For operators who require occasional complex crew scheduling, but not enough to justify investing in suitable software, Omnibus offers a scheduling consultancy service – and one satisfied user, Grahame Wernham, Bus Services Manager at Quality Line of Epsom, describes it as “a godsend”.
“Trying to produce schedules by hand is a tedious job,” he says with the resigned tone of a man who knows what he’s talking about. “Using the consultancy service provided by Omnibus simply makes life so much easier.”
Quality Line is the bus operating division of respected coach operator Epsom Coaches, and it has in recent years expanded its operations on contracts for Transport for London. It currently has 50 buses on London tenders, and that number rises by 10 this summer when the company takes over two new contracts, which will see Quality Line running double-decker's for the first time. “We produce the timetables and send them to Omnibus,” Grahame explains, “and within days they provide us with duty schedules. It’s a very good system. We have to send the schedules electronically to TfL when we are submitting a tender, and this saves us a lot of time.”
The Omnibus schedules consultancy service was set up with businesses like Quality Line in mind. “Preparing crew schedules is what most people find time-consuming,” says Richard Yeo of Omnibus. “It is a specialised skill, and with drivers’ wages representing a significant percentage of bus operators’ costs, it’s important that crew schedules are both efficient and realistic – as well as meeting the needs of drivers’ hours legislation.” “We weighed up our options very carefully,”
Grahame Wernham concludes, “and decided that buying in the services of Omnibus when we needed them was the most beneficial approach to scheduling for our business.”
