and USB ports at each seat, upgraded overhead lighting and a fully-integrated audio-visual entertainment system. An onboard restroom option is available, as well as an underfloor storage bay or a rear-storage compartment. “Our current model clearly demonstrates the level of customization operators can expect,” Swaim says. “The model we’re testing today is equipped with nearly every available option. We run the gamut. We can offer this platform as a modestly outfitted utility bus – or we can accessorize it to the level of luxury found in VIP and executive shuttle buses. This is how we arrive at the price, and cost-conscious operators always have the option of downsizing to meet their budgets.”
Will build to suit Thomas Built prides itself on the versatility of the Transit-Liner C2. Each Transit-Liner C2 comes off the line as a basic model. This allows Thomas Built dealers to work with each customer individually to accommodate their needs and preferences in a configuration that meets the price point each operator has in mind. The fully-multiplexed Transit-Liner C2 chassis can accommodate an extensive menu of available operational components, safety equipment and luxury upgrades. To list only a few, available electronic safety components may include air disc brakes, air ride suspension, and electronic stability control (ESC). The Zonar telematics system comes standard, while lane departure, crash avoidance technologies, tire pressure monitoring, a fire suppression system and PV360 camera system are options. busride.com | BUSRIDE
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Ashcraft drove the bus through the mountainous regions outside of Phoenix (at left), then returned to the city for downtown driving.
The Official BUSRide Road Test To put the Thomas Built claims and objectives to the test (and lend some objectivity to this effort), BUSRide engaged Arrow Stage Lines’ Phoenix facility to assist with the driving portion of this Road Test. Mark Ashcraft, safety and training coordinator for Arrow in Phoenix, agreed to test drive the Transit-Liner C2 – and to comment on his experience and observations. Ashcraft is a motorcoach man through and through. Prior to his career with Arrow Stage Lines and his move to Phoenix, he drove for Great Southern Coaches in Arkansas and Heartland Trailways in Kansas. He says, based on his past experiences with buses of this type, he accepted this invitation with a tinge of skepticism. “When BUSRide called, I immediately researched the vehicle online,” Ashcraft says. “Frankly, I thought I was going to be looking at a bus fitted to a standard Freightliner chassis. Just another ‘long truck,’ I figured, and I had a few ideas of my own about how it would ride.” For his test drive, Ashcraft chose his preferred training route for new recruits applying as drivers with Arrow Stage Lines. The first leg features driving conditions unseen by most coach drivers. Heading east out of Phoenix on U.S. Route 60 and turning north at Apache Junction, Ashcraft maneuvered the bus down a rural, narrow and twisting two-lane highway featuring one-lane bridges and myriad blind curves. The route runs beyond Arizona’s famed Superstition Mountains to Tortilla Flats, a popular stop on the road near Canyon Lake, 35 miles east of Phoenix. This is an unforgiving land where motorcoaches rarely tread, except for Ashcraft and his aspiring Arrow Stage candidates. “This route throws a lot at a trainee and the vehicle — and fast,” Ashcraft says. “This road is ideal for quickly giving a driver a feel for the coach, including a full understanding of how it handles.” The second leg of Ashcraft’s test track is through downtown Phoenix. “Again, this is a tight and narrow route, but with the addition of sharp turns on city streets, stop-and-go traffic and hotel entrances with minimal clearances. All of this is near busy sports 20
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arenas with pedestrians, road construction and city traffic as distractions,” he says. “From these two very different scenarios, I can quickly determine if a person has what it takes to drive for Arrow Stage Lines.” Parting comments Ashcraft says it only took a handful of turns in the first few miles to realize the Transit-Liner C2 was far beyond the bus he expected. “I have driven buses on truck-style chassis and can say with certainty that this chassis is much more stable,” he says. “From where I was sitting in the driver’s seat, the quality of the ride was smooth and stable. In terms of maneuverability and gain, the turning radius is excellent — even with the front axle in front of me rather than behind me. After a couple of turns, I found the Transit-Liner C2 very responsive and accommodating.” At this point, Swaim noted that Ashcraft was responding to the proprietary Thomas Built chassis and not a Freightliner chassis; further adding that any similarity is only in their looks. “This chassis carries the Thomas Built logo and is built solely for this bus by its own team of engineers,” he says. “The suspension is designed strictly for a bus carrying passengers.” Ashcraft noted that other buses he had driven that were comparable to the Transit-Liner C2 did not offer the same safe feel. “Coming out of Tortilla Flats and down that twisting, desolate stretch of highway, I intentionally pushed it a little faster than I would normally,” he says. “It handled beautifully in the turns and was easy to maneuver in the tight streets of downtown Phoenix.” Offering a few parting comments, Ashcraft says he can easily see motorcoach operators using the Transit-Liner C2 for local shuttles, in-town charters, and perhaps an occasional overnight trip. He says a longer trip would likely not be feasible, only because of the limited luggage storage. Clearly, the Transit-Liner C2 received a positive reception from Auto Safety House, as well as professional, safe driver Mark Ashcraft. No doubt this will serve as an indication of what Thomas Built Buses can expect, as more coach operators preview this exceptional new entry into the midsize bus market. busride.com
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SAFETY S N SOLUTIO
Apple Bus Company gets creative with NOLA expansion Beginning with this issue, each Safety Solutions column will focus on a different bus operation in the United States – the safety and operational issues they face, and how putting together a comprehensive risk management and insurance program helped their business and bottom line.
“When we were introduced to Protective Insurance, it immediately felt like a perfect fit,” Tarwater says. “We were growing in the area and moving into new urban markets, one of which was New Orleans – a tough market by any standard. That market was a major reason we switched carriers, as the corresponding insurance costs with our old carrier were going to be through the roof.” As a result, Apple Bus entered into a large deductible plan with Protective – a stark departure from the company’s previous first-dollar coverage plan. “When we’re going to help a company take on risk in a new market, we are going to go above and beyond in providing value to them,” says Scott St. Clair, client executive at Protective Insurance. “Our expertise in the transportation world becomes paramount.”
Results and benefits
Although its locally-managed, family-owned status might suggest otherwise, Apple Bus Company is a large and growing bus company with operations in seven states. From its home in Kansas City, MO, Apple Bus is a full-service transportation contractor active in student transportation management, public transit and on-demand van service, as well as transportation consulting, technology enhancement and management. In 2013, the company had come to a crossroads with its insurance program because of its rapid growth. “For the life of company, Apple Bus had been on a first-dollar coverage insurance plan with our previous provider,” says Drew Tarwater, director of support services at Apple Bus Company. “Our commercial auto liability plan was fully insured through our carrier, but we were expanding.” Although they had a good relationship with their then-current carrier, Tarwater and his team thought it might be good to explore new options. As an expanding operation, Apple Bus could afford to be a little more “creative” with its coverage,
A new partner for new markets Soon after, the company connected with Protective Insurance Company through one of its local brokers (whom Apple Bus knew through one of its own consultants).
Tarwater says that the first benefit Apple Bus saw was an almost-immediate reduction in costs. “Protective Insurance saved us nearly $1 million in hard premiums,” he says. “At the end of the day, a portion of that money went toward claims we would have previously paid with our first-dollar coverage. It represented a considerable amount of cost savings.” Secondly, Protective Insurance and Apple Bus have teamed to move toward a more proactive claims management style, which has significantly improved communications and loss mitigation. “It’s not only understanding how to better manage claims and mitigate losses, but working with the Protective loss prevention team has really helped to solidify our safety and risk departments,” Tarwater says. “It helped us in the advancement of safety policy and best practices. They’ve given us a great long-term resource for improving operations.” Futhermore, Tarwater says Apple Bus is in the process of getting managers more involved in logging accident data, so they have at their fingertips the tools to analyze trends. As the managers become more actively engaged in the process, they can see those trends as they’re happening in real time. “Apple Bus is a sponge for knowledge and understands a true partnership – they give us hard, honest feedback and we give them honest conclusions,” St. Clair says. “It’s the best way for a transportation provider and insurance carrier to interact.” “Having Protective Insurance as a partner gives us great confidence as we grow and we continue to move into new markets,” Tarwater adds. Learn more online by visiting www.protectiveinsurance.com.
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Equal Access BUSRide spoke with experts from across the transportation industry to hear their thoughts accessibility, the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), and what it means to go above and beyond in providing equal access for all passengers. The panelists for this discussion were: Ami Sailor – marketing manager – ARBOC Specialty Vehicles John Walsh – president – REV Bus and Mobility Group Pat Girardin – co-president – Q’Straint / Sure-Lok Steve Berry – senior director, marketing and product management – DDS
What does “equal access” mean to your company? Ami Sailor: Each passenger experiencing transportation services in the same manner as the next passenger defines equal access for ARBOC. All riders should be able to enter the bus by the same method and with the same efficiency. They should be able to utilize all the features of the bus, improving the rider experience for everyone. Passengers with disabilities should travel less conspicuously as members of the mainstream, with their dignity intact. Pat Girardin: Equal access for Q’Straint goes beyond simply entering or approaching a particular space. We believe equal access extends to the overall well-being and safety of wheelchair passengers, who should be afforded the same level of security as everyone else. John Walsh: Whether a passenger is in a wheelchair or they have a walker or they are fully mobile, everyone is just another passenger boarding the bus; they don’t have separate experiences when they get on the bus. That means not having to board the bus via a wheelchair lift that takes four minutes, and possibly upsetting the rest of the passengers. It’s enabling our clients and users to be mobile. It allows them to make their doctor appointment, buy groceries, and live a normal life as an ambulatory person does. This is a huge issue, because a lot of the people would be home bound without mobility options. Steve Berry: To DDS’s business and the industry we serve, equal access means providing reasonable accommodation for all people to access services that are generally available to the public. My company wants to enable great rider experiences through our fleet management software and AVL terminals. This includes meeting the needs of all people, typical and disabled, from all economic levels, ages, races, genders, affiliations and so on. It’s not enough to simply provide services that people can use. These services should be extended even to people in rural and lower economic areas.
What do you believe has been the most significant advance in accessibility of the last five years? The last decade? Sailor: The first low-floor cutaway revolutionized the transportation industry in 2008, nearly a decade ago. Before ARBOC’s Spirit of Mobility, anyone who needed extra assistance entering the bus was forced to be lifted into the rear of the vehicle on a platform 24
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which takes more time, draws unwanted attention, and can be an intimidating experience for some. With the ramp, all passengers enter through the same door with minimal-to-no assistance, which was unheard of for any cutaway at the time. While the Spirit of Mobility changed the lives of both riders and drivers, it was not in the budget for many transit agencies. Fast forward to 2013, ARBOC released the first non-kneeling cutaway to meet ADA requirements. Because it does not include the kneeling feature, the Spirit of Freedom is an affordable alternative for someone seeking an accessible cutaway that meets ADA requirements. Girardin: When it comes to products, the most significant advances are in the rate of new product adoption. Transit properties have incorporated the latest solutions in an effort to not only keep wheelchair passengers as safe as possible, but also to improve efficiencies within their own businesses. We’re excited that products like the Q’POD are now industry standard, and that our new Quantum, the first independent wheelchair securement, is also gaining recognition. From a business perspective, this kind of product adoption is always encouraging, but even beyond business development, we’re proud to be part of a bigger initiative that is providing improved accessibility to the mobility community. Products aside, perhaps the most significant advance in the last 10 years is the perception of wheelchair passenger transportation. A decade ago, the focus was on basic compliance and meeting minimum requirements of law. Today, we see a much more compassionate approach that considers what is truly best for the mobility community, and we like to think we’ve played a part in that transformation. Walsh: A big advance was when heavy-duty transit went from high-floor to low-floor, which is now commonplace in agencies. Now they don’t buy anything BUT low-floor heavy-duty vehicles for their fixed routes. This has to do with making the vehicles more accessible, and the most drastic way to do that is by lowering the floor of the bus. It has truly been a game changer in the industry. In general, there are also safer products that are now be offered in the market, such as weight capacities on the lifts and better restraints, to meet new regulations that have been pushed by the ADA. busride.com
Berry: One great advancement is in interactive voice recognition which has afforded a great benefit to the transportation industry. Most are familiar with Apple’s Siri, Google’s Google Now, Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa. These voice recognition systems provide accessibility and capabilities that we really haven’t seen before. Some might challenge that by correctly stating that this technology has been available to consumers for decades. But not until recently has the reliability and application of voice recognition advanced sufficiently to impact society in the way it has today. Look for voice recognition to be used more heavily and applied in increasingly new and innovative ways as the technology improves.
In what ways does your company go above and beyond the requirements of ADA when designing your product? Sailor: ARBOC strives to not only comply with ADA, but to embrace it. In every product plan, we incorporate ADA-exceeding designs in every possible area. Most know the ADA requirement for the ramp slope is 1:4. Although this is certainly preferred to using a lift, it is still quite challenging for those in wheelchairs. ARBOC offers products with 1:5 and 1:6 slopes, making it easier for all persons involved. All ARBOC buses have wide entryways and spacious cabins to ensure easy maneuverability for both ambulatory and wheelchair passengers. We incorporate even the smallest of details, such as contrasting colors for the visually impaired and easy-to-reach stop request buttons for riders in wheelchairs. Girardin: For us, ADA requirements are only the beginning. We believe that the easier it is to use a product, the safer that wheelchair passenger will be. And that’s why, from testing and training to extensive usability research initiatives, we are constantly working to improve our products. Here are some of the ways we do that: • We always test our products beyond baseline. • We recognize that even the best products can still be used ineffectively, which is why we invest in so many training initiatives, including our national training seminar, onsite training programs as well as new online programs. • We have partnered with well-known university programs in addition to developing our dedicated iQ crash test facility. Together, these initiatives provide yet another opportunity for us to learn about wheelchair passenger safety and develop innovative solutions to continually improve it. • With the latest release of the Quantum product, we’ve not only met the letter of the ADA law, but we have brought a product to market that truly extends to the spirit of that law.
