Suppliers Microlise and Ferdia have partnered to bring together fleet management, telematics and compliance with coach booking and operational planning under a single system.
They say that the collaboration will help coach businesses to tackle one of the sector’s biggest challenges in disconnected operations. To that they add how manual processes, spreadsheets and standalone systems continue to be used to manage operations while the coach industry is concurrently under pressure from costs, margins, and customer expectations.
Bringing together the suppliers via the partnership will give what is termed a connected view of every stage of a coach operation, from booking and planning through to vehicle performance and driver safety.
The combined solution delivers a connected view of commercial, operational and fleet data, providing users with enhanced reporting capabilities and the actionable insights needed to optimise performance and support better business decisions.
It will also enable operators to digitise bookings, quotations and pricing; plan vehicles and drivers more efficiently; and track fleet activity in real time.
By bringing commercial planning together with live vehicle and driver data, Ferdia and Microlise believe that users will improve fleet utilisation, strengthen compliance, gain greater operational visibility, and deliver “a more seamless customer experience.”
Ferdia points to research showing that organisations adapting automated planning can reduce scheduling time by up to 70% and operating costs by up to 25%, as well as significantly improving their resource utilisation.
Connected fleet technology can also deliver measurable improvements in operational performance, helping operators to make smarter, faster decisions, the supplier adds.
Its cloud-based platform has been developed alongside UK operator partners. When combined with Microlise fleet technology, those parties gain “a single source of truth that connects commercial planning with real-time vehicle and driver data,” the two businesses say.
Adds Microlise CEO Nadeem Raza: “Coach operators are facing increasing pressure to do more with less, but many are still working with disconnected systems that limit visibility and efficiency.
“By partnering with Ferdia, we are bringing together two complementary technologies to help operators to make better decisions, improve fleet performance, and build more resilient businesses.”
Ferdia County Manager Daniel Morton notes how the partnership with Microlise “provides coach operators with a best-in-class solution on both systems.” He adds: “We already have several clients using both Ferdia and Microlise saving time in manual data entry and reaping the benefits of a connected platform.”
