ViriCiti reveals platform for mixed bus fleets

The telematics specialist ViriCiti has revealed a monitoring system for operators of mixed bus fleets. “Mixed Fleet” integrates all types of buses (electric, hybrid, hydrogen and diesel) and their energy infrastructure into one platform. The first deployment will start in October.

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ViriCiti will then start integrating the new system at QBuzz Netherlands. The company’s fleet, which jointly developed the system with ViriCiti, consists of a total of 430 diesel, electric and hydrogen-powered buses.

According to ViriCiti, it is the market leader in monitoring and fleet systems for purely electric buses in Europe and North America and currently has 200 bus operators among its customers. So far, however, very few operators have converted their entire fleets to electric drives. For this reason, the company has now also opened its platform to conventional buses and hybrid vehicles in an enhanced version. This will make it easier for operators to manage the different types of drive and facilitate the transition to pure electric operation.

In the platform described by the developer as a complete solution, bus operators can use vehicles from up to six manufacturers. The partner QBuzz uses buses from about six manufacturers, plus chargers from two different suppliers. The vehicles, (hydrogen) filling stations, as well as line and depot charging systems, are to be integrated into the online system. With the real-time data from vehicle deployment, the insights into maintenance and the recorded processes as well as driving profiles, the changeover to other drives will be easier and more precisely planned. “With the mixed fleet solution, we now have a complete overview of our entire fleet – in one dashboard,” says QBuzz CEO Gerrit Spijksma. “We believe that this has the potential to really accelerate our transition to an emission-free fleet.”

Mixed Fleet will be officially presented at Busworld from 18 to 23 October in Brussels.

Update 07 September 2020: ViriCiti has announced another major client: The Dutch transport company RET (Rotterdamse Elektrische Tram) now monitors 198 buses and 45 charging stations with the “Mixed Fleet” telematics system. The Rotterdam transport company recently purchased 55 electric buses and 103 hybrid buses in the Randstad region and plans to provide completely emission-free local transport by 2030.

“There were still a lot of unknowns with managing electric buses. ViriCiti enables us to gather data for analysis to improve processes in the future,” says Eric Lensink, program and project manager at RET, “Real-time bus monitoring is another important feature for us. It gives us great visibility, it’s like our eyes”.

sustainable-bus.com and via email, viriciti.com (update)