Walsh: We’ve designed wider, 102-inch wide vehicles to accommodate better access. We’ve also designed larger wheelchair positions instead of the standard 30-by-48 inches. We’ve gone to extensions of the full-length L-track from front to back to accommodate different-sized wheelchairs and scooters for the wheelchair-aided passengers. In mobility vans, we’re doing wider doors. There’s a huge focus on the community itself and the devices that they use. Berry: Our ADEPT demand response software platform is designed specifically with ADA riders in mind. Our software captures information about the individual needs of each rider in order to select the appropriate service for that rider automatically. For example, in the case of someone who uses a wheelchair, the ADEPT system knows that the rider is in a wheelchair (based on their profile), whether the person requires an attendant to travel with them, or any other special needs. If the person is sight-impaired and needs a service animal to travel with them, that information is also included in their profile. Our software is fundamentally an intelligent scheduling and dispatch system for on-demand transport for people with special needs. When the system schedules a trip for an individual rider, it automatically uses all of that information to put them on the right vehicle at the right time.
What are you doing to ensure better passenger accessibility in the future? Sailor: We are currently in the design stages for several new products, one of which is the Spirit of Equess (SOE). The SOE is a low-floor rural transit bus on a purpose-built ARBOC chassis. We are incorporating a fully flat floor that seats 25 and a ramp with an ADA-exceeding 1:6 slope. ARBOC collaborated with major worldwide companies such as Cummins, Allison, ZF, I/O Controls, and Grayson Thermal Systems to integrate state-of-the-art technology that allows for easy accessibility. In addition to creating a design accessible for passengers, we designed the Spirit of Equess to have accessible components for service technicians, which is an element that is often overlooked. All major components are designed to be accessed from the exterior leading to quick, easy serviceability. Girardin: One great example is with our Q’POD product. Varying bus types, layouts, and equipment made it difficult to install, maintain and use a standard tie-down safely and effectively on buses. Drivers did not know what to expect, and in many cases would not use the equipment, which clearly was to the detriment of busride.com | BUSRIDE
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wheelchair passengers. The introduction of our Q’POD product was the first time that a driver could approach wheelchair securement the same way every time, regardless of which bus they were assigned. But Q’POD did not stop there. Since its introduction to the market nearly 10 years ago, the product has constantly evolved to meet new challenges while keeping the same promise of improved accessibility and usability. Walsh: The low-floor school bus, low-floor cutaway, and the minivan with dual ramps. These are three products that are really changing the marketplace. We perform our product development based on customer feedback. What you get with REV Group is innovation. We’re looking to bring modern technology to the marketplace because that’s who we are at our core. We want to lead by example. Berry: Our next generation ADEPT platform is in development now. This exciting and innovative product can be hosted in the cloud, making deployment and maintenance of the software much easier and lower cost. It helps to improve accessibility of the system as well. The system is modular and can be accessed entirely through the web. We’re also developing better planning and scheduling tools within our software that will improve operational efficiency and ease of use. The end result will be lower cost services and higher rider satisfaction. Our first ADEPT platform was introduced 20 years ago. The broader vision that we have for ADEPT is mobility-as-a-service, or “MaaS”. The transportation space is evolving into a marketplace that will put all modes of ground transportation into a resource pool. Consumers will have the ability to arrange transport from their origin to their destination in a single operation and the software system or ecosystem will determine which modes and providers of service are best to achieve their travel goals. A single trip could include fixed route transit services, paratransit, taxi, a transportation network company (TNC) like Uber, and/or other mode of transportation. All of these service providers will be part of the MaaS marketplace. DDS will deliver technology that leverages the marketplace and gives riders greater options and greater capability to maintain their independence and lead fulfilling lives.
What is triggering new product development? Sailor: Like other industries, new product development is driven by the customer. To ensure we are aware of our customers’ needs, we receive continual feedback from our dealers and end users. From this response, we can break down their wishes into four simple categories: cost, time, quality and safety. To guarantee everyone can afford an ARBOC, we have several different product lines at varying price points and are continually designing new products to give our clients further options. On a high-floor bus with a lift in the rear, a driver spends several minutes loading and unloading passengers. All ARBOC buses are equipped with a ramp that deploys in 10 seconds, which translates to tremendous time savings. We have a great quality assurance program to guarantee our customers receive the high quality that ARBOC is known for. And last is safety: ARBOC performs more safety testing than any other manufacturer in the market. Girardin: Wheelchair passengers do not always have a voice in transportation, and we hope to be a catalyst that helps them be heard. Safety standards are constantly improving, and we’re pushing to extend these standards to our mobility community. For us, that’s what drives product development. Walsh: REV is a company that is so on the edge of always looking for something new, safe and reliable. And we’re especially very gifted at listening to customer needs and really taking that from a drawing board and implementing a new product into the marketplace. We also pay attention to trends in the industry. It’s important that, across all of our divisions, we’re not looking at just one scope of the business. The focus is on the 26
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entire industry, whether it be demand-response or fixed route. We need to approach the entire industry with an eye toward reliability and safety. Berry: Mobility-as-a-service and cloud technology. Many public agencies are already looking at providing on-demand transportation services beyond what is currently offered for paratransit. The new on-demand services would be offered to riders who typically use traditional fixed route transit services but are looking for greater flexibility and convenience. In order to support relatively expensive on-demand services, the agencies are hoping to partner with TNCs, taxi companies and transport brokers to provide the majority of the on-demand rides. This is the beginning of a new transportation marketplace. Dispatch and scheduling software must evolve to support new transportation models and integrate with third-party systems.
How do you envision the accessibility landscape of the future? Sailor: With an aging population, the trend will be toward additional advancements that make public transportation increasingly accessible. Allowing our parents and grandparents to regain (or maintain) their independence and dignity should be a focus for everyone involved in transportation. We will also continue to see advancements in safety requirements, including additional surveillance and driver alerts, all of which will serve to make passengers feel safer while using public transportation. Girardin: We believe there can be a time when wheelchair passengers have the same level of access as everyone else. We think of this access not only in terms of overcoming obstacles like curbs and stairs, or the simple freedom to travel and reach a destination – though we can all agree those are important, to be sure – but most importantly, we envision a future where all wheelchair passengers are afforded access to the same level of safety during their travel as those around them. Walsh: I think the industry as a whole is going to become safer. Whether that’s structurally, whether that’s from technologies that are integrated in the vehicles, whether that’s from different ideas that are being generated industry-wide, safety is a big-ticket item that you are going to see more of over time. It will also be a transportation world where all vehicles are equal access, all the time. There are initiatives underway with REV Group that hope to pull the 20-year vision much closer to us. There’s a lot involved in that of course. Market acceptance, adoption, lots of engineering and design work that we’ll have to endeavor in. We’ve already started that with the Champion low floor, and with the Collins low-floor for school buses – as well as with ENC, 40-foot access low-floor buses and ElDorado mobility vans. We’re really broadening our views. I don’t want to say five years but, if I had my way in a perfect world, we would be able to make all our initiatives happen in that period. We want everybody entering and exiting their vehicles safely, whether they’re rolling on, have a walker or a cane, or some other mobility impairment. Each person has the same access, the same transportation experience as everyone else. We’re driving for that. Berry: The entire industry is reimagining how transportation will be delivered in the next decade and beyond. Smart cities, autonomous vehicles, transportation marketplaces, and other advancements are all contributing to greater accessibility of a wide range of services. Before long these advancements will be mainstream. Perhaps one of society’s greatest advancements is that broad, even universal, access to services that meaningfully enhance our lives is now a primary requirement in the planning stages. I don’t think that could have been said even 10 years ago. As we look ahead, we’re depending on the new technologies of today and the future to create opportunities for lifestyle enhancement – to make our lives better. What better future could we hope for ourselves and our children? busride.com
O F F I C I A L
BUSRide Field Test:
MARTA
PILOTS THE VICINITY busride.com | BUSRIDE
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O F F I C I A L
BUSRide Field Test:
MARTA pilots the Vicinity Partnered with Alliance Bus Group, MARTA is conducting an innovative program with the Vicinity bus by Grande West Transportation By Richard Tackett In January 2014, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) performed a comprehensive operations analysis. In the estimation of agency executives and planners, MARTA’s service had become “static” for a time and needed to adjust for population movements, changing demographics and new employment centers. The MARTA team’s biggest takeaway from the analysis was that fleet and service diversification would be necessary to push Atlanta’s transit system into the future.
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“We needed to move away from being a ‘one-size-fits-all’ organization,” says Rich Krisak, MARTA chief operations officer. “Although we had a small group of 35-foot buses, we had essentially put all of our eggs into one basket with 40-foot vehicles. Our comprehensive operations analysis showed that the city would be better served by assigning new vehicles of varying sizes to the applications they best fit.”
busride.com
The Vicinity is a heavy-duty vehicle with a similar build to full-sized transit buses.
Identifying needs and solutions The operations analysis pointed to two distinct needs: bigger buses for routes with heavier traffic, and the introduction of circulator shuttles to facilitate service to the city’s smaller, more narrow neighborhood routes. To that end, MARTA embarked on a pilot program to fulfill both objectives. The agency procured 18 60-foot articulated buses for its heavier routes, and its planning department simultaneously began identifying new routes for circulator shuttles. The next step was selecting a vehicle best suited for the new service, branded “Local Motion.” “Our planning group initially recommended a 28-foot cutaway bus, similar to MARTA’s vehicles currently in use for paratransit services,” Krisak says. “They’re fine buses, but they’re essentially five-year vehicles.” Krisak and MARTA’s operational leadership wanted a heavier-duty vehicle; one with a 12-year lifecycle like a standard 40-foot transit bus. Ultimately, Krisak says the specs for a 30-foot bus won in a side-by-side comparison with the proposed 28-foot cutaway. “In our neighborhood routes, we found that a 30-foot bus had a better turning radius than the more cumbersome cutaway,” he says.
“MARTA has a lot of history with us, because we’re local and we have a longstanding business relationship,” says Doug Dunn, CEO of Alliance Bus Group. “As Grande West’s exclusive U.S. distributor and as a supplier of mobility buses for MARTA, Alliance Bus Group was a driving force to put this deal together with MARTA.” MARTA had a very short window for the purchases and delivery of these buses in order to put them into service. It was very timely that Alliance Bus Group was in the process of receiving an order of 10 buses from Grande West. Alliance and MARTA worked very quickly to secure these vehicles for their needs, and Alliance then moved forward with the installation of all the additional equipment that MARTA needed to have the vehicles meet their specifications. Alliance Bus Group completed the delivery of all 10 buses over a one-week period for MARTA’s pilot program. From introductory exploration to final delivery, MARTA and Alliance were able to work through the entire process in less than four months. “The delivery process was remarkable,” Dunn says. “We’ve never moved as fast with a major transit agency as we did with MARTA. MARTA gets things done. They run their agency very professionally and it’s paying big dividends for them.”
The Vicinity delivers MARTA opened their pilot program to several bus manufacturers with 30-foot models and began testing their vehicles on the new routes, and even put some in regular service to gauge reactions from passengers, drivers and the maintenance department reactions. The Vicinity bus, by Canadian manufacturer Grande West Transportation, stood out among others to MARTA leadership. “We really liked the Vicinity because it isn’t just a 40-foot model cut down by 10 feet,” Krisak says. “It’s a purpose-built 30-foot vehicle.” The Vicinity is a heavy-duty vehicle with a similar build to full-sized transit buses, and much of the same componentry – with a galvanized steel monocoque structure, bonded windows, fiberglass body panels, full-size tires and 17.5-inch disc brakes. In addition to being one of only a few purpose-built vehicles for MARTA’s needs, Grande West could deliver the Vicinity vehicles with an ease and efficiency unmatched by its competitors – because of a distribution and manufacturing partnership with Alliance Bus Group in the adjacent city of College Park, GA. busride.com | BUSRIDE
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MARTA is currently running ten Vicinity buses by Grande West in a pilot program.
MARTA is currently running 10 Vicinity buses by Grande West in a pilot program.
With the help of Grande West along with some of the sub-component vendors, Alliance demonstrated and trained all key personnel prior to delivery – and then held a two-week training period after delivery both at Alliance’s facility and on-site at MARTA’s facilities. Training covered all aspects of the vehicles’ operations including systems, sub-components, maintenance, parts, support, and warranty – in educational sessions as well as in the field. MARTA’s maintenance team was an integral part of the delivery and implementation process. All parties held weekly update meetings prior to delivery in which they discussed maintenance issues and questions, so implementation would go as smoothly as possible. In addition to the ongoing technical training and support, Alliance is currently working on another round of training to continue onboarding MARTA and provide additional detail on topics of interest. Dunn says this is to ensure the success of MARTA’s programs and be “along for the whole ride” for the lifecycle of the vehicle – from discovery to delivery, to continuing education and ongoing support while the vehicle is in operation. Stakeholder feedback and moving forward Passenger feedback has largely centered, positively, on the Local Motion rebranding, vehicle accessibility and quality of ride. “Passengers love the Vicinity’s ride because it’s got air spring like a larger bus, as opposed to the spring-shock suspensions of cutaways,” Krisak says. “It’s much more comfortable.” MARTA’s drivers, Krisak says, praise the Grande West vehicles’ maneuverability and design. They see the advantages of its transit-style design and heavyduty construction. “Since it’s the best-sized vehicle for routes it runs, we get tremendously valuable feedback on the 30
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Vicinity,” he says. “Overall, fleet diversification is working wonders for our community.” Moving forward, Krisak says MARTA is looking to expand the Vicinity’s niche in its overall fleet and find more non-traditional circulator routes on which to put the buses. For their part, Alliance plans to stick with MARTA throughout the pilot program and beyond – hopefully delivering even more Grande West vehicles in the future. “At both Alliance and Grande West, we are very proud of the product that MARTA has received and are very excited about what the future holds for both companies,” Dunn says. “This program strengthens the already strong business relationship that we have with MARTA.”
