Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority (WeGo) serves Nashville and Davidson County in Tennessee, operating 180 fixed-route bus services, 90 paratransit vehicles and provides service to nearly 30,000 passengers daily. In 2014, WeGo began the search for a centralized system to help boost productivity while maintaining its fleet more efficiently and effectively. The ultimate goal, as with any project by the agency, was increased livability and accessible transportation for a rapidly growing city population. Since adopting the services of Vontas nearly a decade ago, WeGo has been successfully utilizing the company’s CAD/AVL solution to do just that. However, in recent years, WeGo was looking for ways to take its fleet efficiency even further. In 2022, WeGo’s Deputy Chief Operating Officer of Operations Systems, Dan Freudberg, approached the Vontas team in hopes of addressing some of the congestion-related travel delays slowing several of the agency’s routes. “Because of the frequent construction within the city, there are significant variations in travel speeds and travel times on a day-to-day basis, making it very difficult to manage vehicle schedules,” Freudberg said. “We were looking at other ways that we could still deliver customers a reliable service that doesn’t necessarily rely so heavily on a strict schedule.” “The unique thing about what WeGo wanted to do was to expand our system beyond the yard,” said Andrea Costa, Vontas product manager. “They wanted to bring this product to their passenger transit center, which was an entirely new use case for the product.” Prior to adopting the newest iteration of Vontas’ OnSite platform, WeGo had deployed the legacy yard management solution at its central station and downtown transit facility, but had never rolled the system out through the main bus garage due to the challenging infrastructure and complications involved with installing the platform in a heavily concrete building. “One of the issues with tracking vehicles very accurately in and around our main transfer facility is that it doesn’t have great GPS coverage because it is multi-level with a lot of concrete creating this urban canyon effect,” Freudberg said. WeGo wanted to ensure that it could, with a high degree of accuracy, track exactly when its vehicles were departing the facility in order to provide riders with a definite timetable reliable service and accurate bus arrival predictions. However, without knowing precisely when the vehicles were starting or ending trips from that facility, the agency was unable to accurately monitor services or make necessary adjustments. The challenge with WeGo’s passenger transit center lies in its multi-level concrete architecture. With multiple layers of steel and cement blocking any GPS signal, predicting the arrival and departure times of vehicles becomes nearly impossible. “When our CAD/AVL’s GPS is blocked by all the cement and the steel, it can’t see the sky anymore, it can’t communicate with the satellites and that location is no longer accurate,” said Andrea Costa, product manager of OnSite. “Dan Freudberg’s idea was to take the technology, the antennas and the tags, install them in the passenger transit facility because they can go beneath the cement and the steel on the ceiling and read the buses that are already tagged.” Expanding the system beyond the yard would mean undergoing an extensive planning and evaluation process in order to accurately survey the facility and gauge how and where the technology would be installed. “The first step is a very complex process of planning where everything is going to be installed based on that mapping and architectural layout,” Costa said. “That helps us come up with an initial concept of how many antennas we will need to achieve the maximum amount of coverage. We also need to make sure that there is a clear line of sight between all antennas and all tags. It’s a very comprehensive process.” Once the surveying and mapping phase is complete, Vontas creates a detailed installation guide for experienced third-party installers who ensure that the technology is correctly installed. Throughout the project, WeGo’s ultimate goal has been to accurately monitor the location of all vehicles from both the transfer facility and bus garage while simultaneously tracking when they arrive and depart from the main transit center in downtown Nashville. “What interested us about the new solution was that it was a true vehicle tracking solution where we could see where vehicles were at all times on a map as well as see whether they were occupying a particular parking spot or a particular bus bay,” Freudberg said. “And so, for us, having that level of information we felt would really allow us to achieve what we needed to in terms of pinpointing when vehicles were entering and exiting the transit center.” Once the antennas and tags were successfully installed, Vontas was able to begin integrating the new software into WeGo’s existing CAD/AVL solution. “Vontas had already done a couple of projects