LA Metro Heading the Right Way with Vigil

Los Angeles County Metro (LA Metro), the second largest transit operator in the United States has just become even safer, thanks to an innovative Australian driver training technology.

The Californian transit giant, which operates over 2,000 peak-hour buses on an average weekday, has purchased four VigilVanguard units from Queensland-based Vigil Systems, the developer of Australia's most advanced on-road driver training system.

CEO of Vigil Systems, Ian Haynes, said he was delighted with the excellent progress of Vigil's product, which is changing the way drivers were trained and managed around the world.

Mr. Haynes said VigilVanguard can transform a conventional bus or taxi into the equivalent of a flight simulator using the latest that technology has to offer: Global Positioning Systems (GPS), a driver performance logging system, sensors and four digital cameras.

Using VigilVanguard, a trainer can capture and quantify information by pressing a button to mark events or by allowing the system to record events to review with the student.

"This system is designed to improve the safety and performance of bus operators thereby reducing the costs and risks associated with poor driving skills and behavior.

"This can help transport authorities all over the world who spend millions of dollars each year on the costs of accidents and constantly rising insurance and litigation costs," Mr. Haynes said.

LA Metro started using the two VigilVanguard units under a lease agreement in May of last year, and the recent sales reflect their satisfaction.

The authority already uses bus simulator technology and computer based training as part of its training operations.

LA Metro's Director of Operations Training, Mark Anderson, said VigilVanguard was significant in that it went several steps further in an effort to improve on-road training and overall productivity among its 4800 operators.

"VigilVanguard fills an important niche for us. It is very complimentary to our overall training program, and trainers feel it is supporting their function." he said.

"The benefit of the system is that it allows trainers to capture accurate data, document it and provide feedback on the driver’s ability to operate the bus.

"The trainer can capture and quantify information by pressing a button to mark events or by allowing the system to record events to review with the student. For example, if a bus operator comes to a hard stop, VigilVanguard allows the trainer to accurately feed back the information on the event to the operator," said Mr Anderson.

"The students find it helpful to see themselves and watch exactly what they are doing on the video," he added.

LA Metro is using VigilVanguard as part of retraining existing bus operators and plans to incorporate the additional systems into the new operator training program.

The introduction of the system should also have benefits for the 28 million passengers who ride the LA Metro system each month.

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation serves as a transportation planner, coordinator, designer, builder and operator for one of America's largest and most populous counties. More than 9.6 million people – nearly one-third of California's residents – live, work, and play within its 1,433-square-mile service area.

VigilVanguard has already been adopted by adopted by Brisbane Transport which operates Australia’s second largest suburban transit bus fleet with 1,500 drivers and 700 buses and also Singapore’s ComfortDelgo group, which operates a total fleet of 36,000 vehicles.