NCT on the Freeway

Nottingham City Transport (NCT) is deploying Freeway Fleet Systems’ mobile technology across its engineering operations. Engineering staff are being equipped with rugged tablet devices that synchronise in real time with a central Freeway system for managing the maintenance of its 300-plus buses.

Freeway is providing NCT with a secure and fully-managed cloud solution, minimising the demands on its IT resources. The operator is undertaking a phased roll out of the system, with the first phase now complete with the introduction of the workshop management software and live connected tablets. The next phase involves the integration of pre-service inspection reports provided by drivers using a Tranzaura app.

The tablets will be used to replace virtually all paperwork and will be used by everyone from technicians to electrical specialists and cleaners. Running Freeway apps, the devices provide quick, easy entry of data to replace job sheets, inspection reports, timesheets, 24-hour sheets and other paperwork. Unusually, vehicles are allocated by NCT’s engineering department rather than operations. For operations this removes one important variable and simplifies scheduling as vehicle availability is assured. However, it increases the responsibility for engineering to maintain the fleet and minimise downtime.

Chief Engineer, Nottingham City Transport, Liam O’Brien, said: “Our primary responsibility is to protect the company’s Operators Licence and Freeway will help here but the real benefits come from the fact that Freeway is a tool that will allow us to work more effectively. With everything digital and the information we need always immediately visible we’ll be able to manage things in a way that was simply impossible before.”