It`s an entirely new approach to fleet management systems. Unitrans Passenger (Pty) Ltd - the national passenger transport focused operation of JSE-listed Unitrans Ltd - has installed Bynx fleet management software to track the life cycle of approximately 30 000 major components inside the 600-strong bus fleet.
It means taking every one of an estimated 50 key technical items that allow a bus to operate efficiently, to within 95% of projected life before failure and replacing these to avoid an on-road breakdown.
It also means increased safety for the vehicle and passengers - safety-critical components are replaced within a greater tolerance of 80%.
What makes this approach unique and innovative? Leon Nelson, Technical Manager at Unitrans Passenger, explains: "Component life monitoring (CLM) is a key objective of our investment in Bynx fleet management software. A maintenance system has to take care of the fleet without relying on human experience as to when costly parts that make up major components must be replaced. Premature replacement of key vehicle parts is too expensive inside the thin margins under which passenger transport operates. A large fleet has a rapid multiplying effect and we are not just looking at historical issues. Unitrans Passenger needed a system to forecast the replacement life cycle of components that can easily attain an in-service distance of 1.5 million kilometres."
Nelson adds further: "It`s all about uptime on the road as buses must not only be reliable but totally operational to ring-fence fixed costs and prevent downtime - breakdowns are perceived as the most negative issue in passenger transport."
`Time is money` is an old clich'e that holds true for passenger transport. Not only must a fleet management system protect the fleet against staff turnover and a shortage of qualified technicians, but it must also provide information that allows maintenance staff to check only those components that are forecast for attention. This means not wasting time on unnecessary items. Bynx software allows Unitrans Passenger to forward schedule maintenance.
And then there is the analysis that is still required. Distribute 24 cost codes among 600 vehicles and 50 major components and there are 720 000 expense items to track - this is a major task for any fleet management system. Every breakdown is tracked and evaluated against key benchmarks such as cost/kilometre, breakdowns/kilometre and kilometres/breakdown. Bynx software also provides easy comparison between various sizes of Unitrans Passenger depots and buses of different manufacture.
Nelson summarises: "Bus life cycles easily exceed 10 years. The comprehensive, real-time features of Bynx fleet management software lets Unitrans Passenger take a step forward into the future of building a scientific bus replacement policy. This is not only good for Unitrans but more importantly for our passengers as well. It has been a progression starting with our Rustenburg depot and that we are building out into the rest of the company. Implementing a big fleet management system such as Bynx is not a `quick-fix` solution and is a constant educational process to change old behaviour and get buy-in on the workshop floor."
There is no doubt that fleet management information flowing from Bynx software will place Unitrans Passenger (Pty) Ltd in charge of a rapidly changing future.
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