Meet the brand: Heliox
We catch up with Sofia Vettori from Heliox to find out more about their brand and exhibiting at Euro Bus Expo, on stand E62
Tell us a bit about your company?
Heliox - Powering a cleaner tomorrow
Heliox provides world-class smart energy management solutions that are tailored and scalable within a fast-changing e-mobility landscape.
We are working towards a sustainable world where a seamless charging experience is a standard for every electric vehicle, and this transforms the way we power our everyday. Founded in 2009, Heliox is the market leader in fast-charging systems for public transport, e-trucks, passenger vehicles, and marine, mining and port equipment. In 2017, the company installed one of Europe's first and largest rapid charging networks for the e-bus fleet in Eindhoven, The Netherlands; and over the past two years, it has created 'model city' energy ecosystems around the world in Den Bosch, Netherlands, Glasgow, Scotland and Montgomery County, Maryland. Operating globally, the company is headquartered in the Netherlands with a local presence in Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and the United States.
Future-proof charging solutions for seamless operation.
From lightweight and portable to modular and upgraded DC chargers, our suite of high-powered products caters to all types of fleet owners, businesses, and municipalities who are beginning their e-mobility transition or scaling up their e-fleet.
Our Products:
- Mobile 40 kW (e-car, e-bus, e-truck). A strong starting point for all vehicle types.
- Flex 180 kW - 360 kW(e-bus, e-truck). A flexible solution for both depot and opportunity charging, for single or multiple vehicles
- Ultra-Fast 450 kW - 600 kW (e-bus, e-truck). Opportunity Charging is Ultra-Rapid charging for multiple vehicles.
- Rapid 50 kW - 150 kW (e-car). Future-proof, value-for-money chargers for fleets and public charging.
Tell us about your latest product(s), service(s), promotions or launches visitors can hope to see on your stand?
Visitors will be able to discover a new Heliox product during Euro Bus Expo between 1-3 November 2022, thought to reduce space issue in the ideal bus depot.
Why is exhibiting at Euro Bus Expo 2022 an unmissable opportunity for you?
It's an opportunity for us to showcase all Heliox's latest products and services with a special focus on buses and bus depots. You'll be able to touch and experience our new products.
Meet the brand: Freeway Fleet Systems
We catch up with Robert Peel from Freeway Fleet Systems to find out more about their brand and exhibiting at Euro Bus Expo, on stand T62
Tell us a bit about your company?
Freeway Fleet Systems has been providing asset/fleet management software to the UK bus industry for more than 25 years. Today Freeway is leading the switch to seamless digital working taking advantage of the latest technological advances in cloud computing, mobile systems and artificial intelligence.
From the outset Freeway pioneered automation of workshop administration, working in partnership with companies including Reading Buses, Abellio and Tower Transit. Recently operators have embarked on major digitisation programmes in a move to paperless, online working and at Euro Bus Expo 2016 Freeway announced a major new mobile innovation that would underpin this digitisation - and lead to rapid growth in the adoption of Freeway across the UK and international bus sector.Freeway’s new system revolved around a mobile application that synchronised in real-time with the central asset management system. This development eliminated paper ‘on the shop floor’ allowing staff to access and complete their job cards, timesheets, inspection reports and other paperwork on a rugged tablet or smartphone. Subsequently Freeway has developed first-to-market software for managing Earned Recognition compliance and their ‘Fleet in Your Pocket’ management app won the Innovation Challenge Award at Coach and Bus UK 2019.
Freeway is designed to improve asset management, compliance and fleet maintenance, working seamlessly across different platforms from on-premises server or cloud, with desktop and mobile interfaces. The software combines functionality of a number of different systems as a seamless solution incorporating fleet and asset management, maintenance and defect management, stores and stock control, purchasing and compliance. Freeway also seamlessly interchanges data with other systems used in operations, accounts and on-vehicle.
As well as long-term users such as Tower Transit, Reading Bus, Abellio, Cardiff Bus and HCT Group, operators switching to Freeway in recent years include Nottingham City Transport, Lothian Buses, Go Ahead, Rotala, trentbarton and RATP.
