Goal

The main goal of our modern dispatching control system TransFleet in transportation is the increase in quality of transportation, customer satisfaction and effective transport control in real time. Taking into account the experience gained by operating a dispatching control system when creating plans for transport services results in effective use of public transport vehicles, which may in the end mean a decrease in operating costs.

Transport quality

The result of monitoring and management of transport in real time is a lot of information that serve the TransFleet operators for evaluation of the effectiveness of their activities, evaluation of the quality of the services provided to transport authorities and ultimately, evaluation of the quality of services to final customers - the passengers. The opinions of evaluation criteria vary, as do the opinions on the methods of their evaluation. Passengers should experience the properly constructed evaluation criteria primarily in the punctuality of transport, shorter travel times, guarantee of transfers, etc. The transport provider thus owns one of the tools for assessing the quality of work of drivers, as well as the quality of work of dispatchers and timetables creators.

Monitoring and control in real time

The main principle of the modern dispatching-control system is the transport control in real time. From the technology perspective, this means an online communication of the on-board computer located in the public transport vehicle with the dispatching centre, typically via a data network of mobile operators. The operation control gains a new spatial dimension by GPS position tracking of vehicle and can thus monitor vehicle position and movement. Based on the requests from our customers and analysis of dispatcher’s work, we have come to the conclusion that the dispatching control system must evaluate the deviations from planned work in such a way that the dispatcher does not have to continuously monitor the computer display. He/she should be notified of the nonstandard situation by a suitably significant alert. Similarly, it is important to record the dispatcher’s reaction to the traffic situation. By evaluating these reactions, it is to some extent possible to predict the solutions in the future and partially automate the solution process of unplanned situations, or possibly to modify part of the planned transport services.

Vehicle operation

There is a continuous pressure for efficiency, decreasing costs and more detailed control of vehicles. The dispatching control system is capable of using the data transmission network and suitable hardware to monitor the operating characteristics of the vehicle and transmit them into the system. This information serves to control the behaviour of the driver with respect to the vehicle during the planned work and possibly the evaluation of suitability of the used vehicle type for the given line and route. It also serves for monitoring and evaluation of quality of services provided to passengers, e.g. by monitoring the inner temperature in the vehicle, driving behaviour (hard acceleration, hard breaking), which can significantly influence the quality and comfort of travel.

Information systems for passengers

With the increasing availability of modern technologies for passengers, it becomes more important to provide the information gained by operating the dispatching-control system to the end customers. The form in which this information is provided may vary. The transport providers and transportation clients focus on providing the real-time information on information displays, the passengers have welcomed the option to view the information in mobile phones or on information displays on board of public transport vehicles.

All the four mentioned areas are closely connected and provide the participants of the public transportation process information that lead to improvement of quality of services. Implementation of modern public transport control tools may bring back to buses the passengers, who in the past preferred another means of transport. The dispatching system outputs for passengers will help popularize the bus transportation also as part of the current Smart Move campaign.