When an agency begins the process of contracting out a provider to maintain its rail system there can be plenty of questions and essential factors that can sway the decision of choosing a company with the ability to meet all of its needs. Maintenance of an agencies railcars and assets is essential to the operations of a system. Which is why choosing the right company is all the more important.
“First and foremost is that the contractor needs to get out in front of the client before the RFP is issued so that you can get to know the client and what their needs are, what their concerns are and to use that opportunity to understand the alignment and what they’re trying to do,” said Steve Bethel, VP of RATP Dev North America, rail. “When we do put the proposal together and start bidding on the work that we do, not only do we need to understand what we need to put into the project, but also understand the concerns of the client. To be sure that when we put in our proposal and that we have a good product and it makes sense to them.”
Bethel stressed that it is important for the agency to know that RATP is involved in the process.
“They can get the feeling that they know we understand and that we did our homework and understand the situation and our concerns and how we’re going to approach that,” said Bethel.
On the agency side it is important to evaluate what factors or issues need to be focused on. It also comes upon the contracted company to evaluate what it looks to get out of the contract.
Bethel added, “I think internally for the contract you need to be sure that it fits your business model. It may be an opportunity to expand your business model, but you want to make sure that you can fit within your means. Is it a project that is going to be overwhelming that you’ll have to put too much resources into it? RATP Dev is a worldwide company that maintains rail around the world and we’re in the position to take on anything, but it on the contractor to take a look at the business and see if it is in the scope of the business model.”
For RATP it is about working to cover a large variety of areas. “Our role there is to basically maintain and operate the system — from the cleaning of the vehicles, the operation and maintenance of the vehicles, the cleaning and maintenance of all the assets and of course the day-to-day operations as well”
Utilizing technology
As IoT and the use of technology continues to make maintenance management more of a streamlined process more agencies are turning to companies that can assist them with that transition. ThingTech is real-time enterprise IoT enabled asset management platform. The company works with organizations on improving and streamlining asset management and maintenance in transit.
"What we do at a really high level is we help organizations that manage a lot of assets; that could be vehicles, facilities, machines, field work courses to have better insight into their day-to-day operations. How is my stuff preforming, how is it being maintained — with a real focus on helping organizations get a handle on the cost of maintaining their stuff and being able to better utilize it so that it lasts longer," explained Dan Hawkins, director, sales and marketing, ThingTech.
The application is designed to offer agencies a continued line of support to its vehicles. The application is cloud-based, meaning that it can be accessed through both browsers or mobile devices. This gives the client the option to have information about its fleet both before and after it goes out into the field.
"Our users can access any of the functionality through the desktop or through the mobile application. When it’s captured, it’s all captured in real-time so when that data comes back it’s processed and it can create workflow notifications that say 'hey this asset is operating inefficiently, this asset has not passed inspection or we just completed these four work orders'. All out in the field," said Tim Quinn, our founder and CEO, ThingTech.
Continuing the relationship
While the initial contract is important. A continuing relationship is important. Both RATP and ThingTech work to provide additional support, all while working with agencies to cater to any developing needs.
RATP was contracted for the Tucson Streetcar and has since worked to keep that relationship strong. Bethel explained that RATP had a three year contract with options and now has moved into its second option. The company has twice won the contract for the system.
“The Tucson Streetcar project is something that RATP Dev picked up during its construction process. It’s a management contract where we manage the daily operations and maintenance for the system,” said Bethel. “One of the keys to continuing a successful relationship in an O&M maintenance contract is keeping an open line of communication.”
What RATP found to be the key to the O&M relationship was keeping an open line of communication.
“That is the key piece. Once the contractor is onboard it takes quite a bit of work and a partnership to continue on,” explained Bethel. “You can’t manufacture trust. It is something that has to be proven and shown. That is one of the key qualities that I find with RATP Dev, that we put a lot of resource into communication between different departments. Moreover communication has to be open between the contractor and the agency, because that is where you learn about each other and what concerns that each party has.”
The way that the ThingTech platform operates communication with the client is also kept open through different means.
"One of the best practices that we see in the industry is how do you connect the IoT, the care of maintenance and inventory maintenance management process. We have the ability to connect into these vehicles. We sense that data in real-time and bring that back to the client and can create predictive potential failures on that asset before they happen," said Quinn.
Tackling challenges
“Obviously communication is the most important piece because you need to know what is happening on both sides of the fence,” Bethel said. “But you need to relate those concerns internally so that not only has the general manager or the vice president of rail understood and has that communication, those concerns and those issues need to be brought forth to the management team. The management team can then clearly understand what the concerns are. That is really key to a successful operation.”
Bethel added, "For the agencies some of the bigger benefits is that they don’t need to worry about their own internal documentation. We come to the table with a professional experienced team to run their system. We come to the table with the proper documentation so that we can assure the client of the agency that we have what it takes to appease the state oversight agencies. That we have the ability to develop work practices that will assure them that their vehicles and assets are maintained at the highest levels. We operate in this safe predictable manner."
Safety, which in the rail industry seems to go hand and hand with maintenance, is always an important factor to consider.
"Safety is not just a buzz word anymore it is absolute and that type of documentation and assurance to the client is what they need to move on and feel comfortable and contracting their work out," said Bethel.
ThingTech is addressing an upcoming safety deadline that will have a resounding affect on all agencies. "When we first started our company one of the really hot topics in the transit industry was FTA’s final rule on transit asset management," said Hawkins. "Every transit organization is going to have to have an asset management plan in place as well as systems to help support them in their vehicle maintenance to give them a good handle on the state of their good repair and what the cost that they’re going to need in the future to maintain those."
