SWARCO AVM CHAMPION IN ITALY

SWARCO MIZAR ACKNOWLEDGED AS LEADER FOR AVM SYSTEMS IN ITALY

Associazione Trasporti ASSTRA recognizes role of SWARCO in fleet management

An effective urban mobility policy is one of the main objectives pursued by transport companies in recent years. The continuous increase in the demand for mobility has encouraged the use of a system approach based on new technologies, in which information, management and control of mobility operate in synergy, optimizing the use of infrastructures, vehicles and logistics platforms, in a multimodal perspective.

Intelligent transport systems (ITS), based on the interaction between information technology and telecommunications, make it possible to transform transport into an "integrated system", where traffic flows are distributed in a balanced way among the various modes, for greater efficiency, productivity and above all transport safety.
ITS systems for traffic and mobility management are operating in many Italian cities; moreover, over 80% of Local Public Transport Companies are equipped with systems for tracking and monitoring fleets, aimed at improving the service offer.

ITS reduces travel times, emissions and energy consumption

The benefits of an evolution of ITS systems represent a valid motivation to continue to encourage the development of the phenomenon. Among the benefits that can be found are: reduction of travel time, decrease in the number of accidents, decrease in congestion, reduction of polluting emissions and reduction of energy consumption.
ASSTRA - Associazione Trasporti - is the national association of local public transport companies in Italy, both owned by local and private entities. Established in 2001, ASSTRA counts as members urban and suburban transport companies, which operate buses, trams, subways, cableways, all local railways and lagoon and lake navigation companies.

ASSTRA study assesses Automated Vehicle Management systems

Starting from these facts, ASSTRA has elaborated in recent months an extensive survey on the AVM systems in operation and the related benefits obtained that involved a significant number of member companies. The study was presented at the Conference "ITS IN LOCAL PUBLIC TRANSPORT: AVM and onboard systems", which was held in Rome on 12 December 2018.
The research consists of an initial analysis of the state of the art of the AVM systems and a subsequent in-depth focus that allowed assessing the many business solutions adopted.
The study conducted aims to:

Assess the state of the art of the AVM systems operating in the companies subdividing them from both the point of view of the operations center and of the on-board systems;
Identify the various AVM suppliers as of the tenders conducted and awarded;
Identify strengths and weaknesses of the systems.

The results of the study showed that SWARCO MIZAR is the undisputed leader in the Italian AVM systems, covering with its own systems 33% of the companies that contributed to the study. The study also highlighted the numerous benefits obtained by the companies compared to the introduction of AVM systems in their operations which translate into:

for 50% of companies improved customer satisfaction;
for 45% of companies the optimization of travel times;
for 30% of companies improved business processes.

All this highlights the AVM systems as a fundamental element in support of sustainable mobility management policies and an essential tool to improve management efficiency for local public transport companies.

The next generation in AVM

SWARCO invested in the past years for a completely up-to-date technology based, future-proof and HW agnostic Public Transport Management solution, named NEXT.
NEXT implements Machine-Learning algorithms to recognise the routes and scheduling and it is based on a robust real-time vehicle location technique which combines GPS and dead-reckoning technologies to guarantee high accuracy in all operational conditions. The system makes it easy to have a full view of the fleet status at any time and improve the regularity of bus/tram services by 30%.

NEXT offers many features and is dedicated to a wide range of stakeholders in the Public Transport domain, such as: Transport Companies (Fleet Management, Operations Support and Automatic Fare collection), Public Authorities (Public Transport Priority and Terminal Management), Vehicle Manufacturers (OEM Vehicle Equipment and Surveillance capabilities) as well as final users (Real Time Passenger Information and Eco-driving). Latest developments include "personalised" journey support delivered via mobile devices, special trip guidance services and the predisposal of the solution towards Automated Driving.