30 Critical Comms - Jan/Feb 2017 www.CriticalComms.com.au

ComfortDelGro Cabcharge (CDC) is one of the largestprivatebusoperatorsinAustralia,withafleetof1900vehiclescoveringtheHunterValley,Sydney,Canberra,MelbourneandBallarat.Followingtheopeningofanewoperationsandcustomercentre(OCC)inSydney,CDC

requiredanewcommunicationsinfrastructurethatwouldenhancecustomerexperience,improvesecurityonbusesandcreatefurtherefficiencies in service delivery.

ThatsolutionwastheOrionNetwork,Australia’s largestdigitalcommercialtwo-wayradioplatform,poweredbyMotorolaSolutions’MOTOTRBOConnectPlusDMRtechnology.ThenetworkfacilitatesintegrateddigitalvoiceanddatacommunicationsbetweentheOCC,depots and drivers. The upgrade also included MOTOTRBO two-wayradiosandTRBOnet,afleetmanagementapplicationdesignedspecifically to support dispatch centre operations, with direct ac-cess to theOrionNetworkviaMotorolaSolutionsXRT9000voiceand data gateways.

Thesolutionhasprovidedarangeofbenefitsandimprovementsfor the organisation.

Improved driver safety.Installationofacustomduressfunctionenablesdriverstocall forhelpand instigatesanautomatedemail

broadcast (which includes the bus location map) to a responsegroup. Full voice recording functionality enhances the emergencyresponse,withtheability forOCCoperatorstoopenan individualradio microphone and listen to what is occurring. The OCC nowhascontinuousvisibilityofallvehiclesoncethey leavethedepot,and drivers can instigate an emergency response via text, emailorvoicecommand.Thesystemextends interstate to includeMel-bourne,BallaratandGeelong,sothatevensmallweekendservicesinruralVictoriacanbemonitored,greatlyimprovingdriversafety.

Better communication. Multiple talk paths provide flexible,rapid communication options to OCC operators, drivers, depots,supervisorsandmechanics.Street-levelnetworkcoverageacrosschallenging CBD environments, and voice clarity, have improved.Automated textmessaginghassignificantly improvedcommunica-tionefficiencybetweendriversandtheOCC,reducinglagtimefordriversrequiringassistance.Establishmentofpredefinedvoiceandtextmessagesenablesdriverstoprovidereal-timestatusnotifica-tionsto theOCC including ‘bus full’ or ‘behindschedule’updates.

Enhanced customer service. Buses can be re-routed basedon traffic status via an automated control centre message. Directvisibility of bus location, speed and status enables proactive

ComfortDelGro Cabcharge has made a significant investment in digital voice and data infrastructure toensure better safety and operational efficiencies.

FLEETCOMMS

Jan/Feb 2017 - Critical Comms 31www.CriticalComms.com.au

Images courtesy CDC

SOFTWAREANDAVL

managementof services, anddramatic improvements in responsetime have been reported through the ability to provide real-timeinformation to customers seeking service updates.

Efficiency gains.Theabilitytoremotelyreprogramandupgraderadioterminalsoftwarereducesdowntimeandeliminatestheneedto returnvehicles to the workshop for system updates.

Reporting capability. Automation of critical data collectionsupports the reporting requirements of Sydney Metropolitan BusService Contracts (SMBSC). CDC can now measure performanceagainstnewbenchmarksestablishedbySMBSC,andincompliancewiththestandardsoftheTransportforNSWCustomerCommitmentCharter. Geofences enable recording of bus arrival and departuretimes, allowing detailed reporting of bus activities.

Scalability for events.Asanexampleofthesystem’sflexibility,CDC provided buses for the shuttle service for the 2016 AvalonAirshow,duringwhichtheCDCradioswereswitchedtoaneventchannel andmadeavailable to allmarshals, therebyensuring thatall buses fromvarious depots could communicate seamlessly.

Fixed communication costs.Certaintyisprovidedforbudgetingforfutureoperations—withnoadditionalchargesforvariabletalktimes or volume of traffic.

Future capacity. Future features include informing customersof changes to services via text message and onboard displays/announcements.

The partnership with Mastercom went very well, according toNicholas Yap, deputy CEO of CDC.

“Wesetdownearlywhatwewantedandfoundwehadasharedvision of and similar passion about what communications shouldbe like in the public transport space,” said Yap. “And we’re veryhappy. Mastercom delivered on the outcome, which was cuttingedge initially, and the solution has capacity for the long term.”

“This partnership was critical to the success of the project,”said Hamish Duff, managing director at Mastercom and directorof the Orion Network. “The Mastercom team worked closely withCDC operations to understand how the business issues faced byCDC every day could be best handled by the integrated digitalcommunications network.

“Government policy is aimed at increasing public transportpatronage,soimprovedservicedeliveryandcustomersatisfactionarecriticaltothesuccessoflong-termtransportplanning.Wearenow working with the CDC team as part of the next-generationDMR transport solution using Capacity Max technology. This willbringnewtechnologyplatformsthatwillallowCDCtomeetfurtherrising public transport demands.”

“WE SET DOWN EARLY WHAT WE WANTED

AND FOUND WE HAD A SHARED VISION

OF AND SIMILAR PASSION ABOUT WHAT

COMMUNICATIONS SHOULD BE LIKE IN

THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SPACE.” —

NICHOLAS YAP, CDC