Optibus and Stratio Partner to Solve Fleet Maintenance Challenges in Public Transportation

Twenty five to 70 percent of maintenance issues could be prevented or handled in a more cost-effective way if used predictive maintenance technology early on, according to Stratio’s research.

Images courtesy of Optibus

Optibus, a leading software platform for planning, operating, and optimizing public transportation, is partnering with Stratio, a leading provider of predictive maintenance for transport operators, to solve major operational and vehicle maintenance challenges in the public transportation industry using artificial intelligence.

The partnership marks the first joint effort between a predictive maintenance company and a planning and operations platform.

In the public transport industry, vehicle maintenance is often planned unnecessarily or too late, after failures occur or when components have suffered too much wear and tear. This reactive maintenance approach can negatively affect transport operators’ bottom line. In the UK, a proof of concept study by Stratio estimated that up to 25 percent of maintenance issues across all systems could be prevented or handled in a more cost-effective way if operators had the technology to predict and mitigate those issues early on. For specific vehicle systems, the estimated percentage of avoidable failures may be as high as 70 percent. 

The Optibus-Stratio partnership accelerates the integration of historical data, artificial intelligence, and vehicle health monitoring in order to offer predictive maintenance solutions that forecast vehicle needs with greater precision and alert users in advance about when a vehicle may break down or require repair.

Unplanned downtime, emergency repairs, and breakdowns negatively impact drivers, passengers, and operators’ 

By reducing unplanned downtime and maintenance costs and by extending the vehicle and asset life cycle, operators can save on the cost of emergency repairs, avoid compliance fines, and improve maintenance productivity. The partnership is a victory for public transportation operators looking to make more data-driven decisions and add another critical layer to scenario planning and budgeting. It is also a win for drivers and passengers, who will see fewer delays due to maintenance issues.  

“Optibus is excited to partner with Stratio to create more efficient public transportation networks by adding another critical layer of insights to the planning phases,” said Amos Haggiag, Optibus CEO and co-founder. “This is a significant step forward in enabling smarter decision-making and building the most comprehensive, end-to-end solution for public transportation operations.”

“Stratio is looking forward to collaborating with Optibus to achieve our common objective of increasing the adoption of public transportation, which is a critical move towards a more sustainable future,” said Ricardo Margalho, Stratio’s CEO and co-founder. “For passengers, the reliability of public transportation is a crucial factor in determining whether or not to use it. By integrating Stratio’s complete visibility over the vehicle’s condition with Optibus’ planning capabilities, we are enabling transport operators to make their service more reliable and, therefore, more attractive.”

Stratio’s predictive maintenance solution is trusted by some of the world’s largest transport operators, including Keolis, RATP, Transdev, Ford, Arriva, Go-Ahead, and more. Optibus’ software is used to plan public transportation for over 3 billion annual passengers in 2,000 cities across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

Abigail Levner is head of public relations and communications at Optibus. Visit www.optibus.com for more information.