Umbrella City Lines GmbH is not an unknown quantity. As one of the most important partners of FlixBus in Europe, it covers over 25 million kilometers a year and has long since made a name for itself in Germany. At the request of various German transport companies, the subsidiary of the Czech group of companies Umbrella Mobility SE has expanded its business and now also provides services in the areas of local public transport, rail replacement services (SEV) and bus replacement services (BEV). In Germany, Umbrella operates bus routes for Deutsche Bahn in the district of Görlitz, for Hamburger Hochbahn and for Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein, among others. And the company wants to continue to grow.
Umbrella currently coordinates a total of 214 services and over 300 drivers at five German locations - spread across 98 vehicles. The data volumes and their dependencies have increased with every order and will become more complex as the company continues to grow.
We were increasingly reaching the limits of our old personnel scheduling system, and we set out to find a solution that is consistently geared towards demand and resources on the one hand and offers our employees maximum flexibility on the other.
Benefit 1
Existential planning for the company and employees
While rough planning across all locations is carried out at the Hamburg headquarters, employees on site are responsible for detailed scheduling. Against this background, the fact that the old system did not have a VDV interface weighed increasingly heavily, which meant that vehicle rotations and last-minute changes had to be manually transferred to the scheduling system. This procedure was very time-consuming and labor-intensive. Optimized long-term service planning was not possible in view of the increasingly complex structures.
However, predictability is vital for our employees and therefore for us as a transport company. If we can't offer this, sooner or later we will lose valuable specialists.
It is therefore not only challenging for Umbrella to manage the different locations, including their own company agreements and billing requirements. It is also particularly important to take into account the different needs of all drivers.
Benefit 2
Flexible shift rhythms lead to more dynamics
After a brief market screening, Umbrella opted for the Profahr personnel scheduling system, which was implemented and productive at all four locations after just six months. It provides Umbrella with both the desired long-term planning and a high degree of flexibility. Profahr automatically receives all circulation and change data via the VDV standard interface. On this basis and after comparing the stored shift situation, it creates the duty rosters and takes into account all legal regulations, company agreements and collective agreements and flexibly supports the billing forms specified by the client. According to Meske, the system enables Umbrella to react quickly to changes of all kinds. This offers enormous planning security. In addition, drivers can now flexibly choose from up to seven location-specific shift rhythms, which leads to a high level of employee satisfaction.
Benefit 3
Improved documentation quality,as starting work is a click away
The integrated operational information and communication solution from Profahr is also indispensable for Umbrella. Using an internet-enabled device, such as a smartphone or tablet PC, employees can access the duty programs and log in to work. Whereas in the past, employees used to pick up the phone or write short messages back and forth, our dispatchers can now see immediately where someone is missing and needs to be rescheduled quickly,” explains Meske.
This also has a positive impact on the quality of documentation. In the past, dispatchers had to manually enter information received from drivers on the phone or via other channels into the system. This was often only possible after they had searched for replacements or rescheduled under great time pressure. Entering the relevant information was therefore usually delayed, prone to errors and often incomplete. Today, the relevant data ends up in Profahr automatically and fully documented thanks to the integrated communication module.
Benefit 4
View and swap services
The mobile solution is popular with the driving service because everyone can view their duty rosters regardless of time and place and swap journeys flexibly and according to transparent criteria via the integrated duty swap exchange. To do this, the module uses all the relevant information stored in the personnel scheduling system for the employees, such as qualifications, duty and vacation schedules. Employees can then swap a shift that they have agreed with a colleague directly or post it as a swap request using the search/offer function.
If the system does not detect any violations during the plausibility check, employees can save the swap proposal and forward it to the swap partner and the scheduler for approval. Once the dispatcher has given their approval, the module forwards all relevant information to the higher-level system, which adjusts the duty rosters on this basis.
With the search/offer function, an employee enters a shift swap request in the exchange, which a colleague can then accept flexibly. The next steps are the same as for a direct swap. According to Axel Meske, the swap exchange has been well received by both the driving service and the dispatchers and makes work even easier and provides planning flexibility.
Summary
Hardly any travel or staff absences due to the use of the software
Profahr provides Umbrella with a standardized personnel scheduling system for all locations, which enables the company to manage a high level of planning complexity. This is reflected, among other things, in the fast and transparent payroll accounting and the fact that there are hardly any lost trips or staff absences. According to Axel Meske, Head of Operations Planning, the company benefits in particular from the creation of binding and long-term timetables. In conjunction with the mobile operations and communication solution, the system ensures a noticeably high level of employee satisfaction, thus reducing the risk of staff turnover and at the same time making us more attractive as an employer, says Meske.
Further expansion plans have therefore long been on the company's agenda, including the introduction of a module for automatic driving license verification.
Responsibly on a growth course
With its new, transport service-related personnel scheduling system, including a mobile communication solution, Umbrella City Lines is clearly also ideally equipped for growth on the IT side. It enables the company to meet all the legal, operational and collective bargaining requirements of its various clients as well as the demands of a modern, responsible employer for its employees.