Tell us about your latest product(s), service(s), promotions or launches visitors can hope to see on your stand?
Freeway is launching a Real-Time Compliance Tracker that sees live data from mobile devices and onboard sensors processed together with existing defect and maintenance records. Smart software provides intuitive, exception-based interface to provide a complete insight of the status of each vehicle with critical defects and compliance issues highlighted on colour-coded screens.
By targeting the most urgent defect rectification requirements and any outstanding compliance issues, the system makes it easier for bus and coach operators to maintain full compliance and manage DVSA Earned Recognition requirements. Live data is pooled from apps used by drivers for their walk-around checks and onboard systems. Integration has been completed with Stratio, a system that monitors and transmits fault alerts from vehicle sensors, and Wheely-Safe, a system for monitoring wheels, brakes and tyres.
Another development is a software tool that predicts the type and quantity of parts needed to maintain a fleet. This ‘smart storekeeper’ uses historic parts data and stock level algorithms to maintain optimal parts availability and speeds purchasing. The software can initiate automate stock replenishment ensuring the right stock is always available, whilst reducing unnecessary stock. Using mobile devices, engineers can instantly request parts issue and managers can automatically receive requisition requests for one-click PO authorisation. The software prevents parts-related delays in the workshop.
Freeway will also be demonstrating for the first time their ‘Run Out Accelerator’ which minimises disruption to bus operations during busy morning run outs. A Daily Defects Report provides a simple, easy-to-view screen so the workshop can see which defects are blocking buses from service. Work can then be quickly prioritised with rapid action buttons that show what needs to be done to bring a bus back into service.
Why is exhibiting at Euro Bus Expo 2022 an unmissable opportunity for you?
Patrick Tandy, MD of Freeway comments:
Freeway has tripled its bus industry business since first exhibiting at Euro Bus Expo in 2016. With software that is central to bus and coach fleet engineering operations, it is a big decision for operators; a decision they typically only take every 10 years. So, turning prospects into clients can be a slow process. Euro Bus Expo and the Coach and Bus UK events allow leads to be nurtured.
Although it's about the quality of leads, it's as much about building long-term relationships with operators and other suppliers. You get to meet other people who are targeting the same sector and have a common interest. So, getting in front of such suppliers could lead to business partnerships, and this chance to talk to people and build relationships is reason enough to exhibit.
Sales generated from attending Euro Bus Expo do not just come from new customers. Connecting with existing customers and finding opportunities within those businesses have been just as important; never more so after the Pandemic prevented face-to-face contact.
Jema electrifies the longest bus line in London
The project has been used to validate the future corridor of opportunity charging points planned for London.
The United Kingdom has approved the implementation of a corridor with opportunity charging points for electric city buses throughout the country. In this sense, and in order to validate in advance the operation of this future corridor, the installation of charging equipment on a specific line of electric buses in London has been approved.
In this scenario Jema Energy has been contracted by London’s largest bus operator for the electrification of the London bus line 358 which runs approx. 16 miles (longer than standard).
The e-mobility solution implemented by Jema Energy was the installation of two opportunity charging stations using inverted pantographs and fire detection and extinguishing systems, which made the electrification of the line a reality. In this way, buses are fully charged at the start of each day and use a pantograph to charge via overhead wires at the end of the route at Orpington and Crystal Palace, the two ends of the route.
This has been the first route in London to use this technology.
Technical characteristics of the charging stations supplied:
Two charging stations comprising a 500 kW charger feeding the buses via an OppCharge inverted pantograph, as well as a set of auxiliary systems for monitoring, control and protection.Equipped with protection systems such as dual power supply with automatic changeover for sensitive elements, UPS and fire detection and extinguishing modules.
About Jema
Jema Energy is a leader in the technology that is writing the future of energy innovation. With more than 65 years' experience in energy conversion systems, Jema Energy has been at the forefront of innovation in the design and manufacture of energy conversion systems. As a result, Jema supplies complete turnkey systems to achieve the best performance and minimise operating and maintenance costs in the field of energy conversion.