The management landscape for public transit is suddenly becoming a lot more complex, with heightened customer expectations coinciding (if not colliding) with tight operating budgets, a wider range of commuting options, and a closer connection between local economic development strategies and demand for urban mobility.
If you operate a transit agency, it’s never been more important to extract the highest possible level of service from every asset in your inventory. For Ruthbea Yesner Clarke of IDC Government Insights, the right asset management software is a cornerstone of the continuing effort to schedule maintenance, process warranty claims, track vehicle performance, support field technicians, and perform all the other day-in, day-out tasks that keep transit vehicles on the road.
The Voice of the Customer Is Changing
In a recent Q&A with Infor titled Transit Technology Trends: Key Opportunities for Local Governments, Yesner Clarke pointed to rapid shifts in customer and stakeholder expectations, with quality of life issues taking center stage. “From time spent in traffic, to access to different modes of transport, to impact on air quality,” she said, “the pressure is mounting to think more holistically about movement in our cities and regions.”
That reality will make it ever more important for transit agencies to manage the wider range of data and digital technologies to which they suddenly have access, while keeping all their physical assets running smoothly.
“Assets that need extensive repairs result in reduced service delivery to residents,” she said. “Assets that break down cause frustrating delays and inconveniences for residents, and assets that are improperly maintained are also more costly in terms of fuel consumption and energy efficiency.”
A Digital Transformation in Four Parts
Yesner Clarke cited mobility, cloud computing, big data and analytics, and social networks as the four technology pillars of the digital transformation sweeping transit asset management.
“Given that transportation itself is mobile, bringing workers directly to assets in the field equipped with software to do their jobs onsite provides yet another layer of efficiency,” she notes. Cloud computing systems “can be excellent options for smaller authorities, as well as for providing broad access to software to all workers, rather than being limited by the cost of per-seat licenses.”
An integrated asset management solution also helps agencies collect the data they need to comply with state-of-repair and other government regulations—and to keep up with new reporting requirements as they emerge.
For a complete picture of the digital transformation in transit management, download your copy of the IDC Government Insights Q&A on Transit Technology Trends: Key Opportunities for Local Governments.
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