RELIANCE MOTOR SERVICES SWITCH TO TICKETER ROAD RESTRICTION ALERTS

Reliance Motor Services has successfully rolled out Ticketer Road Restriction Alerts across its buses, improving safety for customers, drivers and York’s unusual architecture.

“We needed a Road Restriction Alerts system which was easy to tailor to our needs due to the archways and architecture in York. We haven’t seen anything as flexible as this system for operators on the market.”

Chris Thompson, Operations Manager at Reliance Motor Services

The Challenge

Reliance had previously been using a different bridge alerts system across their fleet, but due to the archways and architecture in York, drivers were getting alerts too frequently where they weren’t needed, which caused them to be tuned out or turned off. In order to ensure driver and passenger safety and prevent bridge strikes, it was key to find an alternative solution that could be fine-tuned to the city.

Reliance Motor Services were looking for a simple and tailored solution to alert drivers of hazards which was fit for purpose for the unusual requirements in their operating area. At the heart of this, was the need to ensure driver and passenger safety and prevent bridge strikes. It was key to find a solution that not only had a national database of any potential hazards but one that could be fine-tuned to the city.

The Outcome

Following rollout of the Road Restriction Alerts, when a potential hazard is now spotted in the system, the Ticketer Electronic Ticket Machine (ETM) displays not only the alert to the driver, but the event is also issued to the back office for audit purposes. This allowed the parameters for the alerts to be changed both before the system went live, as well as now being continually tweaked, to keep drivers trusting in the accuracy of the alerts and to constantly making sure the data is up to date and fit for purpose.

"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.