Simply the best with Phoenix Bussing

Phoenix Bussing has been supplying luxurious sleeper buses for on-tour music artists since 1988 and during that time they have successfully grown from the original 4 converted buses to a fleet of 40+ purpose-built 45ft long double decker buses – with 20 of the new 16, 14 and 8-berth vehicles coming into the fleet just in the last couple of years due to the influx of music artists from all around the world going on tour, and wanting the luxury and the personal service Phoenix are renown for.

Travelling artists have included Lady Gaga, The Killers, One Direction, Kylie, Oasis, Billie Eilish, Muse, Ellie Goulding, Michael Bublé and Paloma Faith to name just several out of hundreds – we would love to see their little black book!

One can only imagine the huge global logistical operation involved in these music tours, and a further important consideration for Andy Gray, the Transport Manager at Phoenix is maintaining compliance when their drivers and buses will sometimes be out for months at a time without returning to base.

In line with the nature of their premium service, and the buses kept in tip top condition and annually fitted out with the latest luxuries and technologies to meet customer demands for wanting the ‘best’; Phoenix also very much value the importance of their professional drivers and their role in delivering the ‘best’ customer experience. That’s why following the successful introduction of ClockWatcher Elite in 2012, they invested in Aquarius’s leading remote downloading and eSign technology to overcome the logistical issues faced by the travelling drivers, and the transport office in managing long-distance driver and vehicle digital data downloads. 

A technological investment Andy says was, and is still invaluable. “Prior to using Aquarius’s remote downloading technology, it was time consuming chasing drivers for data, especially as they were sometimes out on the road for 3 weeks and then would have a month off; this made compliance difficult to manage, so we embraced remote downloading for touring vehicles in the UK and Europe. It took the onus off the driver which made them happier too.”

“Being a ‘remote’ operation eSign has also helped us massively; drivers are able to log into the software via the Aquarius App and see if they have infringements, they can then be debriefed and can digitally sign them from any location.  They can also see their own calendar, which is useful because it gives them an overview of the hours driven in a week / fortnight and last rest breaks for example.”

As an extension to this, in partnership with CUBO, the Aquarius team has also helped Phoenix integrate CUBO’s telematics software into ClockWatcher Elite. As a remote operation, one example for compliance purposes where this helps Andy and his team is by seeing where missing KM’s are live on the map.

“It’s a crazy busy time with music tours at the moment; and by having the confidence in ClockWatcher Elite to manage and report on our compliance data, and having the best support from the entire Aquarius team, it frees our time, and our drivers time, to focus on the job in hand,” confirmed Andy.

For further information contact the Aquarius team via www.aquariusit.co.uk