When a suburban city in the Canadian province of Ontario implemented its vision for the future, enhancing its public transportation infrastructure played a critical role. Over five years, this agency implemented transit technology solutions to achieve that vision. In 2019, the city was awarded a Smart City Award for deploying Automated Vehicle Monitoring (AVM) from Clever Devices.
Before the implementation of AVM, this agency relied almost entirely on manual maintenance processes. When a vehicle had a mechanical or electrical fault, the agency depended on drivers to report it. Repairs were only made after there was an issue. Often, that issue resulted in the bus breaking down in service and needing to be towed to the garage for repair. This resulted in inconvenienced passengers and significant service delays.
Additionally, the agency could not detect fleetwide issues that could be covered by the manufacturer’s warranty if exposed in time. Without AVM, the agency had to wait until those issues accumulated, causing significant service disruptions and increasing repair costs.
Lastly, they had no automated way to disable active regeneration on diesel-powered buses inside their garages, resulting in dangerous air quality and a safety hazard to workers.
AVM helped this agency automate many of its maintenance processes and increase the reliability and state of good repair of its fleet. The system ultimately helped them to increase the lifecycle of their fleet. Because it reduces the likelihood of a mechanical breakdown on the road, it reduces the road calls that lead to unhappy, inconvenienced customers.
Because AVM automatically reports mechanical and electrical faults, the agency was no longer dependent upon its drivers to report faults while on the road. Maintenance crews could see the faults and proactively address them, reducing the likelihood that a fault goes unreported or a vehicle with an issue is accidentally sent into service.
AVM enabled this agency to address mechanical breakdowns before they occurred, resulting in fewer service-crushing road calls and fewer unhappy, inconvenienced customers.
The visibility that AVM provides into the health of the entire fleet enables agencies to manage their entire maintenance process better, control overtime costs, and identify warranty repairs faster.
With AVM, this agency was able to set a geofence around the perimeter of the depot, automatically disabling the regeneration functionality before the bus enters the building, resulting in improved indoor air quality and reducing the likelihood of injury to maintenance workers.
For more information on automated vehicle health monitoring, visit: https://www.cleverdevices.com/products/avm3/