Intelligent bus depot management for more punctual buses

Trivadis developed a management system for the Fribourg public transport company that enables its buses to leave the depot more punctually. This increases passenger satisfaction and saves costs.

In Short

CHALLENGE

Central management of the bus depots according to the different local conditions at the sites.

SOLUTION

Bus depot management, HASTUS planning tool and vehicle location solution (SmartSpace).

BENEFIT

Optimisation of seats in the bus depots and maintenance planning for the buses.

Our Solution

The famous Swiss punctuality is not just a cliché. It is upheld in all areas of life – from work to leisure – including public transport. If a train or bus is more than five minutes late, the Swiss blessing of the house is at a loss. In fact, public transport in Switzerland is among the most punctual in the world. The Fribourg public transport company (Transports publics fribourgeois, TPF) also wants to offer its customers a high-quality service. In order to make processes even more efficient, the company therefore decided to centralize the management of the bus depots and the maintenance planning of the buses.

High demands on reliability need system available around the clock

Together with Trivadis, an intelligent bus depot management system was therefore developed which allows all bus depots in the canton of Fribourg to be managed centrally at the new headquarters of the Fribourg public transport company in Givisiez. Based on artificial intelligence, the system assigns the drivers the optimum parking or workshop space in the bus depots - a process which previously had to be carried out manually. One of the biggest challenges of the project was to formulate a complex mathematical solution based on company processes and the local conditions of the depots. Due to the high demands on reliability, the system also had to be available around the clock. The jointly developed solution consists of the following three main components:

A modern, responsive User Interface using cutting edge frontend technologies designed to work on several different devices (tablets, pc).
Two technical interfaces to the solutions for real-time planning and location of the buses.
A calculation method based on an intelligent algorithm developed according to the local conditions of the depots and the future use of the buses.

System shows buses the most suitable parking space in the depot

Thanks to the intelligent bus depot management system, the buses are parked in the evening in the order in which they have to leave the next day. This enables drivers to keep to the timetable even better. Maintenance has also been optimized thanks to the intelligent bus depot management system, as the buses are always placed in the right place logistically. Both punctuality and higher vehicle quality mean that the Canton of Fribourg can also score points with Swissness and satisfy its customers. More efficient processes also enable costs to be saved. Trivadis will remain a strong partner for the Freiburg public transport company even after the system has been introduced and will support the company both in the support and maintenance of the solution and in the operation of its applications and databases.

ABOUT TPF

Mobility has been the raison d’être of the TPF Group since 1868. Today, it covers the entire canton of Fribourg with trains, regional buses and urban lines. In order to be even closer to its users, the TPF Group is transforming its stations into residential and activity areas and investing in innovation. It is organised as a holding company to ensure transparency in its activities and financing.

Technologies used

Java / Spring / HTML5
Apache Kafka
Docker
IoT