Making Passenger

Coaches and minibuses added to vehicle tracking

New coach and minibus icons will help users easily identify the vehicles they are tracking.

20th Nov 2020

A new app update for Premium and myTrip customers will help users to more easily identify the vehicles they are tracking. Following the recent addition of bus and tram icons, we have now added coaches and minibuses to the map, bringing the digital and physical experience of tracking vehicles closer together.

This has been well-received by Passenger customers across the UK. “The ability for our customers to identify the different features of our vehicles has been a great benefit. With our varied fleet due to our diverse operations, the ability to identify if a coach was in use has been a great development for us. This ensures customers can plan their journey as best fits their needs.” said Jeff McCormick, Data Manager at West Coast Motors and Borders Buses.

The update is timely for Go North East, who are making changes to the types of vehicles in use.

“We’ve recently converted our X9 and X10 routes from double-deck buses to coaches to improve reliability, with bigger and better luxury coaches set to arrive soon, so this update is perfect for us.

“It helps us show the customer exactly what they’re looking for, even down to the colour of the coach, which in turn improves customer confidence,” said Stephen King, commercial director at Go North East.

The additional visibility offered to customers – with fleet details also available – helps them to identify different types of buses and be confident that, amongst other things, any accessibility needs they have can be met by the approaching vehicle.

To show Passenger’s Enhanced Vehicle Information, Automatic Vehicle Location feeds (SIRI-VM) are enhanced via mature third-party integrations with a range of suppliers, including Ticketer, Vix and Init.

Passenger Engineering team spokesman Alex Ross comments, “Every little change we make helps to bring the experience of tracking buses closer to that of Deliveroo or Dominos. There’s lot’s of technical challenges in making that happen, but nothing we can’t overcome as an industry.”