MARTA’s drivers have praises the Grande West vehicles’ maneuverability and design.
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FOCUS ON:
TELEMATICS
By Todd Ewing
Affordable, easy-to-use technology is helping businesses of all sizes use data to optimize their operations. Relying on drivers and vehicles to build a healthy bottom line means you need to know certain fleetrelated metrics and benchmarks that can help you measure success. For companies with vehicles and mobile workers in the field, GPS fleet tracking solutions provide critical information that can help you spot opportunities to improve fleet utilization, reduce costs, coach drivers, and improve safety. But what metrics should you measure? Here are five data points to start with:
1
STOPS MADE PER DAY
Let’s talk productivity. Do you know the number of stops your drivers or crew make each day? Having a good handle on where your drivers are, the routes they take to get to jobs, and how long they spend on a job site will help you see if you have room to schedule another job per driver, per day – talk about a boost to the bottom line! To see if you can fit in additional jobs, make sure your drivers are taking optimal routes to and from their jobs sites, lunch hours and breaks aren’t being over-extended, and trucks are stocked with the right inventory to cover the day’s work.
2
FUEL USAGE AND EFFICIENCY
Fuel represents 60 percent of a fleet’s total operating costs1. That’s a lot of money – and there are a lot of factors that affect your fleet’s fuel consumption. Speeding, harsh driving habits, idling and poor route planning are the biggest culprits for wasted fuel. Tracking fuel usage and efficiency on each of your vehicles helps you to know what you’re spending on fuel and will help you identify how to cut down on unnecessary fuel costs.
3
HARSH DRIVING BEHAVIOR
Stepping on the gas. Taking corners like a race car driver. Slamming on the brakes. These are all indicators of dangerous driving. Add in speeding, and your fleet has increased likelihood for accidents that could cost you a lot of money. The average cost of an accident for an employer is around $16,500 per incident2; but the true cost of such an incident goes beyond the monetary impact, including damage to your reputation. Understanding how your vehicles are being treated and how your drivers are operating behind the wheel will help you coach your drivers and curb dangerous driving habits before they have a negative impact on your business and bottom line.
4
MAINTENANCE COST PER VEHICLE Keeping your vehicles on the road is a priority. When those vehicles head to the garage for any kind of lengthy service or repair, you run the risk of losing productivity… and revenue. Vehicles that skip scheduled service
appointments (think regular oil changes and tire rotations) often have a higher rate of breakdowns. Automatic service reminders can help you manage time (and money) when it comes to keeping your vehicles healthy.
5
PAYROLL
Manually calculating payroll using paper timecards could be costing you more than you think. And when it comes to billing your customers, knowing the exact amount of time a technician spent on the job is critical so you don’t overcharge. Automating timecards can help eliminate timesheet fraud and help to accurately calculate payroll and overtime pay so you’re paying for only the hours worked – nothing more, nothing less. Armed with these data points, which can be easily accessed through advanced GPS fleet tracking systems like Fleetmatics REVEAL, managers can have the insight—and foresight—to make smart decisions that can help grow revenue and protect their bottom lines. SOURCES 1 2
http://www.automotive-fleet.com/statistics/detail/2015-operating-costs-statistics.aspx https://www.osha.gov/Publications/motor_vehicle_guide.pdf
Todd Ewing is the director of product management for Fleetmatics. Fleetmatics, a Verizon Company, provides GPS fleet tracking and HOS solutions that address the needs of motor carriers of all sizes. Make the switch to ELDs with Verizon and get up to a $200 discount when you purchase and activate any 4G LTE Tablet and an ELD compliance package. For more information on how GPS fleet tracking can help you improve your business, visit www.fleetmatics.com.
busride.com | BUSRIDE
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SAFETY accessibility: & Are we there yet?
By Ami Sailor
I
t is bitterly cold outside today as I sit next to the tall, icy streetlamp and wait. The wind blowing snow in a horizontal blur silences the passing vehicles throwing slush onto the sidewalk in front of me. I want nothing more than to warm up inside of that bus, but when I finally see it round the street corner under the rim of my fur-lined hood, I realize I am not prepared for this. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to miss another appointment and the bus is already parked here in front me, so I reluctantly grab my walker and commence my trek toward the rear of the vehicle, snow crunching underfoot. The driver steps out and slowly makes his way around the bus toward me. He should be in a hurry with this extreme weather, but apparently the cold doesn’t affect him quite like it does me. After what seems like an eternity, he opens the door and begins lowering the dreaded lift that moves no faster than a snail’s pace! As I wait yet again, I begin to daydream of a time when I was young and able – a time when I didn’t have to spend my days waiting for a bus and when my lips didn’t turn blue while heading to get my blood pressure checked for the hundredth time. With all this stress over something simple like transportation to an appointment, it is no wonder why my blood pressure is high! Eventually the lift clangs against the ground with a thud and I am awoken from my bittersweet daydream to face this awful reality.
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Now let me just say that I have never been afraid of heights, but when you are standing on a platform that is lifted into the air, trying to both steady your walker as it is jostled around and hold on so you don’t fall off, all while a bus full of passengers sit and stare - it is a terrifying experience. Everyone is watching and waiting, so I gain composure and carefully step onto the lift. Once I am situated, it begins to rise off the ground at its ever-so-consistent snail’s pace. By now, I can hear the other passengers’ restless chatter. I can feel their glares as they shiver from the frigid air that overcomes the bus. A few continually check their watches, probably late for an appointment of their own. I feel like an inconvenience every time I board a bus, which used to bother me, but lately my feelings are as numb as my ice-cold toes. Now, my safety is all I am concerned with. I just want to make it in the bus without plummeting off the edge of the platform that I am precariously standing upon. The lift jolts to a stop causing me to stumble slightly, but I quickly recover and hurry to the nearest seat wanting this entire nightmare to be over with. After all that, the warm bus I wanted so badly to be inside is no longer warm at all. As it pulls away from the curb and rattles down the road, I begin to worry about my safety once again…
busride.com
While the nation is so passionately dedicated to increasing equality, the transit industry seems to lag. Passengers with disabilities tend to be singled out and forced into the spotlight. With an increasing number of buses sold in the United States and Canada each year, accessibility and safety must be established priorities as public transportation progresses. Each passenger, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, should experience transportation services in the same manner as the next with the absence of fear, improving the rider experience for everyone. Regarding accessibility, the solution seems obvious – lowfloor buses featuring a bi-fold entrance ramp. By utilizing this configuration, the boarding process is simple. Everyone enters using the same doorway with little (or no) assistance, allowing mobilitychallenged passengers to blend harmoniously with the other riders. Though this is certainly favorable to commuters travelling in wheelchairs, they are not the only people who benefit from the use of a ramp. Young children, travelers toting luggage, senior citizens who make up an increasing number of the passenger share, and even the average healthy male or female sometimes have a hard time with multiple steps. Because a ramp can be deployed from the driver’s seat in only 10 seconds and stowed in another short 10 seconds, time is cut down tremendously in comparison to a high-floor bus which takes up to five minutes to load or unload a single passenger using a mobility device. This creates a massive decrease in route times and delivers all passengers to their destinations quicker than ever before, making the list of people who can benefit from an entry ramp endless. While low-floor buses with a ramp are a great factor in transportation accessibility, there are concerns that lie much deeper than simply entering and exiting the bus. The accessibility landscape encompasses the entire beginningto-end riding experience. This includes navigating to your seat, utilizing all the features of the bus while in route, and traversing back through the bus after leaving your seat when you have arrived at your stop. The cabin design should support easy maneuverability
for passengers of all types. Again, steps are difficult for many people to use so a single-plane floor is ideal, and safer, in most situations. Custom grab handles and rails should be designed and integrated to accommodate passengers in wheelchair positions in addition to mounting stop buttons in easy-to-reach locations. Large lettering in contrasting colors and/or braille on signs and other areas of the vehicle should be incorporated for the visually impaired. Implementing minor details such as these has a significant impact on many passengers’ experience, which helps to create a sense of equality within public transportation. busride.com | BUSRIDE
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Safety is a significant element in many trades, but is exceptionally commanding in the transit industry. Passengers should ride stressfree knowing the producer of the bus they are commuting in did everything they could to ensure a safe trip. While everyone wants their product to be safe, very few utilize the many precautions that are available at their disposal. In a technology-driven world, there are more opportunities than you can imagine, such as surveillance options, head’s up displays, and various other driver alerts that serve as an extra set of eyes and ears for the driver. As a result, the pressure of keeping a group of people safe does not fall solely on the shoulders of the driver. GPS fleet tracking systems can improve bus security and safety in multiple ways. If a bus goes off its scheduled route or is missing for any number of reasons, the GPS system knows and the company can quickly locate it. These systems can also track driver behavior, such as speeding, idling time, and unauthorized vehicle use which encourages drivers to act more responsibly. 34
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While preventative actions are necessary, other measures must be taken to ensure passengers are protected if accidents or system malfunctions do occur. For example, engine compartments in buses have potential hotbeds and if they catch fire, it is often fast and difficult to suppress with only a handheld fire extinguisher; however, an assortment of fire suppression systems are available and can typically be installed in less than a day. Looking at a different angle, each bus manufacturer completes mandatory testing that was set in place to protect passengers, but what do the manufacturers do in addition to what is required? Unfortunately, very few companies in this market go above and beyond when it comes to safety testing. Many manufacturers may argue that the supplementary testing is too expensive; however, with lives at stake, ARBOC sees the extra effort as a no-brainer. In the past five years, or even in the past decade, there has been more of a focus on the best interests of passengers, but ideas seem to corrode away before any action is taken. Each of us plays a role in shaping the future of mobility. Allowing our parents, grandparents, children and friends to use public transportation with a sense of safety and belonging rather than the presence of unwanted attention should be a priority for everyone involved in the transportation community. Whether or not societal equality can be achieved is debatable, but if we start with what we can control, i.e. public transportation, we can certainly aid in bridging the gap towards a brighter future. Ami Sailor serves as marketing manager for ARBOC Specialty Vehicles. Visit them online at www.arbocsv.com.
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GREAT BRANDS THINK ALIKE.
WHERE CUSTOM BUILT
MEETS LOW FLOOR. With Spirit of Liberty, ARBOC has ushered in a new era in bus accessibility. This new medium duty model offers industry-leading low-floor technology that is 100% step-free. With a purpose built chassis from Freightliner Custom Chassis, Spirit of Liberty features 30% lighter hybrid composite construction that translates into a 6% gain in fuel economy. ARBOC busses also give you access to FCCC 24/7 factory support and the largest nationwide service network. When you factor in the real cost of ownership, Spirit of Liberty delivers unbeatable quality at a tremendous value.
REAL COST OF OWNERSHIP™
FUEL EFFICIENCY The custom, purpose built XBA chassis combines with lightweight construction to lead the way in fuel efficiency that translates into enhanced profitability.
SAFETY
QUALITY
UPTIME
From heavy-duty braking to maneuverability, ergonomics and step free access – driver safety is our top priority.
As part of the Daimler family, FCCC chassis are developed with legendary resources for design, engineering and manufacturing processes.
With 24/7 factory support and the largest nationwide service network, issues are quickly resolved to keep your fleet on the road.
1-800-545-8831 | FcccBus.com | arbocsv.com For ordering details, contact your local dealer.
Specifications are subject to change without notice. Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation is registered to ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004. Copyright ©2016 Daimler Trucks North America LLC. All rights reserved. Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation is a subsidiary of Daimler Trucks North America LLC, a Daimler company.
COLLISION
NCE AND AVOIDATODAY
An expert from Via Technologies details the safety and technology implications of collision avoidance software, hardware and techniques BUSRide recently spoke with Ciaran Mac Neill, senior sales director at Via Technologies, about the past, present and future of collision avoidance systems. How does your product go above and beyond in averting collisions? Until recently, SVS (Surround View System) also known as AVM (Around View Monitor) features were only found on luxury automobiles mainly due to the expense of developing these sophisticated monitoring systems. More and more, these features are now being offered and adopted by new car buyers on the more mainstream models. The secondary transportation markets such as buses, trucks, construction, industrial, agriculture, and forestry have a huge variety of vehicles with different sizes and are sold in much smaller volumes. This makes it hard for the manufacturers of these vehicles to bear the cost of developing surround view systems and getting a return on their investment even though these vehicles have more of a requirement for safety enhancement features due to the extra damage and harm they can inflict. VIA has developed a real-time Surround View System that can be installed and calibrated cost-effectively on a multitude of vehicle types and sizes.Our VIA Mobile360 solution utilizes state-of-the art 2D and 3D 360° HD video capture and stitching technology to provide drivers with a comprehensive view of their immediate environment, helping to prevent blind spots and improve bus maneuverability in dense urban environments. It also has our E-Track remote vehicle tracking features that enable managers to track the vehicle status and respond quickly if an emergency happens to occur. To help the police and the insurance company determine the causes, every such incident is automatically recorded by the system. Managers can also monitor driver behavior remotely and in real-time using our ADAS Event Triggers and Computer Vision technology. What, if anything, is triggering new collision avoidance product development? There are a number of key technology trends that are triggering the development of new collision avoidance solutions like VIA Mobile360. These include the proliferation of more powerful and more affordable camera and location sensors; high speed 4G and 5G wireless broadband for remote connectivity and monitoring; improved image capture, stitching and processing software; and cloud, big data, and Artificial Intelligence technologies that facilitate the real-time analysis of on-road conditions, driver behavior, and other items. All these technologies are coming together in a “perfect storm” to create a new generation of autonomous vehicles that will be safer and more efficient in operation. Already in some cities in the world we are starting to see driverless buses appear on the streets. This is set to be a huge trend over the next ten years and bus operators need to start preparing for it. At VIA, we are working to provide buses with a real-time 360 Surround View System of the bus surroundings and an Advanced
TOMORROW
Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) solution using camera vision and Millimeter Wave Radar technology to continuously monitor distances between vehicles and to alert drivers to maintain safe distances while on the road. Our E-Track also tracks a driver’s driving hours, speed, emergency braking, and even dozingand provides analytics of their behavior behind the wheel on a weekly or monthly basis. Please describe where you believe collision avoidance technology will be like in the near-future? Current solutions on the market rely mostly on camera vision alone. However, in low light and poor weather conditions, the accuracy of camera vision alone is limited. Over the next two years, the addition of millimeter wave radar to complement cameras will be a key trend, leading to increased distance and accuracy in ADAS. Hardware processing power and camera resolution will double during the same period, providing better image quality, more precise object detection, and faster response time. Machine learning will also play a much significant role in preventing collisions by allowing the more accurate detection of a wider range of objects such as humans, animals, trees, vehicles, and other potential obstacles that may be encountered on the road. Five years from now, the rapid adoption and development of autonomous driving technologies should greatly reduce the number of accidents caused by human error and perhaps even eliminate them. Greater connectivity and higher mobile bandwidth will not only make remote real-time vehicle tracking and monitoring an integral part of bus fleet management but will also lead to dramatic improvements in operational safety and efficiency. Ciaran Mac Neill is a technology industry veteran with over 20 years’ experience of working with customers on the development and implementation of highlysophisticated system solutions for mission-critical applications. He is head of sales for VIA Technologies’s Embedded Division in the Americas, and had been with the company for over eight years. VIA Technologies, Inc is a global leader in the development of highly-integrated embedded platform and system solutions for smart transportation, smart city, IoT, and industrial automation applications. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, the company employs over 250 software engineers and operates a global R&D and customer service network, including a facility in Fremont, CA. More information about VIA’s Smart Transportation solutions is available at https://www.viatech. com/en/solutions/smart-transportation/in-vehicle/.
