Freeway Fleet Systems has improved accountability, compliance and the quality of fleet maintenance at Abellio, and plays a central role in its achievement of Earned Recognition.
That’s according to Dan Crumpton, Abellio’s Technical Systems Manager. The operator today uses Freeway across six workshops to manage assets which include 853 buses, 115 ancillary vehicles and 220 additional assets such as lifts and tools.
“Having worked with Freeway Fleet Systems previously Abellio opted to work with a supplier that they knew and trusted with a system that was already proven for managing the fleet and compliance,” Mr Crumpton says. “Using the tablets in the workshop ensures staff follow a strict data entry process. It takes longer but everything is now complete and consistent and that saves a lot of time later, not only by eliminating keying in, but also because everything is recorded properly in the first place – so we always have all the information we need at the click of a button.”
Abellio started the move to paperless working in 2018 with the introduction of mobile devices and now a total of 160 tablets are in use across its London workshops. Tablets are used by technicians to manage and pick up jobs, and are being deployed to replace paper recording wherever possible. Automatic generation of reports creates high visibility of operations, and keeps management informed of performance of technicians, data entry accuracy, and productivity.
“With Freeway we can see what people are doing and we can run audits very easily. We have much better visibility and improved accountability,” adds Mr Crumpton. “As a result we are more efficient, the levels of accuracy and compliance are improved; the result is a better quality of fleet maintenance.”
Being able to manage workshops remotely through the software has also proved hugely important during COVID-19 lockdowns.
Abellio has been accepted under DVSA’s Earned Recognition scheme and Freeway’s Earned Recognition Tracker ensures compliance is properly managed.
“Earned Recognition is a key focus for us and Freeway’s software is playing a vital role here,” says Mr Crumpton. “In meeting the DVSA’s key performance indicators, everyone has confidence that we are correctly inspecting and repairing. We also feel it gives us a competitive edge with Transport for London when tendering for new work.”
Abellio has recently installed display monitors in the workshops to eliminate paper 24hr sheets with a real-time rolling display showing jobs and live status. Future plans include integration with Zenobe, and integration with Trapeze, Abellio’s operations system.
