The Company
Established in 2003, Car‐Go‐Bus is a community
based, not‐for‐profit, transport
organisation. It provides flexible, affordable
and accessible transport services to
people within the boroughs of North Warwickshire,
Nuneaton and Bedworth.
The Challenge
Car‐Go‐Bus operates in rural areas and
carries vulnerable passengers. This meant
that it needed a system that would enable
it to quickly bring in outside assistance
should an emergency situation arise. In
addition, Car‐Go‐Bus doesn’t have its own
vehicle parking spaces, it uses a nearby
public car park. This represented a security
risk which needed to be addressed.
The Strategy
In September 2006, Car‐Go‐Bus decided
to implement a tracking system that
would allow it to:
• Locate vehicles in real time
• Reduce the risk of vehicle theft
Car‐Go‐Bus looked at a number of ‘market
leading’ tracking systems and was shown
many product demonstrations. It decided
that most of these systems were too expensive,
complex to use and the backup
service provided was poor.
The Decision
Car‐Go‐Bus is externally funded. It is critical
that it manages costs to deliver the
optimum service to its customers.
Car‐Go‐Bus eventually chose the Simply‐
Trak system based on SimplyTrak’s honest
approach to understanding its real business
needs. The system itself was affordable,
easy to use and flexible enough to
meet all Car‐Go‐Bus’s requirements. | Follow‐up
Car‐Go‐Bus has greatly expanded its use
of the SimplyTrak system beyond the initial
requirements. Just 18 months after
implementation it is now being used for
job scheduling, cross‐checking daily job
records, invoice reconciliation and day to
day vehicle management tasks such as
service schedules and MOT’s. Car‐Go‐Bus
can now take on unscheduled jobs that
come in ‘on the day’ as they are able to
immediately locate the nearest vehicles to
the job.
Car‐Go‐Bus no longer needs to call drivers
to find out where they are, and it has
much greater control over how its vehicles
are used ‐ particularly for nonbusiness
use. Future developments will
include incorporating onboard sensors to
ensure that daily vehicle checks are being
carried out properly.
Key Benefits
Car‐Go‐Bus has identified the following
key benefit areas:
• Time savings due to correct routing
• Fuel savings due to fewer miles driven
• Increased utilisation through identification
of nearest vehicle and rerouting
• Decreased administration costs
• Reduced maintenance costs
• Reduced driver communication costs
• Reduced risk of vehicle theft
• Improved customer satisfaction due to
greater productivity and responsiveness
“To employ a part‐time person to do the
same work manually would cost over
£10,000 per year...we estimate that the
system is saving us many thousands
of pounds each year.” |
