We plan your future

The introduction of new transport systems requires a holistic assessment and a step-by-step approach. And, above all, a great deal of expertise about the performance and possible applications of individual modes of transport - not to mention the costs. Against this background, the integration of the individual components, taking into account their strengths and weaknesses, is of great importance. Traditional compartmentalised thinking is being replaced by integrated and flexible solutions.

When it comes to technical systems, innovations in planning and supporting operations, managing a depot or even electronic fare management are always associated with adjustments within the company.

Structures and procedures must be adapted or new processes defined and introduced in order to achieve optimum efficiency.

Even before a system is introduced, we work with you in the design phase to develop the necessary changes so that these systems can maximise their efficiency. We then support you during the implementation phase.

Markets and their requirements are often structured differently abroad than in Germany. In dynamically growing countries in particular, there is usually completely different potential - especially in the development of new, ecologically orientated urban districts. With our international experience, we are also a partner in the development of holistic concepts here.

Know-how

We enable you to know how your operations are running and how your resources are being utilised.

Today, computer-aided operations control systems (RBL / ITCS) form the central IT system of many transport companies for controlling operations, monitoring them in real time and providing passenger information.

Their functionality and complexity vary widely depending on the size of the transport company and its requirements.

An RBL-Light is essentially aimed at the fully automatic determination of information about the current location of individual vehicles in order to derive real-time information for passengers.

A complex ITCS also offers, for example, the active influencing of operations through dispatching measures such as turnaround instructions, restraint measures, booster journeys, etc.. Measures can be initiated fully automatically or the system can support the dispatcher in the interactive selection of the best possible solution.

Designed as a multi-client capable system, an RBL / ITCS can process the data of several transport companies or even several operating modes of a company, e.g. tram and bus operation, without influencing each other and securely protected against false insights.

We have been advising transport companies and transport associations for many years on the design, procurement and introduction of these operations control systems.

Under our supervision, more than 200 systems have been successfully installed at companies and transport associations in Germany and abroad.

These include RBL-Light systems, primarily for rural areas, but also systems for transport companies in large cities that transport more than 1 million passengers a day with more than a thousand vehicles controlled via 20 control centre workstations,

You too can rely on our experience in

• conceptualisation, tendering and implementation, as well as
• financing and subsidy advice and in the
• migration and system modernisation.

Smooth operation

Daily operation shows what your system can do - and how much it costs! This makes it all the more important for you to carefully safeguard all important decisions in advance. This is because there are many parameters in operations planning that can have a lasting impact on the profitability of your transport services and therefore your company.

You cannot afford bottlenecks on the one hand and idle times on the other. We determine key figures on speeds, journey times and connections that you can count on - and make suggestions for demand, timings and rotations. This puts you ahead of the competition and tenders on the road and rail.

Would you like to expand or optimise your services and adapt your operations accordingly? We work with your company's employees to develop appropriate solutions.

We provide you with analyses for the correct evaluation, point out alternatives and accompany the implementation process.

Posting timetables was yesterday

Today, passengers expect up-to-date information about when their bus will actually arrive, if they will make their connection when changing buses and - if things go badly - why delays or cancellations occur.

Much of this information is automatically available in an operations control and monitoring system with an RBL.

With dynamic display systems at stops, monitors in vehicles, real-time information systems on the internet and apps for personal smartphones, this information can be displayed to passengers or made available for individual retrieval.

This requires careful planning of the relevant passenger information systems, their data flows, data supply and data storage.

External systems must be integrated via standardised interfaces and, last but not least, a presentation that meets the needs and expectations of passengers must be developed.

We work with you to develop a consistent information concept for your passengers with

• overview displays for central stops and bus stations
• dynamic bus stop displays
• information monitors in the vehicles
• Internet information
• Apps for personalised information during the journey

We support you in selecting the most suitable technologies, procuring and installing the appropriate display systems and ensuring the data supply.

Money isn't everything, but without money everything is nothing

With shrinking public budgets and increasing competition, the direct income of a transport company is becoming more and more important in covering overall costs.

The "Deutschlandticket" or cashless sales are also putting pressure on sales channels and revenue.

Efficient and modern ticket sales and fare management are therefore becoming increasingly important for the sustainability of a company.

As a consequence, high, sometimes contradictory demands are being placed on sales and sales systems, such as

• they must provide the entire complex range of fares and products, but should be as easy as possible for passengers to use
• they should offer personal contact persons for occasional users, but on the other hand, the operation of the service must not be influenced, for example, by driver sales
• they should enable modern cashless and mobile payment methods, but also ensure amortisation of the high costs, e.g. for vending machines, over a long period of use

And last but not least, the costs of the various sales channels must be considered in order to realise the most cost-effective ticket sales possible.

Regardless of whether you

• modernise a conventional sales system and procure new ticket vending machines, advance and driver sales systems or a background sales system,
• expanding your sales system with a new sales channel, for example introducing a web shop or integrating sales via mobile devices
• or, for example, planning the introduction of an electronic ticketing system with automatic fare calculation and maximum customer convenience,

We support and advise you in all phases of the process, from conceptualisation and profitability analysis to procurement and successful system implementation.

The right balance

Your vehicles provide important impulses in local and regional transport. Timeless or polarising design, air conditioning, accessibility, comfort and the introduction of mobile information services are not optional, but mandatory. However, much of this leads to higher weight and energy consumption. We help you to keep the balance in this dilemma.

