Next-Generation Employee Transport Solution

15 mins

How demand-responsive employee transport can help you improve your service levels while maintaining cost, and ensure safety in light of COVID-19.‍

Employee transportation is an essential strategy in employee attraction and retention, especially for companies located at a remote location. Increasingly, companies are looking to upgrade their transport offerings to give employees greater safety and convenience in this climate, along with better service levels. However, these benefits do not have to come with substantial cost. Demand-responsive technology can help you reap cost savings while improving your service levels.

Typically, employer-provided transportation is inflexible. Most companies operate bus services with fixed timings, and the routes and vehicles do not adjust to fluctuations in demand. This leads to inefficiencies that may cost you more in the long run. Smart mobility solutions can not only optimise your resources leading to potentially reduced costs, it can also enhance safety for your employees.

What is demand-responsive employee transport?

Imagine “ridesharing” on your company buses. Employees book onto the company bus through a mobile app and get picked up from a location close to their homes. They sit with other colleagues while complying with safe distancing measures on board the vehicles.

Behind demand-responsive transport lies a smart algorithm that calculates the optimal fleet combination to deploy based on the allowable MPC, maximising fleet utilisation and occupancy rate. The algorithm pools employees living within the same area together and generates the most efficient routes that reduces trip times and detours.

The system plans the transport service, taking into account any change in employee schedules automatically. Such technology does not require large fleets and can work with your existing fleet operators to execute.

See how a large corporation increased their bus utilisation while maintaining costs with technology

A large marine and engineering company headquartered in Tuas has to cater transport for 1500 employees daily. Initially, the company transport picked up employees from 9 MRT stations in the morning and dropped them off at 2 MRT stations in the evening.

The HR department was concerned about attrition rates as the employees faced long and inconvenient commutes (most had to transfer to get to their pick-up points) everyday. The company decided to switch to a technology-based transport solution that not only improved their employees’ commutes, but also increased their service levels and gave them insights into ridership and operations, such as the number of employees taking the bus each month.

The large corporation worked with the technology company SWAT Mobility. SWAT Mobility provides demand-responsive transport technology for employee transportation.

Using their app SWATBiz, employees book their rides for an entire month under a “Commute Pass”. They can check the bus pick up time, estimated work arrival time, view the buses location, provide daily feedback, and make payment on the app.

With SWAT Mobility, the number of stops served increased from 9 fixed pick-up points to over 200 points islandwide that are all within 10 minutes walking distance of employees' homes. Similarly, the drop-off points expanded to over 80 points close to various MRT and LRT stations in the evening. Routes are optimised based on employee bookings and other constraints the company works with SWAT Mobility on setting, such as total ride duration and distance to home.

Bus utilisation rate improved from 62% to 80%. The company managed to reap cost savings as they stopped paying for unnecessary empty seats. SWAT Mobility also sends the company status updates and review of key metrics. Regular reporting ensures that the employee transport remains cost-effective and the agreed-upon service levels are delivered.

Through surveys, staff have feedback that they are highly satisfied with SWAT Mobility’s services as they no longer need to make multiple transfers on public transport in order to reach their pickup points.

The VP of the HR department at the large corporation vouches for SWAT Mobility, saying “I am confident their routing technology, easy-to-use passenger apps, will continue to help improve work commutes for our employees, making it convenient, affordable and comfortable.”

A safer transport for your employees

SWAT Mobility’s system enables contact tracing through ride bookings that are automatically tracked and recorded. It also allows for physical distancing on board your vehicles, allocating rides to passengers based on the allowed MPC. The technology can also account for split shift arrangements. It adjusts the transport schedule based on the employees’ rotating rosters, with automated route planning and vehicle assignments.

For companies at remote locations

As of September 2020, SWAT Mobility is in the midst of rolling out a similar solution to a large member of the Biopharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Advisory Council (BMAC) with over 700 employees with a mix of regular and variable shifts.

Located in the Tuas region as well, the company was running bus services with fixed timings and routes to and from selected MRT Stations in Singapore. Looking to improve their commute offering to attract employees and improve retention, the company is now working with SWAT Mobility to increase service levels and coverage of their staff transport, and the level of convenience for their staff.