"Bridge strike prevention – it’s topical and a potentially BIG issue. Once the geofences were set up, the alert goes off once you pass the boundary for the potential hazard. You’re told not to proceed, and the risk is avoided. Operationally, this is gold dust!"
Chris Thompson, Operations Manager at Reliance Motor Services
BACKGROUND
Reliance Motor Services were established in 1930 and operate from their depot in York, near Sutton on the Forest. Reliance operates a fleet of 22 buses on mostly service work and contract school runs. Bridges and historic architecture across the city meant Reliance were looking for a solution to help them keep customers and drivers, and obviously buses, safe by being notified if the bus is too tall to drive under a bridge or too wide to fit down narrow roads.
OUr approach
The Ticketer Support Team worked with Reliance so they could tailor the data in the Road Restriction Alerts (RRA) solution to meet their specific needs. Geofences were adjusted within the Ticketer Portal to ensure that the alerts only went off in the right places. As The National Gazetteer is maintained through regular updates, the list of restricted roads on the national database are synchronised with any of these local edits made. By focussing on getting everything set up ‘just right’ for the feature, it’s made a real difference.
“The alerts are done in such a way that it’s very different to other sounds the ETM makes. Drivers used to get narrative fatigue with the old system - constant notices and noises, so they didn’t always listen. It really helps me gets messages to key staff. The drivers now listen - you’ve hit the nail on the head!” Gary Newby, Director at Reliance Motor Services
what this means for reliance motor services
keeping costs down
Reliance chose the Ticketer RRA solution as all their buses are fitted with Ticketer ETMs, so there was no additional hardware or installation requirements.
A TRULY FLEXIBLE SOLUTION
The system is designed to be editable and flexible which was needed in the operating area due to York’s archways and architecture. The geofences used for height and width restrictions were edited and modified to amend their radius, height, dimension, or were even removed entirely to prevent false positives being sent to the ETM.
DRIVERS TAKING NOTICE
Reliance have found the alert tone was great at grabbing the drivers’ attention as it has a different sound to anything else. The alert also shows as a visual notification on the Ticketer ETM screen. Reliance have been using the Road Restriction Alerts solution for over a year now and they’ve had only positive feedback from their drivers.
