Freeway case study: RATP Dev Transit London

Bus operator RATP Dev Transit London continues to transform its London bus operations with the latest digital technology from Freeway Fleet Systems. RATP Dev Transit London operates a fleet of 1,065 buses serving 103 routes in and around the capital under contract to Transport for London.

With Freeway Fleet Systems already trialled and in use at their Westbourne Park Garage, Freeway’s fleet management software was an obvious choice for RATP Dev Transit London as part of a group-wide move to eliminate paper and switch to digital working practices.

The ‘model garage’

This digital revolution is being delivered in tandem with the implementation of a business management system. The partnership between the RATP Dev Transit London Central Engineering Team and Freeway has been key in introducing a proven ‘Model Garage’ concept that can be replicated across the 10 maintenance facilities that make up the RATP Dev Transit London operation.

A key element to the success of the Model Garage concept was the adoption of a RATP Group methodology called ‘MaintCare’, which aims to achieve full digitisation with a robust and consistent standard of data capture replicable across multiple business systems. With group wide implementation and analysis, Freeway’s long-standing approach to data structuring, analysis and reporting was seen as a natural fit with MaintCare.

Workshop digitisation

Freeway’s initial deployment via a proof-of-concept approach, was centred around a major re-organisation to improve safety, efficiency, quality and cost controls. RATP Dev Transit London and Freeway are now rolling this out as part of the Model Garage project enabling managers, supervisors, vehicle inspectors and engineers to switch to completely paperless working.

As part of a phased approach in 2023, workshops saw over 70 individual tablets issued to engineers and inspectors. With Freeway’s web app replacing paper for all maintenance related activities, 2400 safety inspections and 1800 services were completed digitally, managing over 38,000 defects. All 10 workshops will be fully digital by Spring 2024.

With the switch to digital working, Freeway is updated in real time, with dashboards displayed on wall-mounted monitors within the workshops. These dashboards give instant visibility of the live status of each location, all related assets and every job. This includes the key integration of defects identified by drivers from their walk-around checks and also in-service failures. This gives the workshops immediate updates on any new defects as they are surfaced while an asset is in operation.

Management visibility

Freeway provides company-wide visibility of all maintenance related activity allowing operations and management teams to see the live status of their fleet from their desktop or smartphone.

“Switching from paper to digital is completely transformational,” says Darren Bull, Engineering Manager, RATP Dev Transit London. “Freeway not only gives us all visibility to what’s going on 24/7 but equally important, we are building a comprehensive record of all maintenance activities so we can properly assess things such as parts performance, productivity and costs.”

Darren continues, “The transition is not without challenges especially when staff are switching from completing the paperwork that they’re so familiar with. It’s crucial to engage early on with everyone especially those using the tablets in the workshop as the success of the system relies on the data entered at source.”

Stock reduction

Particular attention has been given to stores and stock management, with improved automation and processes for the purchasing and issuing of parts. Parts can be issued from stores by scanning QR part codes via web app enabled mobile devices – automatically linking engineer, asset, job and parts used. Service kits and fast-moving parts have also been introduced and re-located for quick, convenient access – enabling the engineers to spend more time ‘on the asset’.

On their digital devices, engineers can see what parts are needed for specific jobs, where they are located and how many are available. They also have access to detailed asset maintenance history to avoid unnecessary replacements and identify recurring defects. In 2023, Freeway managed the issuing of 14,000 parts with 4,500 Purchase Orders worth almost £1m.

“Freeway’s software has enabled us to completely overhaul the way we manage stores and issue parts. It is now much more efficient and effective with defined savings” says Les Irwin, Engineering Project Manager, RATP Dev Transit London.

Improving standards

Freeway is proving to be a useful tool for improving day to day working practices on the shop floor by ensuring standard operating procedures are followed. RATP Dev Transit London personnel have direct access to company policies and standard working practice documentation anytime-anywhere via the Freeway Web App. The Digital Inspection interface meanwhile provides a step-by-step workflow guide that standardises inspection routines in line with industry best practices.

“People are the most valuable asset, and it is important to understand how best to support our engineers and enable them to deliver effective and consistent maintenance outcomes. RATP Dev Transit London is keen to better understand workshop loading and resource management; something which Freeway can actively help us do,” says Irwin.

“Start and finish times are captured for all jobs, across all users in all of our garages. This data allows Freeway to ‘learn’ the standard times taken for every activity type, including manufacturer variations, which allows us to build up a good picture of how long each job should take. From there we can pinpoint areas where, for example, engineers are more capable or have developed better ways of working. We want the right time allocated for every job. This will not be used to set targets; it is simply one more piece of information that can help us work more effectively.”

Boosting performance

For management, Freeway is proving to be a valuable tool providing a level of detail not possible before. Full digital maintenance histories, details of parts used by who and when, backed up by a fully auditable asset timeline and photographic evidence encourages individual engineers to be more accountable. As a result, RATP Dev Transit London are seeing a natural uplift in maintenance standards which is being directly reflected in asset reliability.

One of the key benefits of Freeway already being realised is to identify the real costs of operating individual vehicles. Bus operators in London are measured by ‘loss of mileage’ so identifying poorly performing vehicles is crucial.

“We used data from Freeway earlier this year to identify our worst performing assets across different groups of vehicles. In one asset type this enabled targeted maintenance which delivered a noticeable reduction in lost mechanical miles on that route. Significantly, since fully implementing Freeway, the Westbourne Park Garage has consistently been the top performing garage across the TfL league tables for mechanical lost mileage” says Rob Fairclough, Senior Engineering Delivery Manager, RATP Dev Transit London.

Future proof

“The ‘Model Garage’ concept is just as much about cultural change as it is about digital change and that’s the biggest challenge to moving into a digital world. However, it is the future and the rewards – including a safer, more secure and better working environment, that far outweigh the initial pain,” Irwin comments.

“More than anything else during our proof of concept we needed to show how well Freeway would work for RATP Dev Transit London as a business. Fortunately, Freeway has been an excellent partner and where their speed of response was critical, they delivered, making the roll-out much easier than first thought.”

For the future, the roll-out across the remaining garages will continue throughout early 2024 with the Model Garage project and Freeway Fleet systems further improving workshop planning and optimisation, reducing operational challenges including vehicle downtime and ultimately improving safety, reliability and overall performance.