Your transit agency’s operations team is responsible for the practical aspects of delivering transit services to your riders. They’re the boots on the ground responding to and resolving unexpected circumstances across the agency to avoid service disruption. A typical day includes managing the buses, drivers, schedules, safety, and performing customer service. They work in roles such as:
- Dispatch
- Control centers
- Emergency response
- Accessibility
- Equipment and vehicle maintenance
For example, a bus dispatcher liaises between ground operations and the control center to ensure issues are addressed quickly, like troubleshooting equipment malfunction. They’re also responsible for scheduling routes and drivers, so having a pulse on neighborhood density, for example, improves their ability to appropriately staff drivers and maintain punctuality.
Unfortunately, operations teams often work in silos, despite their shared goal of delivering exceptional service. They may be burdened by inefficient processes and tools contributing to redundancy and lower collaboration. A typical scenario would entail teams pulling similar reports from multiple data sources for different use cases without realizing they’re duplicating efforts.
Streamlined operations are critical in raising your agency’s reputation, keeping riders satisfied, and costs down. To support the operations personnel charged with consistently delivering on these expectations, you’ll need to invest in tools and resources that help them keep up with growing demands to work smarter, not harder. That’s why we rebuilt Genfare Link from the ground up.
Faster, smarter, optimized: Genfare Link’s impact on transit operations
Genfare Link streamlines processes to reduce inefficiencies and optimize resources, alleviating pressure on staff. By reducing time spent creating reports, responding to requests for data, and solving problems, it frees agency staff to focus on higher impact tasks. Effective reporting unifies teams, clarifies decisions, and helps agencies become proactive.
Making data available on demand to people across the agency also arms operations staff with the information they need to keep the fleet in motion. Here are just some ways this can benefit operations teams.
Reduces probing time by up to 90%
Data transfer from buses to Genfare Link’s dashboard can be done in real-time when wi-fi or cellular data is enabled at your facility without further manipulating the data for reporting.
In this scenario, your IR probing time falls from an average of 10 to 12 seconds per bus to one to two seconds. That time savings come from buses being automatically probed via Wi-Fi or cellular data the moment they enter the garage, removing the need for staff to probe each bus individually.
Eliminates dedicated workstations
Because Genfare Link exists on the cloud, it can be accessed from any internet-enabled desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or even smartphone. Gone are the days of dedicated workstations in the garage and office just for fare collection functions, and with them, the need for climatized place to put them and the time and cost to regularly replace, update, and troubleshoot them.
Transit agencies no longer need hardware dedicated to supporting the network manager, garage data system, and Vendstar Information Processor, reducing the garage equipment footprint. With Genfare Link, agencies now benefit from faster implementation in as little as 2 weeks, depending on configuration, with a more straightforward setup.
Automatically pushes updates and fare structures
When software updates are released or your agency introduces new or changed fare structures, they are pushed to all devices automatically. This cuts down on staff time running updates and responding to questions or complaints from riders who aren’t seeing the latest fares reflected on their mobile or online accounts or drivers whose fareboxes aren’t up-to-date.
Potentially reduces vaulting
Because the garage can see how much cash is in the farebox before it returns to the depot, the agency can choose to vault buses on a schedule that correlates with the frequency that the fareboxes fill up, rather than daily. This keeps drivers on the road for longer on the days they don’t need to report for vaulting.
Informs predictive maintenance
In addition to keeping track of day-to-day maintenance scheduling, data from smart hardware can identify patterns that may mean maintenance is needed – before the equipment goes out of service. For example, it can notify maintenance staff when jams are happening more often than usual on a farebox, or when a bus operator is overriding certain functions more frequently than is typical, which could point to a maintenance issue.
Makes troubleshooting more efficient
When fare collection equipment does break down, the data can show if any events led up to the issue. It can also provide information that points to normal wear and tear, such as number of tickets dispensed since a ticket vending machine was last serviced. Being armed with this information can take hours off time spent troubleshooting by pointing maintenance staff in the direction of the issue.
Combats fare evasion
You can get a complete picture of your agency’s fare evasion patterns so you can direct resources to combatting it along the routes, at the times, or in the unique situations where it happens most often. Data can also show if certain operators are allowing a higher percentage of passengers to board without paying.
Tracks inventory
You’ll be able to see how much inventory is available of consumables such as fare media or printer heads so you can reorder before the threshold gets low. The data will also allow you to calculate accurate use rates so you can better predict your needs and order smarter, ensuring you’ll never run out of critical supplies or tie up too much money in inventory that you won’t touch for months.
Simplifies cash management and reconciliation
Last on this list, but not least, is the impact on cash management. Most transit agencies continue to accept cash and coin fares, which means cash management and reconciliation remain top of mind for operations teams. The Genfare Link dashboard provides detailed data on:
- Fares paid with cash
- Where that cash is currently stored
- How your agency has managed the cash
Specifically, the reconciliation reports allow you to compare amounts of cash taken from fare boxes, vaulted, and sent to the bank for deposit against the same cash counted manually in your money room. A few common issues that Genfare Link’s reconciliation report can help your teams troubleshoot are:
- Unrecognized revenue by garage and driver: Should you invest in more training for your staff? Is the bill validator broken?
- Short vaultings: If the vault takes less-than-normal time to download the cash balance data, the report will flag it as a possible maintenance alert.
- Vaulted not probed: When cash boxes are vaulted but not accurately probed, it could mean the data isn’t being recorded in Genfare Link or that the probe needs maintenance.
Detailed revenue monitoring helps you catch discrepancies and determine how to prevent them in the future. It also allows you to create automated, data-driven maintenance processes that cut busy work and associated costs. Agencies that leverage Genfare Link benefit from an estimated savings of $20,000 annually or 300 man-hours. That’s time and money they can invest into supporting operations and customer satisfaction.
A people-first solution for the modern transit agency
You can’t provide your customers outstanding service without giving your operations teams the resources and safety nets to achieve this goal every day. While human error and unforeseen circumstances are unavoidable, you can create a modern support solution that helps your teams anticipate issues and mitigate risk.
A quiet day is a good day for operations at a transit agency because it reflects a team with efficient processes and adequate support to do their jobs well, no matter how busy it gets. Find out how Genfare Link can elevate your level of service by reaching out to one of our Business Development Directors.