busride.com | BUSRIDE
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TAILOR-MADE CLIMATE SOLUTIONS FOR BUSES All buses face unique situations everyday, so why accept a run-of-the mill solution? Trust Eberspaecher’s Hydronic series for a custom fit to your bus. Eberspaecher Climate Control Systems’ Hydronic series utilizes cutting edge technology to ensure a preheated engine with supplemental cabin heat, and offers a variety of sizes, heat outputs, and installation options so you have a climate solution that works for your unique needs. www.eberspaecher-na.com 800-387-4800
Ask the ELD EXPERTS
Answering the FAQs of ELD By James McCarthy
The ELD mandate effective date is rapidly approaching, so I’d like to answer some of the most frequently asked questions we’ve heard in relation to the mandate.
In addition to increasing overall safety, ELDs will reduce paperwork headaches and stress, and make it easier communicate with the home office.
a monthly fee and everything is included. However, a system with a $20 monthly service fee plus $300 for hardware (dongle, smartphone renewal, etc) comes to a total cost of ownership of $1500 over five years.
An ELD that can print out an instant log answers the need for quick and easy inspections and also helps maintain privacy.
How can I figure out if the ELD mandate applies to my bus fleet? If your drivers are currently using paper logs to maintain hours-ofservice records, they will need to have an ELD. The only exemptions allowed are for drivers of vehicles manufactured before 2000 and drivers who do not use the short haul exemption more than eight days out of every 30-day period. What initial steps must I take to be ready for the ELD mandate? Evaluate the available ELDs and software to find the best fit for your needs. Do you need manual data transfers or online connectivity? Do you want IFTA miles-by-state reporting? Do you want automatic log auditing? How do you want to manage and store the ELD data? Depending on the size of my fleet, and assuming I currently don’t have any ELD devices, how much am I going to be spending between now and the ELD effective date? What about moving forward? The costs for adding ELDs can vary significantly. Your best approach is to compare the total cost of ownership over five years and include all the expenses. For example, if you’re looking at a system based on a cell phone or tablet, you will also need to include the costs per vehicle for a dongle, renewal fees, monthly service costs, and data plans over the five-year period. Smartphones and tablets will need to be upgraded regularly and data plans come with heavy overage penalties. Some ELD systems can require over 1GB data per month per vehicle. The bottom line is to not take anything for granted. What may appear to be a cheap deal with no up front costs may cost you in the long run. As a comparison, our VDO RoadLog ELD is available for $800 without
What features of a state-of-the-art ELD are important, and why are they important to my business and bottom line? The most important feature is an easy driver log functionality that will be compliant in the future. The ELD should allow for quick and easy roadside inspection. As enforcement ramps up, checking the logs on electronic displays and smartphones will be difficult and time consuming. Drivers will want a system that doesn’t have to be turned over to the inspector, and an ELD that can print out an instant log answers and also maintains your privacy. Device reliability is important and the best way to do that is to keep it simple. Check how many different components a particular ELD system requires. If you have a system with a dongle and smartphone that are delivered from separate suppliers, you are more likely to have issues than with one piece of hardware from one manufacturer. System connectivity is paramount. While it’s OK to drop a call, a loss of connectivity between an ELD dongle and smartphone means you have to edit all your logs and possibly explain instances of “unassigned driver” to enforcement. Your most reliable connectivity will likely come from a system that’s hardwired to the vehicle. You should also look at other features such as IFTA miles-by-state reporting, pre- and post-trip reporting capabilities, plus options for track and trace, driver behavior monitoring, and trip management. How can I prepare my company culture for ELD implementation and monitoring? It’s key to show your team why ELD implementation is an important priority. Do not use ELDs as a punishment for bad drivers, but rather convince your leading drivers to try it. And while ELDs will satisfy the federal mandate and help increase overall safety, they will also deliver a host of long-term benefits such as less paperwork headaches, more profitable drive time, time savings, reduced errors, less stress, and easier communication with the home office. James McCarthy is the VDO Roadlog ELD marketing manager for Continental Commercial Vehicles & Aftermarket. Visit them online at www.vdoroadlog.com and email them at roadlog-sales@vdo.com.
busride.com | BUSRIDE
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Ask the ELD EXPERTS
5 wins for motor carriers and drivers: beyond compliance with ELD By Todd Ewing
table. Electronic logs help you say “goodbye” to wasted time catching up on stacks of driver logs, tracking down missing logs, decoding illegible entries, and digging through pages for an old record. With an ELD solution, what was manual and time-consuming becomes efficient, guesswork becomes precise, and what once required time spent digging is now at your fingertips. This translates to more time to do the things that can take your business further, the things that really set your business apart.
Win #3: Drivers can focus on driving.
Motor carriers and drivers alike have compliance on the mind with the deadline for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) ELD mandate drawing closer. Many questions around the topic linger, but one of the most common questions has been “What’s in it for me?” But other than compliance and avoiding any penalties or fees, as a carrier or driver, what is your motivation to get on top of this regulatory change? The ELD mandate may have been intended to enforce a standard of safety and make it easier to manage records of duty status (RODS), but implementing a solution can mean all sorts of wins for both carriers and drivers that are far-reaching and long-term, especially simplifying what was once complicated.
Win #1: Compliance is only the beginning. Let’s be honest. Your priority for the moment might be compliance, pure and simple, so though it would be nice to see some kind of ROI beyond that, it may not be your focus. But the good news is that ELD solutions can offer much more than avoiding violations and penalties. Identifying a vendor sets you on the right path, but during that process, the vendor will likely have bundling options to partner your ELD solution with a telematics solution to help you see benefits beyond basic compliance. But here’s a warning for you: get started early especially if you’re interested in getting more from your solution. The ELD mandate has some complexity to it and you may find yourself down a few different rabbit holes, so starting early is the key no matter what solution you ultimately choose. For example, are you sure the ELD mandate applies to you? Did you know that a certified vendor and registered ELD solution don’t necessarily guarantee compliance? As you answer one question, new ones are likely to creep up.
Win #2: Get rid of those stacks of paper on your desk. Paper logs are more than just a hassle; they’re a big disadvantage to carriers and drivers. They can leave you at risk for inaccuracy and keep you behind the times—and behind your competition—for example, by increasing your response time, potentially lowering the quality of your service. That means possibly leaving money on the 40
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Eliminating the hassle and clutter of paper logs benefits drivers as well, allowing them to focus on what they’re out there to do: drive. ELDs help reduce time-consuming and headache-inducing paperwork and avoidable communications with dispatch. Many ELD solutions will even keep record of driver activity in the event of an accident, relieving drivers of the burden of providing evidence. Without the distractions and interruptions of a paper log, drivers can focus on getting to their destination safely and providing the best customer service.
Win #4: “Safety first” becomes a reality. We’ve all said it: “Safety first.” We absolutely maintain that perspective as we go about our days and as we work, but have we gone that extra mile to actually put safety first, ahead of everything else we have going on? ELDs give you near real-time access to Hours of Service (HOS) information and the ability to set up alerts to prevent HOS violations. This helps drivers and managers to share the responsibility of preventing violations and take an active role in driver safety. If you choose to bundle your ELD solution with a telematics solution, you can identify ways to improve driver behavior and keep vehicles performing their best, while also monitoring vehicle activity during off-hours. Using a single platform, you can automate alerts about hazardous driving behavior and search through logs easily and any time.
Win #5: You’re made for each other. If you’re currently tracking HOS, you’re likely already deep in the pursuit of finding the right ELD solution. The right ELD vendor will not only help reassure you that you’ll be in compliance before the December 18 deadline, but also help customize the solution for maximum usefulness for your company. Whether it’s simply transitioning to electronic logs or as comprehensive as optimizing routes, cutting down on fuel costs, reducing hazardous driving behavior, and generally improving productivity, ELDs help remove guess work. A quality vendor will help make your transition smooth and as effective as possible by getting to know you and your priorities in order to make the most of all that comes with implementing an ELD solution. Todd Ewing is the director of product management for Fleetmatics. Visit them online at www.fleetmatics.com.
busride.com
Ask the ELD EXPERTS
Vehicle-installed ELD vs. BYOD: Choosing the right technology for compliance By Jenny Shiner As many businesses are aware, fleets across the United States will soon be required to use Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) to automatically track Hours of Service (HOS). Once you start researching ELDs, you will find that there are two main technologies available to meet compliance, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or vehicle-installed ELD. In case you are not familiar with BYOD, it refers to companies or employees providing their own tablets or smartphones and downloading an app to monitor HOS. Whereas vehicle-installed ELD is an HOS-dedicated tablet that is tethered to a GPS device and is installed into the vehicle. Which option is best? Since the use of ELD is being mandated by federal regulation, it’s safe to assume some buyers are looking for the easiest, least expensive option. BYOD options appear to be the lower cost of entry and easier to access. If your drivers already have smartphones, you can just download an app, right? There is much more to the story than that. Before selecting BYOD, make sure you consider the potential disadvantages of this option such as CDL drivers are legally not allowed to interact with their phones while their vehicle is in motion, your company will likely have to foot the bill for everyone’s data plans, most consumer-grade BYODs are not designed for harsh environments, and cell phones are easily turned off or can lose their charge, which will leave your business in violation of the law. These are challenges that you will not encounter with a vehicle-installed ELD option, as their ruggedized design is specific to commercial use, data plans are typically included by the provider, they enable a lockout feature while the vehicle is in motion, they are always plugged in to a power source, and are not easily tampered with by drivers. Although a vehicle-installed ELD option may be the higher cost of entry, it’s crucial that you assess the overall cost of ownership, the potential return on investment (ROI), and other benefits gained by using a more comprehensive ELD solution. Vehicle-installed ELD solutions help businesses get compliant and benefit in many ways beyond compliance. You will pay less in the long run with a vehicleinstalled ELD option vs. BYOD and receive more bang for your buck. Choose the right ELD partner When assessing technologies, comparing the service offerings between ELD providers is also imperative because they can vary considerably. Along with the ELD hardware, the system and vendor should meet other important requirements.
First, the system must meet the basic ELD functionality requirements under the mandate. Along with functionality of the software, you should look at the provider’s customer service. Some key areas to think about are how they will support you once you become a customer, if onboarding and training are available, and if they provide an implementation guidance and training resources to get your team up to speed. You should also consider the provider’s experience level in HOS and ELD platforms. Going with a newer player is risky because they are less experienced and will likely be less reliable. Selecting a provider with a proven track record in telematics and ELD technology will prevent challenges down the line, from either a compliance or software/ hardware standpoint. Instead of settling for any system just to be compliant or because it costs the least, why not take this opportunity to select the right technology that can improve your fleet management practices the most? When making your final decision between vehicle-installed ELD vs. BYOD, ask yourself this: do your customers come to you because you’re the lowest price? Or are they coming to you because you provide the best service for the money? Why choose GPS Insight to get ELD compliant The GPS Insight Hours of Service Solution offers a simple alternative to paper logs and provides many benefits beyond compliance. Although it is an easy-to-use interface, GPS Insight understands this new mandate is a paradigm shift for the industry and is offering its customers hands-on training, augmented by on-demand training videos, to make the transition from paper logs to e-logs as seamless as possible. Jenny Shiner serves as marketing communications manager for GPS Insight. For more information on getting ELD compliant, contact GPS Insight at 877-477-2690. Visit them online at www.gpsinsight.com.
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Dealer Update – Small and Midsize Market Growth
BUSRide spoke with thought leaders from the small and midsize bus industry on the current state of their market, growth opportunities and technological innovations. The panelists for this discussion were: Brent Phillips – vice president of sales, commercial bus and mobility – REV Group Josh Davey – national sales manager – Davey Coach Sales
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busride.com
Describe your dominant market niche – which applications do your customers specialize in? Brent Phillips: REV Platinum dealers are specialists in meeting with our customers and fully understanding the needs and application of a given operation. This local touch and attention to detail results in a much higher-end product quality and level of service for operators and their passengers. Josh Davey: At Davey Coach, we pride ourselves on not focusing overly on any particular market vertical. This helps us to stay ready for anything. Every industry has ebbs and flows, so we prefer to take a diversified approach. Our customers run the gamut from livery to charters, colleges and universities, and government municipal business.
