We are pleased to share an article about our long-standing customer Frank Reisen, which appeared in the February issue of Öbus:

More Efficient Processes

The telemetric fleet management system "BlueLogico" excels in managing line and coach fleets. Read here about the central role the software now plays in the daily operations of a Lower Austrian bus company.

It was in 1925 when Austrian entrepreneur Wilhelm Böhm launched the first travel and soon thereafter the first coaches for long-distance travel to Vienna. What started back then under the name Frank Bus is now called Frank Reisen and is one of the largest travel and line bus companies in Lower Austria. Petra Wurz-Frank and Christoph Wurz now lead it in the third generation, offering a wide range of mobility services based on a fleet of 50 vehicles.

This includes, in addition to the line bus operation in the Eastern Region Transport Association (VOR), an attractive tourism offer. Specifically, while 40 line buses operate in northern Lower Austria and ten coaches travel across Europe, the company's travel agency organizes cross-border school and day trips, multi-day club trips, catalog trips, individual company outings, sports and wellness trips, airport transfers, and more.

To manage all of this, Frank Reisen currently employs not only 80 employees - including 65 drivers - but also utilizes one of the most innovative fleet management solutions currently available on the market: The BlueLogico system from the Pöttelsdorf-based company TachoEasy. "We decided to enter the modern world of digital fleet management in 2006 - since then, we have added more and more modules to the software and have been involved in almost every step of the system's development," says Christoph Wurz. Today, Frank Reisen works around the clock with the program, using its numerous functions and telemetric capabilities for order processing, route planning, and vehicle technology.

Legal Compliance

BlueLogico primarily supports the company's employees in the error-free perception and documentation of various legal obligations - such as compliance with driving and rest times or the control of driver's licenses and driver cards. The software offers a variety of largely automated routines for the legal recording, readout, and evaluation of data from digital tachographs.

Additionally, the system provides a variety of intelligent functions and features that enable bus and travel operators to optimize numerous processes of daily fleet management organizationally, technically, and cost-effectively. A particularly valuable tool for Christoph Wurz is the driving style evaluation, which, in monthly evaluations, not only reveals which bus drivers frequently give full throttle and brake on which sections of the route but also records many other operating modes. "For example, we were able to uncover that some line buses occasionally idle for up to four hours, which is neither economical nor ecological. We stopped that immediately," says the company's CEO.

Orders Directly to the Cockpit

BlueLogico offers powerful order management, simplifying routine tasks, speeding up many work processes through automated processes, and enabling interaction between dispatcher and driver. At the center of this is the BlueLogico Order Assistant, which supports the dispatcher in creating new orders and assigning them to drivers with drag-and-drop functions. All tours can be automatically imported into the software in real-time or simply created anew in the system.

Knowledge of all current vehicle locations, a central view of all activities, and error-free data transfer are further advantages of BlueLogico's order management. When using Driver Displays in the vehicles, orders can be sent directly to the driver's tablet or smartphone via a secure data connection. If a new destination needs to be reached during the tour, the dispatcher can easily enter it into BlueLogico. The driver's tour is then automatically adjusted, optimizing the planned route immediately through this real-time based route synchronization.

Violation Evaluation

The Violation Evaluation function also has a regulatory effect, supporting fleet managers or entrepreneurs in regularly monitoring drivers and providing the factual basis for discussions about any violations of driving and rest time regulations or the working time law.

TachoEasy specialists recommend that these instructions be documented so that the reduction of violations and misoperations can be traced.

Are Schedules Being Adhered to?

Telemetrically supported functions such as route recording and vehicle tracking are crucial for the company. This way, dispatchers always have a current overview of the locations and movements of all seven-seaters, 78-seaters, or cars in the Frank fleet.

While this allows observation in line traffic to see if buses are on the correct routes and adhere to the VOR timetable, for coach trips, in particular, the route recording data serves as the basis for proper invoicing with clients. For cross-border trips, they also form the basis for the correct calculation of various country-specific VAT rates. "Last but not least, especially these functions give us the opportunity to react quickly to emergencies or contingencies - for example, by providing replacement vehicles. This is an important contribution to customer orientation and enables us to carry out and bill orders even in the event of a breakdown," reports Christoph Wurz.

Technical Monitoring

The use of BlueLogico now extends into the technical monitoring of vehicles at Frank Reisen. Dispatchers can access important engine data of the buses with the system and recognize early on whether or when a maintenance or repair case is pending. In this way, they use the fleet management solution from TachoEasy to ensure the high availability and technical fitness of the entire fleet.

As Christoph Wurz emphasizes, the consistent use of BlueLogico "has an enormous effect on process efficiency." The example of Frank Reisen illustrates that the advantages of telemetrically supported fleet management are no longer used solely by companies in the traditional freight and transport industry. To an increasing extent, operators of vehicle fleets in other sectors are also recognizing the added value of modern fleet management software. Remarkably, while for a long time it was primarily companies with large truck fleets and extensive, cross-border driving areas for which systems like BlueLogico were considered indispensable, today it is increasingly also companies with small car and van fleets that use such solutions. Often it is aspects such as the complexity of business activities, the factor of delivery speed, or the strengthening of regional market presence that provide the impetus for investing in digital fleet management systems.

FULL THROTTLE? BlueLogico's driving style evaluation allows, among other things, to recognize which bus drivers frequently give full throttle and how often they had to brake.

Progress

TachoEasy is constantly working on the further development of BlueLogico.

To do this, the company maintains close contact with many of its customers and regularly inquires about improvement requests. Christoph Wurz of Frank Reisen recently approached the software specialists with the suggestion of creating a way for the fleet management system to be directly connected to payroll and the tourism dispatch program.

"This would be a significant step forward, as we could then close crucial gaps in our processes," says the bus entrepreneur.