It’s been a busy 12 months at Nottingham City Transport (NCT). The ALBUM 2025 hosts were named – for an unprecedented sixth time – as the UK Bus Operator of the Year in November. The operator also continues to attract more people onto their buses, bucking a national trend of bus passenger decline.
NCT has also celebrated reaching a milestone of 1.4 million zero-emission miles, and electrification of the fleet has accelerated, with 48 fully electric Yutong single-deckers now operating from NCT’s Trent Bridge depot; in total there will be 62 of these Yutong’s.
Meanwhile, the Engineering Department has become fully digital, with their Freeway system managing the workshop, stores, and compliance. NCT’s engineering staff are equipped with rugged tablet devices with an app that provides quick, easy entry of data to replace traditional forms such as job sheets, inspection reports, timesheets, 24-hour sheets, and other paperwork. The app synchronises in real time with a central Freeway system that manages the maintenance of NCT’s fleet of 282 buses.
Unusually, vehicles are allocated by NCT’s Engineering Department rather than Operations. For the Operations team, this removes a key variable and simplifies scheduling, as vehicle availability is assured. However, it increases the responsibility for Engineering to maintain the fleet and minimise downtime.
“Having an effective, real-time system in Engineering is vitally important because of the way we operate,” says Sean O’Sullivan, Head of Engineering, Nottingham City Transport. “Everyone has taken to Freeway very well. The system provides complete visibility of all activities and tracks everything, so we’re always aware of costs and performance. It also improves transparency, making it easier to manage the operation – particularly beneficial for compliance and Earned Recognition.”
As a bus operator, the big challenge is getting a safe and reliable fleet out on the road every day. You can’t have people standing at a bus stop waiting for a bus that doesn’t turn up. Making sure this doesn’t happen is down to us in engineering, so the pressure is always on,” says O’Sullivan. “So, anything that makes our job easier is very welcome, and that’s where Freeway comes in.”
As a city bus operator, there are morning and afternoon run-outs and getting the fleet out first thing requires military precision. NCT was one of the first industry adopters of a driver inspection app that sends data to the Freeway system – giving engineers visibility of any defects. Backed with photographs, the reports allow engineers to quickly decide if a vehicle is safe to operate.
“Drivers have a crucial engineering role to play. They are the frontline of defence; the eyes and ears that we rely on to keep vehicles safe and working,” O’Sullivan says. “With the mobile app, driver defect reports are sent directly to Freeway. That means we can quickly adjust workshop schedules and resources to minimize disruption to services.”
NCT’s drivers and other staff also digitally report back to Freeway during the day. For example, when buses return to the depot, the cabin is inspected for lost property, cleanliness and damage such as vandalism. Again, engineering can quickly assign the appropriate resources to deal with issues and fix defects if necessary.
As well as helping deal with the daily run-out pressures, Freeway also has become an invaluable tool for planning ahead. The system gives us a complete picture of each asset including servicing schedules, MOT dates and outstanding defects. NCT undertakes modular maintenance so once booked in, everything is planned to optimise workshop resources and minimise VOR.
“What’s really impressive with Freeway is that everyone can access the history of maintenance work – by whom and when, the parts used, and so on,” O’Sullivan says. “That’s really useful for identifying recurring defects and parts performance issues. By quickly identifying problems and likely causes, we can fix things quickly and ensure vehicle downtime is minimised.”
The move away from paper records has had a big impact on the way the engineering department operates. Gone are the reams of paper and filing cabinets, and when first introduced, the system immediately saved NCT £25,000 in printing costs. Although eliminating physical paper is important, the real benefits come from efficiency gains and the data being captured and stored.
“Freeway has eliminated all the laborious data entry work, and we no longer have to sift through files to find records for crucial things such as documents for compliance, and evidence for legal and insurance claims,” O’Sullivan comments. “I reckon the automation provided by Freeway is saving us the work of about 5 people across both workshops – that’s savings of between £150,000 and £200,000 every year.”
According to O’Sullivan, running an engineering department is quite different from other departments. “Drivers are, for example, very autonomous doing their job. In the workshops everyone is very dependent on everyone else. Managing a fleet is very complex, and every single individual is an essential cog in a big wheel. Even a cleaner is a vital component, as a bus cannot be released unless it is clean,” he explains.
“We work in a highly regulated industry – I’d argue that we are more tightly regulated than rail and air. That’s why a robust system is so important. We see Freeway as one of those cogs that is part of the machine we operate – it’s totally integrated and manages every facet of the work we do – all the kit, the warranties, the holidays – you name it, Freeway does it!”
“Freeway just makes our lives that little bit easier. It diminishes our workload, and that means we can get on with the numerous other tasks we have to deal with every day,” O’Sullivan sums up.