before, implementations of OnSite specifically for tracking vehicles at garage facilities, transit operational facilities,” Freudberg said. “But for tracking vehicle adherence to schedule and tracking their progression along a route and tying that into the CAD/AVL system, that was a little bit different.” According to Costa, integrating the software requires multiple levels of customer training. The first phase begins during the project’s initial kickoff, by introducing the customer to the technology that has been purchased, how it works and what is needed to maintain it. Then, during the installation phase, rather than installing the technology to the entire fleet simultaneously, Vontas designates a small number of vehicles to utilize as a training tool for key members of the project team. “Not the entire staff, but just a few key members are getting introduced to the product,” Costa said. “Then we expand and install more antennas and tag more buses as we go on, and as the fleet grows and the coverage in the facility grows, so does that person’s knowledge of the system.” Once the agency’s key team members are comfortable with the product and have completed their acceptance testing, a larger scale roll out Read More >

Since taking new ownership in 2019 with nine drivers, one office employee, and one mechanic, Michigan-based charter and tour company, National Trails, has seen tremendous growth. In the last three years alone, the company has more than tripled the number of employees, doubled its school bus fleet and increased its motorcoach fleet size by 15. “During this period of rapid growth, we have been incredibly reliant on our software,” said Austin Arksey, owner of National Trails. “If we didn’t have software like busHive, we would not have been able to scale as easily and as efficiently as we have.” According to Arksey, when he purchased National Trails in 2019, charters were managed via handwritten or typewritten messages being physically handed to drivers. One of the first initiatives the company undertook was digitizing these many processes, and that meant migrating the manual charter-booking into busHive. busHive provides cloud-based software to streamline workflows and recordkeeping across the entire charter process – from the initial quote to confirmations, contracts, generating driver itineraries, billing, and invoicing. National Trails uses the software to manage its sales, billing, and payroll – with reporting that shows revenue per vehicle, profit/loss analysis, and other important benchmarking tools. “As we are continuing to add additional fleet, busHive has been very instrumental in giving us the keys to have visibility to being able to see our trips on a daily, weekly, monthly, even annual basis as well,” Arksey said. “It has been very helpful to have solid software in place as we continue to grow.” However, rapid scalability often comes with its own set of challenges as National Trails well knows. With the accelerated addition of employees, Arksey said that ensuring new hires are fully trained and brought up to speed on how the company functions and operates has been one of the biggest challenges thus far. “As we’ve been hiring people, some of the things that we look at are people’s adaptability, are they quick learners, especially when it comes to working with software and technology,” Arksey said. “We are not looking at people that can solve and handle the challenges that we have just today, that can help us solve the challenges we have tomorrow and beyond.” Arksey said that busHive has been instrumental in helping National Trails keep track of driver credentials and expiring licenses. The driver management tool has also enabled the company to maintain certifications without having any lapse in downtime for drivers. With the influx of new coaches and new business, preventive maintenance (PM) is always a primary concern. With more buses in the fleet, National Trails has continued to prioritize preventative maintenance on all its equipment. All work orders are loaded into busHive, allowing the company to ensure that PM orders process correctly and that inventory is properly maintained. “With the busHive software, we transitioned our techs from doing work orders on paper to doing them on tablets so we could reduce the amount of time that it took for those work orders to get into our system and have quicker visibility to be able to make decisions on equipment,” Arksey said. “Our downtime was reduced, and we were able to better manage, monitor and maintain our preventative maintenance schedules.” Arksey said he and his team feel extremely comfortable utilizing the busHive charter system as National Trails continues to grow, citing the great support network which the company provides. “The busHive team has been great,” Arksey said. “In the many years we have been working with busHive we have not faced any outages. Anytime we have suggestions their team is always receptive to changes and interested in learning about new ideas. It has been a great partnership and experience.”