But it's not just about the vehicle alone: new procurements must fit seamlessly into the existing system or contribute to its optimisation - for example by making optimum use of the envelope, clearance and transport capacity. This is where you benefit from our comprehensive experience and market expertise.

When procuring a vehicle, it is just as important to consider life cycle costs as it is to assess reliability, availability, ease of maintenance and safety (RAMS). We implement these and other approaches pragmatically and facilitate the definition of requirements and the monitoring of their implementation. In doing so, we follow the "as much as necessary, as little as possible" approach.

Electromobility also has a high priority at BLIC because the new technology means that the degree of networking between the vehicles and the background systems is much higher than was previously the case with the conventional combustion engine principle. We take these dependencies into account and work with you to develop the necessary requirements, designs and structures to ensure your long-term success.

Information needs communication

If an operations control system is to map the current situation of the vehicles, it requires secure data communication throughout the entire operating area and short update cycles.

If a vehicle computer is to be supplied with new data, this must take place via data communication with high data rates, e.g. public mobile radio, DMR, TETRA, TETRAPOL or WIFI.

If a driver wants to contact the control centre in exceptional situations, for example, he needs secure and undisturbed voice communication.

In the past, each transport company operated its own analogue radio network with different limitations in terms of coverage, quality and data rate.

Today, a wide variety of communication systems are available in accordance with different standards (TETRA, Tetrapol, DMR, GSM/GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, LTE, WIFI, DSRC and others) with a very broad performance spectrum. They can either be realised as company-owned systems (TETRA, Tetrapol, DMR, WIFI, DSRC) or are available as public mobile radio networks that are operated by commercial providers and used by transport companies.

We analyse your requirements in detail and work with you to find the optimum technical and economic solution for the various tasks. Based on this, we advise and support you in the procurement and introduction of your own system or in the selection of a provider and the agreements for a corresponding service contract.

Politicians, public authorities and operators of city and regional bus fleets are facing a number of challenges as part of the transport transition. One goal is to introduce alternative drive technologies in bus transport across the board in order to enable emission-free public transport and independence from fossil fuels. In particular, the Clean Vehicle Directive (CVD) and the Clean Vehicles Procurement Act require public authorities and bus operators to act quickly and develop electrification strategies.
However, the multitude of requirements presents all those involved with major, new and complex challenges and requires thorough strategic planning.

BLIC supports you throughout the entire process: we transform your ideas and requirements into electromobility concepts, we analyze your framework conditions and requirements and make proposals for the strategic introduction of electromobility. We then analyze the feasibility, discuss the possible courses of action with you and support you until the first zero-emission drives are introduced.

The introduction of buses with alternative drive systems poses new challenges for politicians, public authorities and operators of city and regional bus fleets. Studies often have to be carried out to check the feasibility and economic viability. For years, BLIC has been preparing feasibility studies for transport companies and public authorities on the introduction of alternative drive systems in bus transport. We have looked at both regional and urban transport throughout Germany. As part of the feasibility studies, we make recommendations for the choice of drive technologies, always taking into account and comprehensively analyzing your local requirements (topography, infrastructure, route network, etc.). We present you with the strengths and weaknesses of the individual drive technologies, dimension the necessary charging infrastructure and consider necessary measures at the depot. We always consider the financial implications, the economic viability of the project and ecological effects and present these in a way that is easy to understand and adapted to your bus routes.

Before buses with alternative drive systems roll into the depot, numerous adjustments need to be made to the infrastructure: the workshop needs to be converted, the charging/fueling infrastructure needs to be calculated and located and operational and organizational processes at the depot need to be optimized and adapted. In addition, new IT systems (depot management system, charging load management system) must be strategically planned. Numerous other aspects, from staff training to fire protection and cost optimization, must also always be considered. BLIC provides support in this process, analyzes your existing infrastructure and develops recommendations for adjustments and optimization in the context of the introduction of buses with alternative drive systems.

With your vehicles, you set important impulses in local and regional transportation. Timeless or polarizing design, air conditioning, accessibility, comfort and the introduction of mobile information services are not optional, but mandatory. However, much of this leads to higher weight and energy consumption. We help you to keep the balance in this dichotomy.

But it's not just about the vehicle alone: new procurements must fit seamlessly into the existing system or contribute to its optimization - for example by making optimum use of the envelope, clearance and transport capacity. This is where you benefit from our comprehensive experience and market knowledge.

When procuring a vehicle, it is just as important to consider life cycle costs as it is to assess reliability, availability, ease of maintenance and safety (RAMS). We implement these and other approaches pragmatically and facilitate the definition of requirements and the monitoring of their implementation. Our approach here is “as much as necessary, as little as possible”.

Electromobility also has a high priority at BLIC because the new technology means that the degree of networking between the vehicles and the background systems is much higher than was previously the case with the conventional combustion engine principle. We take these dependencies into account and work with you to develop the necessary requirements, designs and structures to ensure your long-term success.

There are numerous supporting IT systems on the market for optimal operational control of an electric bus fleet, above all depot management systems and charging load management systems. Depot management systems control all operational processes in the depot between entering the site and exiting. Charging load management systems optimize the charging of vehicles depending on the circulation data, energy prices and the available charging infrastructure. In numerous projects, we support transport companies in Germany and abroad in the design, procurement and implementation of such systems.

We are therefore very familiar with the systems available on the market and are aware of their advantages and disadvantages. We analyze the local requirements, draw up a specification sheet and, if desired, all other tender documents and accompany the project through the award of the contract to the introduction of the system at your site. This allows you to optimally manage your e-bus operation.