Established in the mid eighties as the Birmingham Coach Company, Diamond Bushas grown to be one of the largest bus companies in the area, running in excess of 200 vehicles. However, the need to develop robust operations has grown with the company. “There was an urgent need to improve IT based planning, scheduling and management reports”, says Operations Director, Nigel Eggleton.

As a result, in the second quarter of 2007, Diamond Bus purchased OmniTIMES, OmniBASE, CrewPLAN and OmniROTA. “I had personal experience of Omnibus software elsewhere and knew it was a tried and tested solution that would fit in well” said Nigel.

OmniTIMES has been used to rework, develop and optimise timetables, updating them from the previous systems and combining them into a consistent database. This information was then run through OmniBASE to schedule the workload, and CrewPLAN to create effective duties. Finally, OmniROTA completes the workings to piece the schedule and driver duties together. “We have already produced a number of timetables, schedules and rotas far more quickly than would have been possible using the previous system.”

Diamond Bus supplemented the installation and training of the software with Omnibus Consultancy Services; “Following the initial installation of the Omnibus software, there was an urgent need to produce schedules and rotas for service changes that were immediately required. We asked Omnibus to assist us with this process, enabling us to meet tight deadlines whilst taking some of the pressure off our own staff at what was a very busy time.

By being able to complete the installation and consultancy to a tight timescale, Diamond Bus were able to reap the benefits immediately." Nigel concludes, “In the future it will enable us to respond more quickly to changes, adapting our services to meet customer demand. And coupled to this, we have improved statistical analysis and the ability to provide data for other systems.”