Which recent trends in the specialty bus industry have contributed to market growth, and why? Davey: We keep our fingers on the pulse of new trends by listening to our customers and responding in kind. More than any one trend in our market, we’re seeing consolidation of manufacturers. There’s a lot of realignment and shifting power in this industry. We stay abreast of all of these changes so we can be responsive to our customers’ needs.
What effects have advancements in vehicle design, engineering and technology had on the specialty vehicle market? Davey: So much innovation is niche focused. For example, despite its relatively narrow application parameters and price considerations, low-floor technology represented a significant recent innovation in our marketplace. There is also a lot of focus on private motorcoach business. Synthetic wood flooring and luxurious interiors are making small buses into “mini-coaches.” There’s a lot of competitiveness in that market and vehicle designs are updating accordingly.
How are new vehicles affecting new business development for the operators purchasing them? Phillips: The flexibility and number of different models that we can offer through our Platinum dealer network ensures that we are able to provide a vehicle that meets a customer’s specific application. From lowered floor mini-vans from ElDorado Mobility to mid-size cutaway buses and large low-floor transit buses, REV offers products that meet almost every application. Our customers and dealers are not left to compromise or shoehorn a customer into a product that marginally meets the requirements or budget. We have the flexibility in design, models, option content and experience to ensure the highest quality and safety.
How do you ensure that your customers don’t have issues with parts availability? Phillips: REV has recently consolidated our parts service operation to provide nationwide market coverage and parts availability. Our REV Parts website (parts.revgroup.com) allows dealers and customers to search and order parts by VIN number saving time and communication errors that can occur with outdated parts systems. Davey: To say we stock tens of thousands of parts would be an understatement. We have an incredible parts inventory. We have the ability to replace any number of components which would keep a bus off the road.
When the Ameritrans brand dissolved last year, Davey Coach purchased its excess parts inventory We’ve been proactive in reaching out to Ameritrans bus owners and letting them know that Davey Coach is their resource for parts – windows, door motors, circuit boards, taillights – the list goes on. It’s important that these operators know that they haven’t been abandoned.
When selling vehicles, do you suggest new opportunities and applications that your customers might “try out?” Davey: We often make suggestions and recommendations. It’s no coincidence that operators who are trying to grow in particular market verticals look to us, because they’re keeping an eye on their competition. If one operator is succeeding with a vehicle we sold them, we’re usually going to get a call from other operators in the area. There’s a necessity to stay competitive, and we pride ourselves on being personalized, consultative and service-oriented
In what areas do you see the biggest growth opportunities for specialty or small and midsize vehicles? Phillips: Safety and accessibility are two focus areas for REV Group. Our robust engineering, design, and testing procedures allow REV to manufacture the safest buses in the market today. From rollover testing, to side impact testing, to seat belt retention testing we focus on safety first. At our manufacturing plants, we promote a “Shop floor to top floor” safety model that promotes a safety work environment for all our employees. Visitors to our plants often comment that it is clear how important safety is throughout the company. This extends beyond our plants with a “From the shop floor to the top floor… to our customers’ door” philosophy ensuring that our buses are thoroughly engineered and tested for safety. Another area of focus for REV is broadening the availability of equal access transportation solutions. From low floor mini-vans at ElDorado Mobility, low floor school buses from Collins, to our low cost LF Shuttle from Champion and the ENC Axess we are promoting mobility solutions that benefit everyone that rides our buses. We focus on economical, well designed and tested solutions!
If you had the ability, what changes would you instantly make to today’s small and midsize vehicles to further increase market growth for your customers? Phillips: Our focus on design and engineering is unparalleled in the industry. Validation and actual testing requirements of manufacturers producing passenger vehicles would serve to ensure a level playing field from a safety standpoint. Often, our vehicles cost more money because of our extra emphasis on engineering, safety, and testing. Davey: It will be interesting to see where the new automated, autonomous driving technology takes our industry. Governments and municipalities will be the first to adopt that technology in their fixedroute applications. Tour and charter companies won’t be so quick to adopt, because the human element is so important in that niche. I’m also interested to see if any manufacturers can blend the fuel efficiency of new, smaller chassis platforms with the carrying capacity of more traditional chassis platforms, like the E450 and F550. That would be something that people would be able to get excited about, provided it’s also affordable.
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O F F I C I A L
NICE and TransitWorks partner for Able-Ride busride.com | BUSRIDE
Photo by Bruce Gilbert
BUSRide Road Test:
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NICE and TransitWorks partner for Able-Ride
Photos by Bruce Gilbert
This Nassau agency knows it can depend on the Ohio-based manufacturer to meet its expanding expectations for safety and reliability
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Transdev has effectively and efficiently operated the Nassau InterCounty Express (NICE) service in Nassau County, NY, since 2012. Born from one of the first public-private transportation partnerships in the U.S., NICE maintains a sterling track record because of the Transdev team’s commitment to customer-centric decision making and responsiveness to rider needs and concerns. As part of this service, NICE operates the Able-Ride paratransit service. With 1.4 million residents in Nassau County, Able-Ride provides approximately 1,400 rides per day. It serves 285 square miles of service area with a mixed fleet of 110 vehicles. “Almost immediately after service launch, some of our paratransit customers began complaining about the ride comfort of the then-current fleet,” says Jack Khzouz, chief administration officer for Transdev in Nassau County. “They were about 12 years old and nearing the ends of their useful lives, so we knew it was time for a change.” Concerns stemmed from the truck chassis of the aging current fleet, which were translating to rougher, truck-like rides for paratransit customers. “We needed a solution which was much more flexible than the then-current fleet,” Khzouz says.
The AMF-Bruns SmartFloor exclusively from TransitWorks allows agencies to easily switch between multiple seat configurations.
Photos by Bruce Gilbert
The search is on TransitWorks began in 1997 as the manufacturer of commercial vans for MobilityWorks, an accessibility solutions provider from Akron, OH. In 2014, TransitWorks was established as a separate manufacturing and sales entity to build accessible mobility vans and shuttles at their facilities in Ohio and Kansas. “NICE wanted a vehicle with a more ‘OEM-type’ body, as opposed to a typical cutaway,” says John Bollinger, product support manager at TransitWorks. “Also, their drivers have to deal with a lot of tight, narrow turns in New York City, and ours is a European-styled van. It was perfect for that application.” Built on the Ford Transit commercial van, TransitWorks’ signature vehicle for NICE features a custom walk-in entry at the front passenger door, wheelchair lift from BraunAbility and the patented SmartFloor by AMF-Bruns. The SmartFloor allows operators to slide (and not lift) the vehicle’s Freedman seats into different configurations – providing room for up to 15 passengers, depending on an agency’s needs. In 2015, NICE sent out a Information for Bid (IFB) for 34 vehicles which they ultimately awarded to Creative Bus Sales Company, with TransitWorks as upfitter. “We needed a vehicle that was flexible, which allowed us more efficiency in its operations, easier maintenance, better fuel economy and – most importantly – a much more comfortable ride for our passengers,” Khzouz says. “With that understanding, we built a spec that wasn’t targeted toward any specific vehicle. Once we were introduced to the TransitWorks solution and compared it to a lot of others, we liked what we saw.” Bollinger himself drove a prototype vehicle to New York for a thorough NICE review, before deliveries were to be completed. After keeping the vehicle for a brief review process and New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) inspection, NICE had a few notes for the manufacturer. TransitWorks readily accepted them and got to work. “These vehicles each come with a DVR camera system, and its original mounting position didn’t comply with NYSDOT,” Bollinger says. “We’re always ready to accommodate our customers, so we designed a bracket and relocated the system before we finished building the remaining 33 vehicles.”
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Photo by Bruce Gilbert
Rave reviews TransitWorks completed deliveries in September 2016, and thus far feedback has been positive – from the NICE team, as well as the local community. More than anything, the new vehicles provide reliability, an understandable platform and easy serviceability to NICE. According to Khzouz, with NICE providing 1,400 paratransit rides per day, the TransitWorks platform’s reliability can’t be understated. “In extreme temperatures, whether they be cold or hot, transit vehicles tend to be a little fussy,” he says. “With this vehicle, that really doesn’t seem to be a problem.” Khzouz says that NICE technicians have found the vehicles to be easily serviced without too much additional training required. The platform is relatively simple and straightforward, and he says support from TransitWorks has been exceptional. “When we do have an issue, it is easily solved through discussion with a provider – either TransitWorks, AMF Bruns, BraunAbility or Freedman. We have found that to be really important for providing service to our daily clients.” Most importantly, Khzouz says the vehicle’s less prominent (but no less important) features meet and exceed the agency’s stringent safety requirements. Khzouz says newer innovations – like non-skid commercial-grade flooring, a more robust wheelchair lift, increased driver visibility and expanded interior height for standing room clearance – are exactly what they were looking for in a safe vehicle. Perhaps most importantly, NICE drivers and customer service representatives are receiving a lot of positive feedback from riders. Many have commented on the improved, “car-like” ride for a highcapacity vehicle. “Furthermore, because of better clearance and maneuverability, the vehicles are providing much faster and efficient door-to-door 48
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service, of which passengers are appreciative.” Khzouz says. “It all allows us to increase safety and reliability, and enhance the customer experience.” That increased maneuverability has translated to happier drivers, too. “The TransitWorks van allows us to operate in our suburban-tourban environment with a much safer feeling, and it gives the driver a little more confidence when driving,” he says. “Stopping ratios and side-to-side clearance are all very complementary on this vehicle.” Looking to the future The TransitWorks team believes that it’s their vehicle’s unique safety features, combined with its ability to meet the needs of many varying applications, which separates them from their competitors. “It’s all about the way we build,” Bollinger says. “We put our vehicles through a lot of testing to ensure safety and compliance – more than a lot of other van upfitters. In my opinion, it’s all worthwhile to put a product on the road that not many other companies can match.” With a reliable fleet to build upon, NICE and the AbleRide service are well-equipped to continue serving their paratransit community and expanding transit options in the future – perhaps even into ondemand transportation, Khzouz says. “As we move forward in the transit space, every agency is looking for safety and dependability,” he says. “Beyond those two foundational goals, at NICE we look for innovation and flexibility. These vehicles allow us both. Because of innovative design, we can service areas which are inaccessible to larger buses. And because of the flexibility of both TransitWorks and NICE, we are continuing to find innovative ways to use these vehicles.” busride.com
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ENTERPRISE
ASSET MANAGEMENT
Data integration connects an agency
In an interview with BUSRide, Dorsey Houtz, president and CEO at Avail Technologies, answers questions about data integration and actionable business intelligence. Avail Technologies is an intelligent transportation systems (ITS) total solutions provider for transit operators in the United States, specializing in fully integrated CAD/AVL and Business Intelligence solutions for fixed route and paratransit. Are there distinct types of data integration? There is data integration from a reporting and analysis perspective, and there’s data integration from a data-sharing perspective. Ultimately, the concept of data integration is about being able to easily and accurately leverage data between disparate systems and disparate data sources. How does data integration assist agencies from a reporting and analysis perspective? Data integration accomplishes three things: It provides a higher level of accuracy, reduces the amount of effort required to report and analyze across data sources, and it gives agencies a better capability for doing “cause and effect” analysis of operations within their transit facilities. There could be various people within a transit agency who require data elements from distinct parts of the operation. For example: information about who ran a specific piece of work, fuel consumed, or the number of passengers carried. Each one of these pieces of information come from a different functional group within the operation. Each of these groups normally use a different software package or system to capture and collect information. If I’m trying to consolidate this information to get an answer to a question without data integration, all the reports need to be run in separate places. Once the reports are run they are handed to someone else to consolidate. If there is a mistake in entering information, that mistake may persist forever. Not only does this take time because it is a manual effort, but it influences timing and availability of data. An example of “cause and effect” is the escalation of issues caused by a vehicle breaking down – down service, changing schedules, increased costs, and so on. In the event of a government inquiry, without integration, an agency has to manually re-collect its data in order to find out why an event occurred. 50
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How does data integration simplify these processes? If I have business intelligence that’s mining data from different data sources in real time, I can see the impact of a breakdown with the push of a button. I can take it one step further and say, ‘This is the second time I’ve seen this, so maybe I should do some trend analysis.’ You can look to what’s happened over the last six months to a year to see if there is a trend forming, and if there are proactive steps that can eliminate bad trends. By integrating all this data together, it gives agencies a window in to what they can do to make things better. How does data warehousing fit in to integration? A true business intelligence reporting tool can sit there autonomously and connect to a wide range of different data sources and databases through a data warehouse in real time to find a solution – that’s business intelligence. If you utilize data warehousing, for example, when you’re buying a new maintenance package, it can extract relevant data elements and integrate them for reporting. In the data warehouse, your data exists forever. You won’t lose your historical data each time you transition from one package to another. It is this data warehousing and business intelligence combination that ties an agency’s operations, administration, financial, procurement, human resources, fleet management data, and more together to uncover the answers agencies need to run more efficiently and effectively. The next level of integration is where these systems are examining data back and forth in real time, which is another area where you can see increased accuracy, decreased effort, and increased efficiency. Dorsey Houtz is president and CEO of Avail Technologies. Visit them online at www.availtec.com.
