The right tools facilitate success when transitioning to zero emission buses, services, infrastructure and depots
How are you balancing the sustainability aspirations, business realities and uncontrollable market movements while transitioning to net zero?
Operators, authorities and the surrounding stakeholders are discovering that being set up with the tools for planning and managing allows for improved accuracy and responsiveness to grid infrastructure works and applications, vehicle deployments, grants and tenders, and the emerging franchising model in the bus market.
Across the UK we have evidenced key challenges where the right tools and frameworks can drive significant operational, economic and environmental benefits. We provide free access to a comparison tool for routeone readers that demonstrates the power of the right information.
- Having power available at depots at the right time. Understanding energy load profiles of your fleet as you move to full zero emission depot conversion is key when engaging with IDNOs and DNOs to facilitate grid application processes. Grid capacity remains an intrinsic challenge for the transition across the country where detailed and accurate energy modelling, as opposed to high level estimates, facilitates the process to ensure power is available at the right time
- Clear ownership of the process. Understand critical elements of risk in zero emissions changeover when engaging with suppliers, partners and tenders. Accurate planning that is capable of adapting in line with technology and market changes allows operators to gain wider visibility of transitioning and operating zero emission networks and in turn ownership of the process. Ultimately better, cost effective tools can be used to negotiate better with OEMs, IDNO/DNOs, partners and authorities
- Highly competitive markets. With cost margins weighing heavy on the minds of those responsible for developing business cases and staying in line with performance metrics, more accurate software for modelling and managing operations and energy consumption means flexibility in cost profile estimates. As some will already know, cost is at the heart of competition whether it is on meeting performance metrics or lost tenders sometimes to a painfully small figure. Know the cost to plan, act and pitch with confidence
- Agility to deliver in times of staff turnover. Many businesses across sectors are experiencing issues with staff engagement and retention. The cost to hire and retain is ever increasing. But when you have the right tools to efficiently plan, develop and test scheduling scenarios that push your upper and lower resourcing levels, you can understand how to make it work and deliver or even increase coverage
- Expand your operating horizons. Better planning and managing tools allow you to not only improve the performance of your fleet as you move to zero emissions. But also enable you to accurately and cost effectively analyse emerging opportunities whether its new technologies, new suppliers or partners or even expanding your operating footprint to other regions. You may have constraints in your resources or funding but you can take the guesswork out of the process to deliver your zero emissions aspirations.
There will continue to be unpredictable variables in the bus sector for years ahead and the net zero transition is part of that. The right tools and modelling do allow you to predict the immediate, medium and long term future scenarios with greater accuracy. Sample our analytics capability by using the free Comparison Tool available here for routeone readers.
The challenges being faced around people retention can benefit indirectly from this work also – as you can pitch a stronger employee proposition to learn new tools and ways of working in the decarbonised transport world, or as a business by doing more with who you have available.
For more information, visit BetterFleet.com
