June 2021 – Velociti Solutions is cementing its commitment to support bus operators accelerate towards ‘net zero’ – and Oxford Bus Company is the latest to benefit.
The leading transport software supplier has carried out work around electric vehicle (EV) operations for the company, which is part of the Go-Ahead Group. The work will support the operator’s bid for government funding as Oxford prepares to deploy large numbers of electric buses under the government’s ‘ZEBRA’ scheme. Velociti created custom performance scenarios on agreed route groupings and advised on the most operable, cost-effective solution with which they can roll out a fully electric bus fleet across the city. The work will inform Go-Ahead’s wider strategy for decarbonisation, and Omnibus is also advising on the interurban services operated by Thames Travel.
Luke Marion, Finance & Commercial Director of Oxford Bus Company, said: “We’ve had a longstanding partnership with Velociti Solutions and have always highly valued their proactive and positive approach to helping us solve our scheduling challenges. The work they’ve done to support us on the electrification project has been invaluable in helping us understand how we will need to adapt our scheduling practices to deal with new vehicle technologies.
“Velociti have used the feedback from ourselves, and from other operators to feed into the development of some really useful improvements to their tools, and we believe these will keep Velociti at the front of the pack of bus scheduling software for some time to come.”
Peter Crichton, Founder of the Velociti Solutions Omnibus software suite, said: “We’re committed to giving our customers complete visibility over their fleet and operations and delivering accurate information first time.
“Our software has been used to successfully plan for numerous EV operations and limited range vehicles – and naturally we are delighted Oxford Bus Company chose our team to support them in their bid for government funding.”
Kieran Proctor, Velociti Solutions Technical Account Manager who worked on the project, said: “Oxford Bus Company needed scheduling scenarios running to see how they can maximise the total number of electric miles operated, whilst also considering the limited range of these vehicles – so the vehicle workings needed to be spot on. They also wanted to analyse any impact to driver costs that these revisions may cause.
“By producing several realistic scheduling solutions we were able to consider the various cost implications of each. The customer was delighted with the results, and this level of scrutiny has given them the confidence that they have the best possible plan to introduce a fully electric bus fleet to the streets of Oxford.”
Velociti Solutions has worked on a number of decarbonisation projects for customers in the UK and in Europe. National Express UK Bus and Harrogate Bus Company, amongst many others, use Omnibus software suite to plan and manage existing EV operations.
Through active involvement in similar projects and valuable feedback from customers, the Velociti team have been able to design software improvements that make planning EV solutions much easier.
With further enhancements in the pipeline, Mr Crichton said Velociti is committed to giving customers the best solutions for the job.