  For over 50 years the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) has prioritized accessibility and ease of use for its ridership. Serving the Northern Kentucky region, including Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties, TANK has embarked on a transformative journey through the adoption of Avail Technologies’ computer-aided dispatch, automatic vehicle location solution (CAD/AVL). This partnership is part of TANK’s broader strategy to improve service efficiency, enhance communication, and elevate the overall rider experience. By integrating cutting-edge technology, TANK is redefining its operational processes and preparing for a future of increased demand and performance optimization. TANK has been an Avail Technologies customer dating back to 2018 when the agency’s enterprise resource management (ERP) provider was acquired by Avail. Thanks to its long history with the company, when the time came to replace TANK’s previous CAD/AVL solution, the selection process was an easy one. When TANK released an RFP for a new CAD/AVL system, Avail was prepared to not only upgrade the agency’s current ERP but provide a full installation of the CAD/AVL system. “Our previous CAD/AVL system and the equipment was really getting old, and it was just not working for us anymore,” said Lyndi Whiteker, Performance Analyst at TANK. “We were also trying to move from a traditional radio tower communication type system to cellular. That was a big factor in why we got the new system, but our equipment was just really getting old and starting to fail and it was time.” In March of 2023 the agency began the 11-phase process to onboard Avail’s updated CAD/AVL system. Over a year’s time, the solution was programmed onto all 95 of the agency’s fixed-route fleet vehicles and the groundwork was laid for a smooth rollout of the new technology. In addition to the CAD/AVL system, TANK opted to adopt further upgrades including Avail’s voiceover IP (VoIP), the addition of infotainment signs to vehicle interiors, the installation of digital signage at three stations, automatic passenger counters (APCs), and the addition of automated yard management to their fixedroute fleet. The agency also transitioned from an on-premise server to Avail’s cloud platform. Avail’s technology provides transit agencies with a single database for data to flow seamlessly throughout the organization. Business intelligence dashboards report metrics in real time to help improve efficiency, justify funding requests, and demonstrate compliance. Riders are immediately notified of changes, dispatchers know the locations of every bus and driver, incidents are tracked as they occur, and vehicle health monitoring capabilities can predict failures so maintenance can easily work on all vehicle issues before those buses hit the road. According to Avail Technologies project manager, Neal Castles, TANK was looking to solve a few specific challenges they had faced with their previous CAD/AVL system. Issues with reporting data, generating reports, keeping track of vehicles, and an outdated radio tower communication system. “Those were just a few of the challenges that were presented to us,” Castles said. “As we went along through the installation, we were very deliberate about addressing each of those issues.” The Avail onboarding process is a methodical one, with each vehicle undergoing a pre inspection prior to the installation itself followed by an ATP, a rigorous test to ensure that all new features are functioning properly. From the outset, TANK was confident in Avail’s ability to meet its operational needs. One key feature of Avail’s approach is its adaptability, as the system is highly customizable to fit the specific demands of its clients. “What made this partnership special is TANK already had our ERP solution,” said Robert Manaseri, Avail Technologies Vice President of Programs. “We then deployed our CAD/AVL solution. That is the beauty of a uniform platform. Our ERP system is built specifically for transit agencies, and then you add the CAD/AVL, it’s all under one umbrella. It gives our customers all the information they need in one place.” Avail’s myAvail system goes beyond CAD/AVL; it is an Enterprise Transit Management Solution (ETMS) with role-based user interfaces for operations, finance, and administration staff to manage all aspects of a modern transit agency operation. Capabilities include automatic mining and analysis of operational data, configurable performance metrics dashboards, preemptive notification of upcoming issues, as well as onboard, desktop, email and text alerts to avoid operational issues. In an installation or upgrade of this magnitude, Avail first conducts a survey of all the vehicles that will require new hardware. Avail then creates a bill of materials for each vehicle type. From there, Avail’s production team begins ordering components and building vehicle kits, before sending the kits to the agency’s facilities. Avail installers and field engineers arrive to support the installation effort, and Avail conducts on-site training while aiding with the initial vehicle pilots. “They were really thorough,” Whiteker said. “We went through a requirements review in the beginning, and then we moved towards getting the new data in the system. They guided us through all of that, they came on site and helped transition us into each piece of the system, one week at a time.” As part of the project, Avail created an enhanced training plan for TANK. The training plan is aimed at utilizing each component of myAvail to its fullest advantage – from the operator to operations, marketing, customer service, training, and the maintenance department. As part of the advanced training, Avail focused on creating standard operating procedures (SOPs) and implemented a multi-phase learning process, starting with a high-level introduction to the concept for different levels of usage for employees. “Maintenance training was fantastic,” said Bill Hock, TANK Director of Maintenance. “They were on site, the installation team reviewed everything with my team throughout the entire process to make sure that everybody had a thorough understanding of how everything worked. It was a really good process.” Once the process is complete, the agency and Avail conduct a full-fleet rollout. In the case of a large agency like TANK, this rollout can take up to two months to complete. “One thing that we are big on at Read More >