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ENTERPRISE
ASSET MANAGEMENT
The vehicle intelligence revolution has arrived (Here is how to thrive in it)
By Brett Koenig For years, a common theme at bus maintenance conferences has been how real-time asset health data collected by on-board technology (telematics) will spur a new wave of condition-based (CBM) and predictive maintenance (PdM) approaches. In recent years, the term Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) is the catchphrase that has emerged to encompass this idea. The many benefits touted for transitioning away from fixed-time maintenance to the new CBM and PdM paradigm are: real-time visibility into the health of your infrastructure, improved asset reliability, prolonged asset life, decreased costs associated with component failures, improved safety, and increased customer satisfaction. And yet, for most agencies, this “Holy Grail” of maintenance has remained an elusive goal. At long last, it now appears that we are approaching a tipping point – the conditions are finally right for this sea change to occur. The smart infrastructure revolution Today, a convergence of political and technological trends are driving increased use of the asset health monitoring technologies, influencing the IIOT revolution in transit. The passage of the MAP-21/ FAST Act laws in the U.S. (along with the ISO 55000 standards) has placed renewed emphasis on asset “state of good repair”. The most significant trend, however, is technological. We are in the midst of a “smart infrastructure” revolution, with sensors embedded into the major bus and facility equipment systems being the norm. The widespread proliferation of these telematics technologies has turned new fleets of vehicles into rolling supercomputers, capable of monitoring their own health in real-time. Leading agencies have embraced these trends, even to the point of creating the role of Data Scientist (in function, if not in name) to turn the avalanche of data generated by these systems into “actionable intelligence” for making better business decisions. While all of that may sound good, you may be asking: How will this really help us better manage our fleet on a daily basis?
fault data on those systems is the ability to alert maintenance that a component failure is about to occur (e.g. conditions have reached a user-defined min/max threshold). This notification gives operations staff time to proactively swap-out the failing bus and to minimize disruptions to service. In addition to fault monitoring, operational characteristic data can provide information to better understand the expected useful life of a system. Major systems (switches, motors, pumps, etc.) can be timed/ counted for how long they operate before failure, providing valuable data on the actual life expectancy of the component under your local operating conditions. This information can then be used to optimize your maintenance intervals (such as component rebuild frequency) which are often based upon overly-conservative manufacturerrecommended intervals. So, how can you fully benefit from these advances? What you can do – now Second, for your highest priority equipment systems (bus engine, elevators, etc.), build interfaces to send fault codes to your enterprise asset management system to alert maintenance and generate work orders. Third, consider your strategy for consolidating and analyzing the large amount of data. While significant benefits can be realized by automating the maintenance follow-up activities when faults occur (EAM integrations as described in steps one & two above), over time large gains will be realized through analysis of the patterns in the data. This can be achieved by consolidating your various streams of asset health monitoring data into a single database and analyzing it using software designed to visualize trends in the data such as commercially-available Asset Performance Management, or Predictive Analytics tools. Lastly, for maintenance departments, a key goal of IIOT is realized by using this deeper understanding of your infrastructure’s health patterns to optimize your maintenance program. Real-world outcomes include switching certain inspections from fixed-interval (time or meter) to condition-based, and refining the frequency of selected services (increase component rebuild intervals, etc.). The transit smart infrastructure revolution is happening quicker than most realize. Embracing this trend will more closely align your maintenance organization with the cost, safety, and customer service benefits at the core of your agency’s mission statement. Brett Koenig is the industry solutions manager for the Trapeze Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solution in use by over 100 public transit organizations in North America (including Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Denver and Seattle). Brett has 18 years of experience implementing public transit and rail asset management systems. As the solutions manager for EAM, Brett advises customers on industry trends (e.g. State of Good Repair) and speaks at conferences about how transitfocused asset and maintenance systems can yield real-world efficiencies and measurable cost savings. Visit www.trapezegroup.com for more information.
Preventing component failures Telematics technologies provide visibility into the condition of major vehicle systems: engine, transmission, brakes, retarder, and body controllers, to name a few. A key benefit of tracking real-time busride.com | BUSRIDE
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BUSRide WebinarPLUS:
SelectCare Preventive Maintenance
In an interactive webinar presentation, BUSRide spoke with John Walsh, president of REV Bus Group, to discuss the new partnership and maintenance program by REV Group and Ryder. With the REV / Ryder Maintenance Program, REV customers gain access to industry-leading technology, an expansive facility infrastructure and some of the industry’s best-trained technicians.
Sign up for this program today by calling (toll free): 844-473-8287
Please tell us about SelectCare Preventive Maintenance. What does it involve and how does it work? REV Group and Ryder formed this partnership to give REV customers a simple, uniform way to maintain their buses. We have two programs, an on-demand program and the SelectCare Preventive Maintenance program. For the on-demand program, we ask customers to register their vehicles with Ryder. Once a vehicle is registered, customers have access to services in the location that is most convenient for them. If that vehicle is in Atlanta, for example, and it travels to Dallas, the operator can go to a facility in Dallas to have it worked on. We also have programs set up for preventive maintenance, which are service contracts that we can do with customers on a routine basis. There are two different ways to do this. Once you’re registered, you can set up an appointment or come on set intervals – whether that’s every 90 days or 180 days, it all depends on the sort of vehicle you have.
Who is eligible for SelectCare Preventive Maintenance? Any REV-branded bus that you buy can enter this program. Also, in the beginning of the program, let’s say you have a fleet of 20 buses and 10 of those are REV buses and 10 of those are non-REV buses – we’re 52
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going to allow (again, just at the beginning of the program) for you to register all 20 vehicles. Maintenance will be available for all vehicles, whether REV manufactures them or not. It’s very simple to sign up with Ryder. Ryder’s call center in Georgia is open 24/7. When dialing Ryder, you’ll always speak to a real person for enrollment, scheduled service, or even emergency service.
Where are SelectCare Maintenance facilities located – and how many are there? About 450 Ryder facilities are now certified to service REV buses. These are in addition to REV’s group of 150 nationwide bus dealers. We firmly believe that these additional locations for preventive maintenance will help our customers improve their services.
Tell us about the SelectCare technicians. Are they trained to work on trucks or buses? Are there exceptions to vehicle type or type of work? We have nearly 6,000 trained technicians that are all ASE-certified. These facilities service Ryder trucks and REV buses. Technicians are trained on every component of that vehicle. They are going to be certified to work on the chassis of the vehicle, as well as all other aspects of the body – from air conditioning and seats to wheelchair lifts. At this time, only buses (not ambulances or work trucks) are eligible for the program.
Can you give us an idea of the costs involved for basic services? The costs are on a market-based hourly rate relative to customer location within the U.S. Any other special programs are quoted separately.
Listen to the webinar! “SelectCare Preventive Maintenance” John Walsh and Carlos Mediola, group director and global product manager – SelectCare Ryder System Inc., explain how the new cooperative program from REV Group and Ryder affects fleet optimization; why operators can expect increased cash flow; and how preventive maintenance translates to safer buses!
Available now at www.busride.com/webinars We will also have an attractive national parts program, so we’ll be able to furnish customers with a list of fast-moving parts upon request.
How does the SelectCare warranty program work? When a customer has a warranty issue on any REV bus, the first thing we’d like them to do is call our toll-free outline at 844-4738287. We’ll direct the customer to a local dealership or a Ryder facility, depending on their location.
What effect will this program have on REV and Ryder customers’ ability to optimize their fleets? When vehicles aren’t on regular preventive maintenance schedules, they are not able to optimize their full lifetime potential. This program will optimize fleets by making them last longer it’s that simple. busride.com | BUSRIDE
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With longer-lasting, healthy vehicles, agencies have more route options and flexibility - while simultaneously keeping down capital costs for vehicle acquisition.
“Buying a bus is the easy part. Maintaining it is the difficult part.” – John Walsh
Because of this program, can REV and Ryder customers expect increased cash flow? If so, how? Transit maintenance becomes very costly for agencies over time. When handled in-house, preventive maintenance costs exceed acquisition costs by leaps and bounds. With a robust offering like the REV / Ryder SelectCare program, which offers affordable and regularly-scheduled preventive maintenance, customers will see major savings and thus increased cash-flow. This program will help our customers to stay organized. When a vehicle has become neglected, and this is seen quite a bit at Ryder, sometimes it’s just too late and the expense can be catastrophic. This is especially true if it’s something like an engine, for example. If you are on the program, you will save money – in the short term and long term. We firmly believe that.
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You asked, they answered What need do you think this program will fulfill that may be currently missing in today’s market? We always say that buying a bus is the easy part, and maintaining it is the difficult part. Our network is set up for sales through our distribution channels in our dealer network. Many of those sales efforts are on a regional level in multiple states, but service is local. We realize that it’s very difficult for us to ask our dealer network to have a facility in every single town where all our buses are located.
Is this program extended to any other markets besides bus? Our new exclusive agreement (and partnership) with Ryder is for our bus division. We have yet to move this into our other divisions at this point, but we will possibly be looking at next steps for an ambulance division and minivans. However, for right now, this is strictly for the REV bus brand.
Will any priority of services be extended to REV vehicles in this program? Carlos Mendiola: We typically cater to our customers’ fleets and we are viewing our REV customers in the same light. If you call our maintenance center to schedule an appointment, that’s going to guarantee you a prioritized time for that window of service. If preventive maintenance service is being done, and you schedule 24 hours in advance, that will be honored. If there are follow-up repairs that need to be done, we’ll turn those around quickly.
What are some other features or options included in the programs? Again, you have the SelectCare Preventive Maintenance program and the on-demand program – these are the two options that we discussed and are offering today. We’ll also offer an inspection service, DOT inspection, warranty management and consolidated invoicing. These are the more robust programs that you can choose to do with the REV/ Ryder program. busride.com
BUSES & BUSES & BUSES +TECHNOLOGY+NETWORKING+EDUCATION
SEPTEMBER 11-13, 2017 INDIANA CONVENTION CENTER INDIANAPOLIS
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BusConExpo.com • (800) 576-8788
For exhibiting inquiries, contact James.Blue@Bobit.com or call (310) 533-2449.
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SECURITY & SURVEILLANCE
Video Integration: the secret sauce By Lori Jetha Technology plays an important role in transit operations today. Passenger counting, electronic ticketing, CAD/AVL systems, video surveillance, wireless, and even onboard Wi-Fi help transit agencies deliver a better, more efficient public transit experience. Developing a world-class transit organization means implementing solutions from best-in-class technology partners. But in order to meet increasing customer expectations, these solutions need to be able to talk to each other and work together to deliver real-time insight to passengers and transit operators alike. This is where data integration is essential. Video surveillance is no longer a stand-alone system but an essential part of the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) ecosystem. Selecting a video partner experienced in integrating with multiple platforms is critical. Custom integrations can be complex, but when done right, those integrations can deliver better data more efficiently to meet the demand for real-time information. Once integration is completed, the entire system is more feature-rich and tailored to the needs of the organization. Data synchronization An integrated solution requires coordination and development by all companies involved to achieve “plug-and-play” functionality between the system components. For example, systems that enable the driver to tag video for review at a later time will want the time reference on the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system to be identical to that on the video system. This ensures that the time recorded by the CAD system at the instant the driver tags the video (via a button press) is identical to the time that is recorded by the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) operating in the bus. The same is true for vehicle GPS integration. Most video systems have the ability to record GPS co-ordinates. This provides additional context to the video evidence, allowing security staff to see the location of the bus on a map alongside the video and audio during playback. Combine this with the power of Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and the transit operator will know the location of each bus in real-time and then later be able to trace a vehicle’s route historically using the video system. Again, synchronization of GPS co-ordinates is essential to re-creating the scene, preparing an accurate case and determining the best path forward as a resolution or in making improvements. Each location-recording device on the bus must integrate with a single GPS receiver to accomplish this. 56
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Establishing information flow Most often, integration of the bus video system with other components of the overall solution will require a two-way information flow. Not only will the DVR receive information from the CAD System, recording it on the hard drive for future playback, but the DVR will need to report key service-affecting events to the central dispatch site – events such as video camera maintenance and record-to-hard-drive status. There is also the need to identify the common data points and the authoritative source, as there may be multiple systems capable of providing the same data points. A successful integration plan will carefully map the data that is shared and how it flows between critical components to deliver meaningful information. Shared connectivity Engineering the integrated video system must take into account the entire end-to-end system. That typically includes devices on the vehicle that the DVR will interface to, the Wi-Fi and cellular communication network topologies used to keep the vehicle in contact with the central site, and the software used by dispatchers, system administrators, case investigators, and security and maintenance personnel. Real-time connectivity is essential, and sharing that communications network is more efficient and cost-effective. Video, audio, vehicle operating and GPS data, ticket revenue, and passenger counts can all be transmitted in real-time over a single point of connectivity, eliminating the expense and administration of multiple data plans. The end result: better decisions At the end of a successful custom integration, you have technology that operates intuitively as a single system instead of separate uncoordinated parts. You have the efficient flow and transmission of real-time data to and from the bus operators and transportation support staff to improve the speed of problem resolution and decision-making. To achieve the highest level of integration, customized to your transit environment, video and ITS providers use observational voice-of-customer methodology to develop a clear understanding of what the various roles of the end user are and their individual needs. For additional information on video systems as a component of a fully integrated fleet solution, or a stand-alone system that can be upgraded in the future as a fully integrated system, contact a Seon transit representative via http://www.seon.com/support/ sales-support. Lori Jetha serves as marketing manager for Seon, a video surveillance and fleet management company based on Coquitlam, BC, Canada. Visit www.seon.com for more information.
busride.com
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Karst Stage Bozeman, Montana
Bianco Tours Taylor, Michigan
Sun Diego Charter / Sun Express San Diego, CA / Anaheim, CA
Karst Stage, Bozeman, MT, recently took delivery of its first TEMSA motorcoach, the mid-size TS 35, which brings their motorcoach fleet to a total of 21. Karst’s TS 35 is equipped with Alcoa wheels, 110V outlets, ample underfloor luggage space, three-point seat belts, and the Cummins / Allison powertrain. The Yellowstone area, where the company operates, has unique “bison jams,” a reason owner Dan Martin preferred the TS 35, with its incredibly short turning radius.
Bianco Tours took delivery of two TEMSA TS 30s in order to better service their smaller passenger groups on both short and long-haul trips. This brings their total number of TEMSA vehicles to three. Bianco’s TS 30s are equipped with a Cummins ISB engine and Allison B300 transmission, in addition to features such as 110V plugs with USB ports, REI audio/ video, sun shades, woodgrain floor, rear window, and Alcoa aluminum wheels.
