Vehicle Location Data

Vehicle location data improves operational efficiency, customer experience and ensures driver safety

Published: 27 June, 2007 Press Release issued: 27 June 2007

- Arqiva today announced a seven-year £3.5 million contract with Travel West Midlands (TWM), the leading bus operator in the West Midlands County and part of the National Express Group of companies.

The deal, which is an extension to the organisations’ existing managed service relationship dating back to 2002, will see the upgrade of all of TWM’s legacy radio equipment including the radio infrastructure, 1800 in-vehicle radio units and 200 hand-portable radios used by inspectors.

The replacement solution will provide TWM with a positional update from each of its vehicles every 30 seconds. This location information will be distributed across the 11 operational garages within the TWM area.

TWM will continue to benefit from Arqiva’s fully managed service approach, meaning that all ongoing maintenance and remote management of the company’s radio infrastructure is handled by Arqiva. TWM will be using the latest Keynet trunked radio solution and KM3000 mobile radios. Arqiva will ensure that existing communications are maintained during the switch to the new technology platform, meaning minimal disruption to the bus service.

As the largest urban bus network outside of London, TWM carries more than 10,000 messages an hour over its current radio network every day. The new communications technology will enable direct contact between the drivers and their base, which is essential in case of traffic congestion, breakdowns or other emergencies which could involve driver and passenger safety.

The vehicle location information will also allow improvements to be made to the operational efficiencies of TWM.

The decision to continue to utilise a private radio network is justified in times of emergencies or other incidents when it is crucial for TWM to be able to communicate with and efficiently manage its vehicle fleet. The choice of private network allows Arqiva to manage all radio communications on behalf of TWM ensuring it is constantly available.

Paul Williams, IT Director at Travel West Midlands, commented: “Working with Arqiva enables us to focus on our core business, keeping our buses on the road and on schedule and generally making travel simpler and safer for our customers.

The fully managed service ensures that all of our communications requirements are being looked after by Arqiva’s skilled technical resource and design engineers. We carry one million passengers every day and minimal disruption to our network is crucial at all times. Arqiva’s reliability, skill and pro-activeness are all key components in helping us achieve this.”

Arqiva is also working closely with Travel West Midlands to allow the radio bearer to be used to transfer real-time position data to a central location. The information is then distributed to passenger information points such as bus stops, giving details of the arrival time of the next bus.

Paul Williams continues: “The implementation of the new technology, with the ability to display Vehicle Location information, allows us to maximise operational savings and benefits. It also gives us the ability to provide up-to-the-minute information for our customers who are the prime beneficiaries of our efforts to deliver high-quality local bus services.”

“The contract with Travel West Midlands is a significant one for Arqiva and is testament to the strength of our managed-services proposition for the transport sector,” commented Alastair Davidson, Managing Director of Arqiva’s Public Safety division.

“Running an efficient, on-time service is paramount for companies such as Travel West Midlands and by outsourcing their communications requirements they are able to deliver on customer needs, without having to worry about their back-office infrastructure.”