Overview
Since 2011, the city of Sorocaba, Brazil, has transformed its public transportation system through the implementation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
Renato Andere, President of BRT Sorocaba, and Murilo Campiotto, responsible for driver scheduling, share how the Optibus software platform reinvented and automated their scheduling and planning processes, turning them into a leading reference for digitalization and technological adoption within Brazil’s public transportation sector.
Faster, Automated Workflows
With a fleet of 78 vehicles making 1,400 daily trips, automation was essential to improving operational efficiency. BRT Sorocaba used to generate plans and schedules in a time-consuming manual process that required significant resources. Now, with Optibus’ cloud-native and easy-to-use digital platform, work has become significantly faster and easier.
“Scheduling and planning [with spreadsheets] took one to two days. Driver by driver, case by case. With Optibus, it can be done in minutes. Up to one or two hours maximum,” said Murilo Campiotto.
“Advice I would give to those who don’t have an automated tool: Run to get one. Because there is a structure behind it, an artificial intelligence, that is beyond comparison with the human resources needed to do this work,” Andere explained.
He noted that “It is impossible for someone to be able to look at all the loose ends when building so many schedules!”
“Can you imagine someone allocating all of these resources and fleet? That, in addition to complying with a series of rules: municipal rules, labor laws, vehicle mileage limits. All of this is automated today,” he said.
Driver and Vehicle Allocation
Andere added that Optibus’ software unlocks efficiency gains when it comes to creating duties, since manual work or legacy sofwtares often produce more driver hours, vehicle hours, or more mileage.
Optibus’ powerful computing capabilities help planners and schedulers discover the optimal use of available resources, leading to more efficient operations and service plans.
“It brings us practicality and agility when it comes to generating duties at scale and scheduling all of BRT Sorocaba. Through the platform, it is possible to identify the number of drivers and buses to allocate to carry out this service,” noted Campiotto.
