Wiener Lokalbahnen Verkehrsdienste GmbH
SNAPSHOT
Company: Wiener Lokalbahnen Verkehrsdienste GmbH
No. of trips per day: 1,800
No. of referred (customers): 1,000
No. of vehicles: 106 minibuses, 7 tourist coaches
No. of employees: 223
Main areas of activity: Demand-response transport, disabled transport, tourist transport
Trapeze products: Trapeze Duty Manager (for staff and duty handling as well as duty planning), Trapeze PASS (for booking, planning and coordinating disabled transport) and Trapeze Charter (for tourist transport).
THE ORGANISATION
WLB is a modern, privately owned provider of goods and private transport, carrying more than 30,000 passengers daily. The subsidiary Wiener Lokalbahnen Verkehrsdienste GmbH (WLV) was set up in 1999 to handle charter and demand-response services. WLV’s main area of activity is transport for the disabled. Moreover, WLV has seven luxury coaches for charter transport. Finally, Wiener Lokalbahnen AG has its own travel agency which handles all types of transport tasks from airport buses and group trips to excursions for kindergartens.
THE ISSUE
After WLV was established, Managing Director Dietmar Flaschberger and his team basically needed to start from square one. The data which was taken over from a previous company was largely unusable, and software for supporting the transport planning was non-existent. Dietmar Flaschberger set out on his own and, with considerable commitment and by applying his many years of experience, he developed a system himself.
In planning demand-response services, flexibility and reliability are essential. This is true even though two-thirds of the trips are relatively routine, like school runs and trips to protected workshops. Even here, changes can happen at short notice: the school might close an hour earlier than normal or a passenger might need to be collected two hours early to be driven to a doctor’s appointment. In addition to these “normal” changes, the disabled in the Province of Vienna are entitled to 60 individual trips (each for the same price as a tramline ticket). Thus, the bus is also used like a taxi, and it can be ordered at short notice. Without the necessary IT support, these requirements cannot be met.
Even though Dietmar Flaschberger was satisfied with the system he had developed himself, it did not meet all his needs. In 2001 he learned about a software solution from Trapeze, which impressed him from the outset. The functionality of the solution was similar to his own system, yet it featured many other functions such as security, demand analyses, monitoring and planning options.
THE PROJECT
It was not until spring 2006 that the project saw kick-off, and the parent company WLB became convinced of the advantages of a solution from Trapeze. During implementation, the team took advantage of the competent support the Trapeze consultant provided. During September and October 2006 there were, depending on requirements, one or two Trapeze employees at WLV engaged in installation, data transfer, interfaces to the pay system and setting up the individual workplaces.
Dietmar Flaschberger: “We are more than satisfied with the support from Trapeze employees. In addition to their technical expertise, they also possess in-depth knowledge about our line of business. Moreover, they were always ready to help us, even at weekends. Basically, they looked after us round the clock.”
Implementation was followed by a week of intensive training where the planning and HR staff started to find out how strong and extensive the functions in the Trapeze solution really are. However, at the beginning it was tricky for some employees to get to grips with the new system because there were so many new things to learn and remember. In practice, any scepticism was soon replaced by enthusiasm, and today no one would want to be without all the new functionalities.
THE TECHNOLOGY
WLV uses the basic Trapeze Duty Manager system for handling employees and duties in which registration data (name, address, telephone no., employee no., staff group, holiday group, qualifications, driving licence categories etc.) and duty plans are generated and maintained. Handling the runs takes place in the Trapeze PASS module, in which it is possible to plan, administer and coordinate the different types of trips easily and efficiently.
Dietmar Flaschberger: “We are especially pleased with Trapeze PASS, where everything from booking to settlement takes place in one and the same system – Trapeze PASS. The system performs all routines, and the automatic planning and allocation saves a lot of time and work. As all the data are always accessible in real time, we can quickly react to changes that arise from cancellations at short notice or traffic jams.”
For charter transport with the seven long-distance coaches, WLV will use the new Trapeze Charter module. All planning activities can thereby take place in a single system, from issuing quotes to invoicing.
DAILY OPERATION
Every single trip is planned by a controller, and when planning he can decide whether the system should automatically select a solution or whether manual adjustments or manual planning are needed. For subscription trips, for example a monthly trip to the hospital, templates can be used. Otherwise all planning takes place at WLV directly at the moment of booking. The user interface contains a geographical map which can be switched on or off as required. As all addresses are geocoded, the planner can immediately see the starting point and destination for each trip and the optimum route, and he can also see how many trips the customer has ordered to date, and which vehicles he has at his disposal. Using GPS, the controller can see which vehicles are in the vicinity and thereby which one would be most appropriate for the trip in question.
Based on this information, the controller can agree the trip over the phone with the customer immediately. Moreover, the controller also has access to detailed customer data such as vehicle type needed (with, for example, the possibility of taking wheelchair users), payment info and much more. This ensures that, in addition to the right vehicle arriving at the right time at the right address, the customer is also, if possible, driven by his or her usual driver. Many customers greatly appreciate this level of service.
Routes and driving times are, as in a route planner, automatically calculated on the basis of the geographical and driving conditions. The speed at which a trip can be driven can be adapted according to different times of day (rush-hour traffic or normal traffic) and areas (inside and outside the city centre). Here, Dietmar Flaschberger says: “No system is able to store all this information about every town and city worldwide. Areas with frequent traffic jams, short-cuts, the best access roads to hospital departments etc. is information which only people “on site” can know about. For this individual fine tuning, there is an optimisation module in Trapeze PASS. Setting all 2,300 available options will doubtless take some time, but the result will be a perfectly tuned system for catering for our needs in Vienna.”
THE RESULT
Any problems in getting to know the system at the outset have been quickly forgotten by all nine employees in the planning and HR office, and they have really taken the system on board. Dietmar Flaschberger: “The Trapeze solution fully meets all our requirements. And even though the initial purchase price was rather high, the relation between price and quality is acceptable. We are now working faster and more efficiently. In addition, the planning of trips has been optimised to such an extent that we have been able to dispense with three vehicles while maintaining the same level of quality and service.”
As Managing Director, Dietmar Flaschberger also sees clear competitive advantages: “Vienna has eleven companies operating within this area. Of these, we are the only firm to have implemented a planning system. On this basis we can easily grow, and if our present 1,000 customers suddenly increased to 4,000, it would not be a problem for us. We can certainly take over the planning from other companies.”
For further information, call Annie Bundgaard on +45 87 44 16 00
