Kangaroo Bus Lines, an innovator in Queensland transport solutions and experiences, was using an outdated application for scheduling bus routes, charter management, and maintenance, which became unreliable as their operational demands grew. It became costly to fix and could not be easily extended or integrated with other applications. The company was at risk of missing scheduled bookings, with the consequences of losing customers and failing to meet vital compliance requirements.

Solution

Telstra Purple worked together with Kangaroo Bus Lines to offer guidance and create a bespoke cloud-based application to overcome these challenges. Built using an agile methodology, the app provides end-to-end management of customer data, bookings, vehicle maintenance, fleet management, accounting, and inventory management. One user interface is used across all business functions, accessible via depot kiosks and tablets deployed across the fleet of buses.

Outcome

• Kangaroo Bus Lines now have more flexibility to improve services and operations and continue delivering great experiences for passengers and staff.
• The agile methodology helped to ensure rapid progress in the project, and the comprehensive project delivery plan mapped out by Telstra Purple helped prioritise work for Kangaroo Bus Lines’ most pressing need: scheduled maintenance in the workshop. 
• This bespoke software is already helping the staff with their jobs, especially when it comes to managing the vehicle fleet and making bookings.
• The app can be tailored to meet the needs of other business areas and as their business needs change in future.

“Telstra Purple has demonstrated that bespoke software can work well when the right approach is taken from the beginning. So far, the project is running ahead of schedule and under budget—you can’t ask for more than that with an IT initiative—and we are now considering how we can use the platform for other uses. This might be deploying entertainment apps on our buses or fatigue management solutions” 

Darren Webster, CEO, Kangaroo Bus Lines.