Scottish bus operator Parks of Hamilton has deployed Optibus’ planning, scheduling, rostering, and operations software, with the aim of increasing the efficiency of its business and improve driver retention.
From the main depot outside Glasgow, Parks of Hamilton operates National Express routes, private coach services, and city-to-city express services that connect Edinburgh and Glasgow with Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, and Inverness.
The family-owned business has been in operation for over 40 years and has always used manual planning and scheduling processes. The company said it began researching how to upgrade those methods to boost efficiency across the business.
“We have been looking at introducing this kind of software for some time to replace our manual processes,” said Graeme Hoggan, operations manager for Parks of Hamilton.
“Optibus was the only solution that was the right fit for us. Having a software that is native to the cloud, versus simply hosted on it or being server-based, was a key factor for us. The software’s ability to provide visibility into our efficiency will have huge benefits for us, especially given the scale of the challenges we face as an industry.”
Optibus replaces Parks of Hamilton’s manual processes with software infrastructure that catapults the business to unprecedented levels of service and cost efficiency. Leveraging Optibus’ optimisation algorithms and cloud computing, Parks of Hamilton can now eliminate manual errors, increase their visibility into business analytics such as costs, and optimise crew and vehicle scheduling, relief vehicles, rostering, and more.
According to the company, the software platform will play a strategic role in retaining drivers using ‘lifestyle rostering’ that improves work shifts.
“We are delighted to welcome Parks of Hamilton to the Optibus family and further expand our presence in Scotland. We feel privileged that Parks of Hamilton have chosen Optibus as their first software solution in their journey towards digitalisation and look forward to a fruitful partnership with them over the coming years,” added Adam Quieros, Optibus regional director for UK and Ireland.