Sun Diego Charter and their Anaheim-based sister company, Sun Express, have taken delivery of four new Van Hool CX45 luxury coaches from ABC Companies, Van Hool’s exclusive US distributor. The 56 passenger ADAcompliant coaches are powered by Cummins ISX engines coupled to Allison B500 Gen4 transmission and boast Grande Lux seating, woodgrain flooring, REI Elite entertainment systems, Wi-Fi and 110 volt outlets, as well as Van Hool’s unique rear passenger window.
MOTOR COACH INDUSTRIES (MCI)
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Brewster Banff, AB, Canada
Babler Bus Services Sturgeon Bay, WI
The Woodlands Township The Woodlands, TX
Brewster recently took delivery of nine MCI J4500s, adding to the 11 Brewster put into service during 2016. They’ve arrived just in time. “May kicks off our busy travel season,” said Devon Dadalt, Brewster’s transportation revenue manager. The newest MCI coaches will serve Brewster’s full-day sightseeing tour business, which carry passengers for six to 10 hours at a time. Each of Brewster’s new MCI J4500s include plush leather seating for 52 passengers and custom galleys in the back with cold-water stations. Other high-end elements include wood-like flooring, 110-volt power outlets at every seat and Wi-Fi.
Babler Bus Service took delivery of three MCI coaches; two pre-owned Re-Energized J4500 coaches, and a brand new 2017 MCI J4500 coach. Babler’s new 2017 J4500 has a powertrain featuring the Detroit Diesel DD13 engine and Allison transmission. Customer features include top-grade Kiel seating with leather trim accompanied by individual 110-volt outlets with USB ports. The new coach also has tempered glass roof-hatches, a backup safety camera, chrome mirrors and a custom, marble-look hydrographic spiral entryway exclusive to MCI.
MCI delivered 10 new clean-diesel Commuter Coaches to The Woodlands Township, TX. The Woodlands Township has put MCI’s top-selling public transit coach into service for its popular park-and-ride service known as The Woodlands Express. This completes a 25-coach delivery. The first five MCI Commuter Coaches were delivered in December of 2015, followed by 10 more coaches in March 2016. The final 10 coaches were delivered in May complete an order valued at approximately $14.4 million. The Woodlands Township order added optional lavatories, wheelchair lifts, comfortable Kiel seating with grab rails and arm rests, power outlets and Wi-Fi connectivity to each of their 55seat coaches. busride.com | BUSRIDE
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BUSRide spoke with experts in the alternative fuel industry about making the switch from diesel: what operators need to know before doing so, financing and common challenges. Furthermore, they spotlight the factors driving innovation in this unique field as agencies make the sustainable transition to future technologies.
The UK and French governments recently announced plans to ban all gas and diesel vehicles by 2040. Here in the U.S., Seattle and Los Angeles have committed to fully transitioning their bus fleets to electricity. Meanwhile, many other fleets are trialing new propulsion technologies. Smart operators will want to get ahead of mandates and control their destiny as well as reap the public relations benefits of using clean propulsion.
José R. Castañeda – director, business development – Cummins Westport
In which ways does your company provide alternative (to diesel) propulsion options for the bus industry?
Tom Webb – director, business development – BAE Systems
Castañeda: As a leader in providing natural gas engines for the bus industry, with thousands of engines in operation worldwide, Cummins Westport prides itself on continuing to explore ways to provide better and cleaner products to meet our customers’ demands. Webb: We provide our customers with a manageable, low-risk pathway to fleet electrification by offering them options. There is no ‘one size fits all’ in transit given the wide variety of bus platforms, duty cycles and operating environments. We offer mild electrification options like electric accessories for fleets running conventional transit and coach buses; hybrid-electric options with different degrees of engine off capability for fleets wanting to reduce carbon emissions across their entire fleet today without taking on the expense and risk of full electrification at this time; and fully electric zero-emission choices, including hydrogen fuel cell and battery electric, for those who want the cleanest solution today.
What are the steps an agency should take prior to making a commitment to alternative propulsion vehicles?
Why should bus operators consider alternative propulsion? José R. Castañeda: As a leader in natural gas-powered buses for many years, Cummins Wesport (CWI) believes that we have a responsibility to the communities where we live, so we offer an environmental and economical option for bus fleets. Today the ISL G Near Zero engine reduces smog forming NOx emissions by 90 percent. In 2018, we introduce the next generation L9N, offering the same low emissions along with new technology and features. Not only are natural gas engines the cleanest internal combustion technology available today, they offer transit agencies performance and productivity at a minimum cost. Having cleaner air is a benefit we can all enjoy for years to come. Tom Webb: Transit is adopting alternative propulsion for political, environmental and economic reasons. Many governments require alternate fuels for their environmental and public health benefits. 58
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Castañeda: Cummins Westport’s websites – www. cumminswestport.com - and our new Natural Gas Playbook - http:// cwiplaybook.com - offer many resources to help new and existing natural gas customers with guidance on evaluating and operating natural gas vehicles. The Natural Gas Playbook site is a step by step guide that walks customers through key items to consider when thinking about alternative fuel engines. In addition to information on our products, we provide tools such as an Initial Assessment Guide, and GHG Emissions and Payback calculators, to help customers understand if natural gas is the right solution for them. The Cummins sales and service team, along with our dedicated regional managers are also available to meet with customers to answer questions and provide guidance. Webb: The first step is to understand current and future local policies in terms of transit, air quality and the environment. Next the agency should undertake a careful analysis of its operational network (routes, schedules, ridership, topography, environmental conditions, etc.) and vehicle performance requirements. Every busride.com
transit agency is different. Staff should perform a thorough review of the technology offerings available in the marketplace to see how they fit local operational needs. Some solutions may be ‘drop in’ while others may require changing the current operational model. Of course, fueling infrastructure requirements must be assessed as well. Finally, a cost-benefit analysis should be performed to help inform the decision. Politics and economics will likely factor into final decision-making.
Once the decision has been made, what steps should operators take to ensure a smooth transition when introducing alternative propulsion vehicles into all-diesel fleets? Castañeda: We offer a wide variety of information and tools to ensure customers have a successful experience operating our natural gas engines. This includes driver training material, engine walk-around familiarization, and information on fueling and maintenance of a natural gas fleet. The Natural Gas Academy has many helpful videos covering frequently asked questions - http:// www.cumminswestport.com/natural-gas-academy-videos. Our Natural Gas Playbook site contains keys to success and many tools and resource. CWI and Cummins staff are also available to provide guidance and support. Webb: It’s important to identify and engage stakeholders. This means involving your own finance, planning, operations, maintenance and training people. It’s also important to engage other local agencies with jurisdiction over streets, local utility and fuel providers, and emergency responders. Technology suppliers can be important partners in the process as well. Pilot programs are a good way to gain experience and confidence, build awareness and buy-in, and to reduce risk by ensuring that the solutions you’re choosing will meet your service demands.
Are there challenges agencies must navigate when converting their fleet to near-zero emissions? If so, what are they? Castañeda: As with any vehicle, following regular maintenance guidelines is important to ensure the performance of the engine. The operation and performance of the ISL G Near Zero is the same as the ISL G that customers are accustomed to, and have enjoyed. The primary difference is a service interval for the new crankcase ventilation filter. The maintenance schedule for your duty cycle can be found at http://www.cumminswestport.com/models. Cummins certified technicians are available to assist with any repairs required outside of regular maintenance. Webb: Cost, infrastructure and refueling logistics, whether in depot or on route, are the first challenges encountered with near and zero emission technologies. Agencies need to carefully consider the challenges of supplying power and know what they will pay for fuel including demand charges. Another challenge is make sure your employees have sufficient skills and training to trouble shoot and service new technology. Do not skimp here. Technical change is another challenge. Battery technology, charging standards and communication protocols are still evolving. Buses have a long useful life, so agencies want to avoid obsolescence. Careful research, smart procurement practices and partnering are some of the strategies agencies use to manage the risks inherent in technology transition.
What are the best financing resources for agencies and operators seeking to convert their fleet to near-zero emissions? Castañeda: We recommend operators start by contacting their local Clean Cities Coalition (https://cleancities.energy. gov/) to learn what funding may be available in their region for
alternative-powered vehicles. Financial incentives are available in many states for organizations considering alternative-powered vehicles to improve the air quality in non-attainment areas. We also provide some links and information online at http://www. cumminswestport.com/incentives. Webb: The FTA continues to play a major role in funding bus capital, maintenance and operation through the FAST Act which authorized transportation funding through 2020. The Bus & Bus Facilities Infrastructure Investment Program (49 U.S. C. 5339) provides formula funding to replace, rehabilitate and purchase buses. FAST Act also provided a competitive grant program (S.5339 c) for funding low and no emission vehicle purchase or lease. Most states are receiving funding under the VW settlement that can be used to fund low NOx and zero emission buses. Interested agencies should contact their regional FTA office and state DOT office for more information.
What is driving innovation and new technology development in alternative propulsion? Castañeda: Many factors contribute to the development of new products in a marketplace. In North America, regulatory agencies have introduced emissions standards to improve air quality and drive the need for cleaner and more fuel-efficient technology. The cost of fuel can also influence the demand for engines that operate on alternative fuels. Natural gas engines allow fleets to operate using an abundant, domestic resource with no compromise on performance or reliability. Advancements in the technology and production of renewable natural gas (RNG) is another way that technology has advanced in response to the need for renewable, clean fuel. Operating Cummins Westport natural gas engines with RNG offers customers near zero greenhouse gas emissions. Webb: For the first time, most of the world’s nations have reached agreement to limit global temperature increases by 2050. Some countries and states are starting to mandate transportation electrification in the next 33 years. These regulations create a marketplace for low and no carbon propulsion technology and favorable conditions for companies to invest in innovation.
What will alternative propulsion look like in 5 years? 10 years? Castañeda: We expect to see more natural gas engines on the roads moving people around while contributing to a cleaner environment. Other technologies will continue to emerge and potentially prove themselves commercially viable which will ultimately lead to cleaner air for everyone. Webb: There will be significant increase in demand for low and no emission vehicles. Some agencies will rapidly transition to all electric operation where feasible. Others will seek a more gradual, managed approach. For example, an agency running natural gas might elect to go with electric accessories, a step towards electrification that delivers maintenance savings without abandoning existing CNG fueling infrastructure. Another example might be a traditional diesel fleet that opts to transition to hybrid-electric to immediately achieve significant carbon emission reductions across the entire fleet without having to invest in expensive electric fueling infrastructure. Agencies that have already invested in hybrid-electric technology will probably start to trial zero emission technologies first, including hydrogen and battery electric propulsion.
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How technology is transforming the usability of accessible transportation By Angelo D’Urso
D
riven by legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) in the U.S. and other anti-discrimination laws in the European Union, most vehicles used in public transportation in advanced nations are equipped with at least one form of accessible entry to ensure mobility rights of all passengers. The automotive industry is evolving vehicle design to become increasingly more intelligent and interconnected with mobile devices, yet manufacturers of accessible products such as ramps, inboard, underfloor lifts and steps have not succeeded in creating a truly “smart” accessibility solution. Most of these companies still compete, as they have in the past five decades. Their focus is primarily in developing different platform sizes, using lighter materials such as aluminum, and making products safer and more durable. However, three different lift components are often overlooked by the industry that are proven to make a dramatic difference in lift performance in the field. Mobility Networks, a European manufacturer of mobility solutions, with headquarters in Kent, United Kingdom, has investigated and developed new possibilities for solving some of the most familiar challenges faced by passengers and operators of accessible lifts. The first challenge is making lifts smarter and more reliable. The Internet of Things (IoT), or the interconnectivity of “smart devices” in which data is collected and exchanged, is a technology used in many industries to connect devices to the internet or each other with the goal of improving efficiency. An example of this is a transportation network in a “smart city”. But, as yet, IoT has not yet been widespread in accessible devices, something Mobility Networks seeks to address. Invariably striving to positively impact how passengers and operators use and interact with its accessible lifts, Mobility Networks has developed the world exclusive Monitors Diagnostic System, a cutting-edge wireless, Bluetooth Diagnostic System that allows for an immediate inspection of the lift operating conditions with possible troubleshooting solutions. This innovation greatly assists fleet operators in keeping vehicles on the road, and maintaining a high level of safety at all times by offering an “ambient intelligence.” This supports the Mobility Networks’ service team in understanding how the lifts are used, making them more effective, and anticipating solutions for possible failures, which is in turn implemented in its product development process for ongoing improvement of safety and reliability. The second, and one of the main concerns for fleet managers, is lift durability. Accessible lifts are an important part of the daily lives of individuals with reduced mobility across the world, and they are expected, in many cases, to last a minimum of seven years or longer to maximize initial investment. In addition to an innovative diagnostic system, Mobility Networks also takes the quality of finish in to account when developing durable lifts, which directly impacts durability. Using lower standard paint finish is a frequent oversight by lift manufacturers, leaving lifts exposed to the elements, and thus,
The Monitors Diagnostic System by Mobility Networks
The Pluggable Hand Control by Mobility Networks
massively reducing its lifespan. Mobility Networks, however, uses one of the highest grades of paint finish, the IP67 Protection Finish (International Protection marking, drawn up by the International Electromechanical Commission, IEC), a standard for complete protection and resistance to water and other elements. IP67 is only one grade before the IP68 that issued mainly in the military industry. The third and last integral part in the day to day use of lifts is in the usability of hand controls. To avoid warranty claims, and vehicles being off the road, Mobility Networks has also developed an aircraft quality Pluggable Hand Control which is pre-wired, offering instant replacement for immediate usage. By taking advantage of these, at times, underrated technologies, lift operators and fleet managers can obtain a superior return on investment made on accessible lifts, as well as provide a secure and pleasant lifting experience to all passengers. Angelo D’Urso is CEO of Mobility Networks North America. Visit www.mobilitynetworksgroup.com for more information.
