Esteban de Kelety, Head of Corporate Systems at Moventia.

Mobility is an essential factor in tackling the world’s environmental, social and economic challenges, both now and in the future. Fully conscious of that fact, business at Moventis is based on four fundamental pillars: service excellence; operational safety and sustainability; guaranteeing a sound long-term financial position; and, of course, ensuring the wellbeing of all 5,800 professionals who make up the team.

At the core of this vision lies a cross-cutting strategy with a firm commitment to quality and dedicated to offering innovative solutions that can guarantee connected, safe and sustainable mobility for all. These solutions are split into five separate areas: (1) Operational planning, control and oversight; (2) Passenger and employee safety; (3) Data collection (Prediction and AI) for the development of new mobility models; (4) Commercial management optimisation; and (5) Public participation in planning.

1. Operational planning, control and oversight:

The first area is focused on streamlining the processes tied to designing and implementing business operations at a company that carries 215 million passengers a year.

One of the most outstanding aspects in this area is the implementation of software that enables real-time management of and interaction with every facet of company operations. This ensures a smooth and consistent flow of information. The program (called ERP ZEUS) enables connectivity and data transfer between all key parts of the system, such as buses, depots, regular and repeated routes, the validation and sales system (VSS), the commercial CRM, traffic and fleet management, human resources, finance and the management of tracking statistics and indicators at numerous levels within the organisation.

Moventis has implemented a departure control system that was once managed manually on paper but is now fully digital. This digital system allows drivers to register their arrival at the depot via an app on their own mobile telephones. This notifies the Traffic Department of their presence at the depot, thereby expediting management of available drivers to start the service in real time. This improvement ensures that all services run on time.

The Digital Bus system is another improvement and is an app designed to inform drivers about their worksheet. This system also digitally records all operational data, such as service start and finish times, the stops made along the way, the kilometres travelled, dispatch incidents, fares collected, costs and fault reports. It also provides alerts on any issue that might impact operations.

Digital Bus seeks to create an ecosystem of tools that can improve driver efficiency and, by extension, help to boost the safety and reliability of our transport service.

2. Passenger and employee safety:

Safety comes first at Moventis. We understand that every journey made using our services should be safe and reliable. For that reason, we have implemented rigorous safety standards that include the constant maintenance and upgrade of our fleet, the incorporation of new safety devices on our vehicles and lifelong training for our drivers.

Incorporation of an advanced obstacle detection system based on cameras fitted to the front and rear of our buses is particularly noteworthy. This system provides extra help to drivers by acting as a ‘tireless eye’ that constantly watches the vehicle perimeter to identify potentially dangerous situations. It provides visual and acoustic signals to help the driver avoid or reduce the seriousness of a collision.

We have also implemented a fatigue warning system that detects and prevents driver distractions caused by fatigue or tiredness. It uses a camera pointed at the driver’s face to watch blinking, eye movement and head movement to detect unusual activity that could lead to risky situations

We recently incorporated new simulators for driver training purposes, which we call DriveSim. Developed by the Castile-Leon Technology Institute (ITCL) and Arisoft, these simulators are fully flexible and can be configured in numerous ways, allowing drivers to practice driving in realistic scenarios as if they were at the wheel of a real vehicle.

These initiatives reflect our commitment to safety and excellence in the transport service we provide.

3. Data collection and artificial intelligence (AI) for the development of mobility models:

The application of innovations based on data prediction and AI at a mobility company such as Moventis not only improves operational efficiency but also provides a safer, simpler and more intuitive experience for users while also boosting sustainability and competitiveness in the market. These technologies are also essential for being able to tackle future challenges in the mobility sector.

Monitoring and data analysis is one of the most important parts of this process. After collecting all the information from daily operations in real time, this asset becomes fundamental for raising productivity and boosting competitiveness in the market. Moventis uses a business intelligence platform to periodically gather, analyse and visualise data from various sources stored in the cloud in order to extract useful knowledge and improve medium- and long-term decision-making.

In this regard, Moventis views the use of data as a strategic asset, promoting a data-driven culture that facilitates information availability, data democratisation, faster analysis and information standardisation based on the single source of truth principle. The company strives to ensure that operational architectures and models can reduce the time spent by executives and analysts on preparing and processing information in order to spend that time on decision-making.

Once this information has been stored, the next step consists of using it to make predictions with artificial intelligence, such as bus occupancy levels. Moventis uses technology based on deep learning to know bus occupancy levels in the short and medium term, autonomously learning passenger demand patterns and predicting the future occupancy of vehicles based on data gathered in the past. This model also considers specific dates, weather conditions and special events. This was a pioneering system in Spain and began to be tested in Barcelona during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another project currently being developed uses the CCTV and artificial intelligence systems installed on our buses (a facial recognition system is applied that anonymises people’s faces. By using these images in an anonymous and encrypted fashion, an origin-destination matrix can be created that can help define route models and efficiently adapt supply to the demand).

4. Optimisation of commercial management:

The Moventis strategy is not only focused on internal operations but also seeks to improve the passenger experience and thereby increase passenger numbers. In this regard, it is worth noting the implementation of an embedded sales system. For increased passenger convenience, Moventis has already implemented a ticket booking system on the Sarfa (Girona and Costa Brava) sales platform, as well as throughout the new project in Saudi Arabia, that lets passengers book tickets in advance via the online Moventis channels. At the same time, a system has been developed that centralises and monitors information from all sales in real time, thereby preventing potential overbooking situations and improving capacity management.

This development not only improves passenger comfort but also streamlines operational management by Moventis, ensuring a smoother and more satisfactory travel experience for all users of the service.

5. Public participation in planning:

Including the community in planning activities is essential to a successful public transport service. The company therefore collects comments in real time through active listening, letting passengers share their congratulations, needs and suggestions.

This feedback helps us make constant adjustments to planning activities, guaranteeing a service that is more in line with public expectations.

In short, the operational transformation in public transport is focused on strategic planning, operational control in real time and efficient oversight. Those companies that adopt these practices not only improve internal efficiency but also offer a service that is more adapted and focused on the changing needs of their community. This evolution not only improves the passenger experience but also lays the foundations for a more agile, efficient and people-focused public transport service.