IVU.suite ensures intelligent depot management at Basler Verkehrs-Betriebe (BVB)

Successful project completion: Basler Verkehrs-Betriebe (BVB) is now controlling its entire diesel and electric bus fleet with the IVU.vehicle depot management system from IVU Traffic Technologies AG.

Basler Verkehrs-Betriebe (BVB) are the backbone of public transport in the tri-national metropolitan region of Basel. With a fleet of around 120 buses and just as many tram trains, over 1,300 employees ensure smooth transport operations every day. A further milestone has now been reached in the long-standing collaboration between BVB and IVU Traffic Technologies AG: the entire depot management in the two temporary depots of Klybeck and Messehalle is controlled for all diesel and electric buses via the integrated IVU.vehicle software. This includes monitoring the departure and arrival of all buses and automatically allocating parking spaces. IVU's intelligent charging management system ensures the optimum recharge status of the electric bus fleet, which currently comprises 65 vehicles.

"The biggest advantage of the integrated depot management for us is that the buses are automatically recognised, so they are assigned the appropriate parking space for the next vehicle task, and in the event of a malfunction, the bus is transferred directly to a maintenance lane without us having to intervene manually," explains Thilaxsan Balasubramaniam, Head of Vehicle Deployment Planning at BVB. "With the charging management system, the batteries of our vehicles are optimally charged and external factors such as weather conditions or expected traffic volumes are also taken into account."

"We are delighted to have reached the next milestone in the digitalisation of operations with BVB. Smart algorithms in our software take all defined locking periods into account during charging processes, which saves costs because the battery can be charged at the best possible time," says Tobias Trost, project manager for depot management systems at IVU Traffic Technologies. "In addition, the vehicles are automatically preconditioned before the next planned departure, which makes both personnel and passengers happy."