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THE INTERNATIONAL REPORT
By Doug Jack
VDL leads European electric charge C
A 32-foot electric midibus running in Venlo in the Netherlands.
A 40-foot Citea Electric on trial in Maastrich.
One of the early 40-foot Citea Hybrid buses. 62
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urrently, VDL Bus & Coach has delivered and taken orders for more electric buses than any other European manufacturer. Headquartered in Eindhoven the Netherlands, The VDL Groep (Van Der Leegte Groep) can trace its history back to 1953 when the grandfather of the current president and chairman, Willem Van Der Leegte, established a metal working business. Over the years, the company has expanded and now has more than 70 subsidiaries broadly spread over four main activities. Last year the Groep turnover was around $3.6 billion, with nearly 15,000 employees in around 20 countries. The Groep remains privately owned. The main automotive activities are the manufacturing of buses and coaches in VDL Bus & Coach, and the contract assembly of a range of small cars for BMW of Germany. VDL took over a former Mitsubishi factory in the south of the Netherlands and completely reequipped it. The transit bus range is known as the Citea and is available in lengths of 32 feet and up to 61 feet articulated. They all have steel underframes and structures, but, unusually, a very high content of composite materials for flooring, roofs and all external panels. These offer total resistance to corrosion and help to save weight, and therefore fuel consumption. Many of the shorter models use Cummins engines. Like most European manufacturers, VDL Bus & Coach started development of hybrid buses about eight years ago. At that time, manufacturers and fleets saw hybrid buses as offering superior fuel consumption and lower emissions in urban centers. It was only more recently that many them recognized hybrid buses as a crucial step toward the development of all-electric vehicles. This was relevant to VDL, partly because Eindhoven is an important industrial city and home to Philips, a European lighting and electronics giant. Four years ago, at the UITP Congress and Exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland, VDL Bus & Coach launched the 40-foot-long Citea SLF Electric. (SLF stood for super lowfloor, which was about 14 inches above the ground from front to rear.) Customers were offered a variety of electric drive and battery options to best suit their requirements, such as daily range and recharging. The Citea Electric was notable for having all the batteries and electrical equipment located in a full height compartment inside the offside rear of the bus, occupying the space of two double seats. All the equipment was easily accessible. VDL Bus & Coach opted to use electric wheel-hub motors developed by the German company Ziehl-Abegg. These were located within the rear wheels which had super-single tires instead of the more usual twin tires. busride.com
THE INTERNATIONAL REPORT From the outset, customers could opt for sufficient batteries for a full day’s operation, or for fast opportunity charging, during service, and normally at one or both ends of a route. Later in the same year, VDL Bus & Coach launched articulated versions of the Citea and said from the outset that they would also be available with the option of electric drive. The company continued to offer hybrid versions of the Citea, with De Lijn, a major Belgian customer, taking 105 in 2014. There was, and still is, strong political and public pressure in the Netherlands for buses with low or zero emissions. A small number of customers specified compressed natural gas but VDL resisted that option very strongly. They argued that, although tail-pipe emissions were lower than diesel, a gas bus typically consumed about 1.7 times more fuel per mile than a diesel bus and that had to be considered when measuring emissions. Other authorities in the Netherlands preferred the all-electric option. One of the first was the province of North Brabant and the Brabant Development Agency. In 2014, they decided to run a pilot project with 15 Citea Electric buses. Around the same time, KVB, the transit authority in the German city of Koln (Cologne) signed a contract for eight articulated Citea Electric buses designed for fast charging at each end of a route. A major boost came from the province of North Brabant towards the end of 2015 when it decided that Eindhoven should have zeroemission public transport by 2020 and backed this with an order for 43 articulated Citea Electric buses that have subsequently entered service. Arriva Netherlands, which runs a number of bus concessions, placed orders for a large number of Citea buses last autumn, including 30 Electric models of three different sizes, mainly for routes in the south of the country. This spring Connexxion, another major company, ordered 100 articulated Citea Electric buses. At the time, this was the largest electric bus order placed anywhere in Europe. Each of the buses will run more than 70,000 miles per annum, making a major contribution to reductions in emissions. VDL Bus & Coach has factories in the Netherlands and its Jonckheere subsidiary at Roeselare in Belgium. The main Citea plant is in the town of Heerenveen, in the north of the Netherlands, but the Jonckheere factory can also build the range. Labor costs are high in the Netherlands and Belgium, but the VDL Groep is committed to its home country and has encouraged flexible working to keep costs competitive. When producing single and double-decker luxury coaches, VDL manages peak demand for deliveries in the first half of each year, while demand for transit buses falls later in the year. The factories have sufficient flexibility that they can help each other to cope with peaks and troughs in production. In May this year, the company held a series of press and customer events in Eindhoven to talk about its experience to date with electric buses. The shortest model in the range is 32 feet long and can carry 5565 passengers, including standing. The 40-foot Citea Electric can carry 80-100 passengers while the articulated model is normally designed for 140-150 passengers. Interestingly, authorities are trying to take older diesel buses out of service, replacing them with the latest and cleanest models. There will not be the same pressure with zero-emission electric buses. If performing correctly, they will be capable of a longer operational life. In turn, other factors may determine when they must be replaced. Hermes talked about its experience with the 43 articulated Citea Electric buses in Eindhoven. There had been intensive training of drivers and maintenance staff in the early days, but that is now running smoothly. The company opted for overhead conductive charging for the buses. Ten fast chargers of 300kW and 22 overnight slow-chargers of 30kW were installed. There were also two mobile chargers in the workshop.
A Citea Electric showing the overhead gantry for conductive charging.
Raised platforms at bus stops make it easy for passengers to get on and off.
The stylish Futura FDD2 double-decker coach.
High-quality bus lanes were installed on the routes used by electric buses, and only zero-emission buses were permitted to use them. Timetables had been adjusted to increase frequencies, but also to allow time for fast charging during service. This presented some logistical challenges, including changes of vehicles and drivers to maximize the use of buses and charging facilities. The increase in frequencies and recharging led to the recruitment of about 10 percent more staff. VDL Bus & Coach is working closely with its customers and public authorities to share knowledge on the operation of electric buses and to monitor the total cost of ownership. The challenge is to raise demand for public transport and to attract new passengers who previously used their own cars. It appears to be working well in Eindhoven and that bodes well for the future of electric buses. Doug Jack is with Transport Resources in the United Kingdom.
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By Paul Comfort
Great safety is no accident. It takes seven steps to really improve safety performance in your operation. Define safety performance Before you embark on your journey to improve your agency system’s safety, be sure you know what to measure. Like a wise man once said, “Be careful not to climb the ladder of success only to find out at the end of your life that it was leaning against the wrong wall.” While working at major city transit system I noticed that the AFR for our paratransit service was too high and our benchmark was 2.0 preventable accidents per 100,000 miles (a good industry P-AFR average) but we were sometimes over 4 P-AFR. When I looked into comparing our rates with other cities, I noticed that theirs were often a lot lower. However, when I looked at how they defined an accident versus our definition, I quickly realized why they were “outperforming” us. Their definition of an accident was much different than ours. Our agency was counting curb strikes/bumps and the like as reportable “accidents” instead of incidents like most of the rest of our peers. As I surveyed the industry, I noticed that many used a version of the National Safety Council definition of an accident. It seemed to include all that was needed - “An accident is an undesired event that results in personal injury or property damage,” and, an “incident is an unplanned, undesired event that adversely affects completion of a task”. By adopting this nationally accepted definition of accident, and driving performance according to it, our accident rate dropped to below 2.0 P-AFR and stayed there for the next two years. Curb strikes and other minor incidents that caused no property damage or injury were still tracked and addressed but damage/injury causing incidents became the focus of our efforts to improve safety- and it worked. Track all safety data In order to address behavior-causing accidents you need to track safety related incidents relentlessly. This means mandatory reporting of all incidents by drivers or employees that meet certain criteria. You must require this clearly in writing and have every employee sign a document stating they understand these must be reported (and failure to do so is just cause for job discipline). Accidents should be reported immediately and investigated. The data from the accident should be entered into tracking software and accident cause and effect categorized. Trend safety data To really drive down accidents you need to understand the trends of your employees. Take the data you gathered in Step 2 and aggregate it into spreadsheet form, tracking accident categories over the past year, quarter and month. Look for trends. This type of trend analysis can assist you as you work to improve your AFR. You need to understand what the top categories of accidents are and focus your efforts on reducing them. 64
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Do not make mountains out of molehills. If you have one or two high profile accidents it can often disorient you and cause you to spend most of your time on “one – offs,” instead of real change for your whole driver force that can improve your overall safety record. Perform a root cause analysis Now that you know the trends and where most of your accidents are occurring, do a deep dive and figure out what’s causing them. It’s not hard. In D.C., the trends showed our paratransit vehicles getting a lot of mirror strikes, often when the driver was at the door of the passenger. The root cause analysis showed that because our vans often had to park on the street in front of a passenger’s house, sometimes drivers behind them would swerve around the van and hit their side mirrors, or tight traffic and street parking caused opposing vehicles to hit our side view mirrors. We also noticed operators were too often driving under overhangs at fast food restaurants, medical centers etc... and hitting the top of their van roofs. A root cause analysis showed that drivers often wanted to get their lunch fast at a drive-thru but didn’t always remember that their van had a high clearance of 11 feet. So they would hit the overhang at the drive-thru of the restaurant. Or when they were pulling up to a hospital or medical center they would drive under the overhang not noticing the clearance to pick up a passenger and hit their roof. Develop a strategy After analyzing and determining the root cause of your highest trending accidents, you need to develop a strategy to attack their root causes. This often involves a discussion with drivers, road supervisors, safety leaders and senior management. These discussions can take place at your monthly safety meetings where you review your safety trends, or in regular management meetings. In our example of mirror strikes by surrounding traffic a simple fix was found. If we fold in the mirrors when leaving the vehicle in an on street parking situation it should reduce mirror strikes. And these types of accidents are often considered “non-preventable” because the driver isn’t in the vehicle, but as you can see - they are preventable with the right approach. Even if considered non- preventable they still put a vehicle out of service and require costly repairs. For reducing hitting overhangs our strategy was two pronged - remind drivers of their 11-foot roof clearance and do not allow them to use fast food drive-thrus. Often drivers must go under overhangs at hospitals etc... to provide true curb to curb service as required under ADA. So we couldn’t simply prohibit them all together but we needed to have them be more mindful of their van roof clearance. Implement a campaign Have you ever heard that “Safety Never Sleeps”? That was our campaign name in D.C. implementing numerous safety strategies including the van clearance/ overhang issue. It was a team effort that involved everyone in management speaking to all of our thousand plus drivers during each shift pull out and pull in for several months. Early, dark, cold mornings and late nights were required. Every driver, every shift, every day. It wasn’t always fun but it got the job done. Our maintenance teams put together PVC pipe structures for the vans to drive through each morning on the way out of busride.com
“Develop a strategy to attack the root causes of your highest-trending accidents.” the yard that had a tennis ball attached to a string, that would hit their windshield to remind them they might hit something driving through an overhang. On the PVC structure and at the gates we had signs that said “Your van has an 11-foot Clearance.” Inside each van we put a sticker overhead that said “This van has 11-foot Clearance.” We stood outside at pullouts dressed as “Superheroes of Safety” reminding drivers of their clearance. We took pictures of all the buildings with overhang structures that drivers had hit in the past year and put that collage of photos on posters in each drivers lounge. We called it “The Overhangs of Washington,” and it served as a reminder not drive under them. We issued mandatory safety guidance that drivers were not allowed to use drive- thrus at restaurants etc... And we did it repeatedly. The results? - no more overhang hits. We nearly eliminated this major safety issue and dramatically reduced accident related costs and lost time. The mirror strikes were handled similarly and drivers were repeatedly reminded by their dispatchers to pull in their mirror when parked on the street. These reminders were stated when staff was given their equipment and manifests as they began their shift, and it was also written on their manifests. Gate keepers also reminded them when they pulled out. Road Supervisors handed out written campaign reminders in their regular safety/credentials checks on the road. The results? Drivers pulled in their mirrors and we basically eliminated this costly “non-preventable” accident type. It was a nocost fix that saved thousands.
Campaigns are needed to really implement lasting change. You cannot just issue a memo to enact behavior change in drivers or employees. I believe you need to make your case, similar to a political campaign. Have fun with it when you can and reward outstanding performance. Make it policy In each of these cases after we defined the safety goal, tracked the safety data, performed a root cause analysis, developed a strategy and implemented a campaign - we then made it a policy with consequences. Most changes were added to our safety policies that resulted in safety points if there was non-compliance. Many of these policies were not always welcomed by the unions but all of them stuck and are now enforced. Safety is #1 in transit and in most industries. If we aren’t safe we can’t do our job. The way to keep up good safety results is to institutionalize the strategy that caused it. That’s the main role of policy - to implement good procedures so we can reproduce great results. Remember the Seven Steps to Safety and enjoy improved safety at your system. Paul Comfort serves as administrator and chief executive officer at Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), Baltimore, MD.
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SAFETY IS OUR PRIORITY AND OUR PASSION.
The Volvo 9700 makes safety a priority with advanced driver assistance systems, high-efficiency brakes, seat belts, and a cabin structure engineered to protect all on board. The ultra-reliable Volvo engine delivers maximum fuel efficiency while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And every feature is perfectly packaged in a well-equipped coach designed to provide a world-class travel experience. www.prevostcar.com
CELEBRATING
Years
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In 1987, ABC Companies introduced the Van Hool T800 motorcoach to America. Today, the ABC and Van Hool family of products represent three generations of coach innovation, fueled by the enduring patronage of our North American customers. Thank you for 30 years of loyalty, trust, and insights that ignite our passion today and drive our leadership of tomorrow. We look forward to serving you for decades to come!
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Moving Forward
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YEARS 1987 2017
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