Not every BatOnRoute customer is ferrying hundreds of children to and from school every day.
FlightLink Wales runs one rural route for fewer than 20 pupils, but owner Mo Rehman says that Nunsys Group’s app has been just as transformative, replacing guesswork and cold bus-stop waits with real-time visibility for parents.
Railway-News: Could you begin by telling us a little about FlightLink Wales?
Mo Rehman, Owner of FlightLink Wales, said:Well, transport is a very broad spectrum, so I've tried to 'niche' what we do. Basically, the main part of the business is taking people from their home to the airport – predominantly in Wales – but we also provide school run services via minibus for our local authority.
I originally provided school transport to children with alternative learning needs, but currently I'm transporting children who live rurally to and from their nearest Welsh-speaking school. Free transport from the local authority is an entitlement for those that live more than three miles away from the site.
We were awarded a specific route and have a group of children that we pick up and drop off every day. The route covers some of the smaller towns and villages around Barry, with pick-ups usually at village bus stops or even close to their houses, so I wanted to find a simple way for parents to be able to see where the minibus was at any given time, and whether or not their child was safely onboard.
It was looking into this that first brought Nunsys Group to my attention. While there were a number of solutions that could do this sort of thing, it was their BatOnRoute app that really chimed with our needs. When the drivers start their route GPS enables parents to check where the vehicle is, and then, when a child gets onto the bus, the driver just taps on the app to confirm pick-up, which also notifies the parents. Upon arrival at the school, the driver 'checks in', the GPS closes and the app notifies the parents that their children have been delivered to school.
It does exactly what we wanted – to enable parents to monitor the vehicle and see where their child is at all times.
RN: Was having this kind of solution a requirement of the local authority in order to bid for the route?
Mo Rehman, Owner of FlightLink Wales, said:No, it wasn't a criteria, it's just something we took onboard ourselves. As a parent I thought about what I'd want, and this was it. Introducing them to the app was a eureka moment for the parents – they asked why they never had this before. If I took it away now, they'd want it straight back. We fulfilled a need that the parents didn't even know they had.
RN: So why did you choose Nunsys Group and their BatOnRoute solution?
Mo Rehman, Owner of FlightLink Wales, said:I first met with Nunsys Group staff at Euro Bus Expo back in 2022, when I was looking for something that fulfilled that need. There were other systems on show there, but none quite the same as how theirs had been developed. It was like a jigsaw, and that piece slotted perfectly. Other options felt like a round peg in a square hole, but this one just fit, so I thought, okay, let's run with it.
As a 'non-techie' the set up took me a while to get my head around, but thankfully they were on hand to offer support. If I had any difficulties, it was easy to reach the support team via email, they were always willing to help and guide me through what I needed to do. Now it's all up and running its very straightforward though. The driver simply presses a button that sets the route as active and enables GPS tracking on the app, and away they go!
Parents can see the vehicle's real-time position throughout the route once it's active, and I've set it so they also get a notification once the bus is 2km from their house – enough warning to have their child ready for pick-up. As you get close to Barry, traffic builds up – it's also one of the main routes into Cardiff, so you've got tractors and quarry trucks doing 30 mph on the A-roads alongside everything else. Without the app, children might end up stood at a bus stop in the cold or rain unaware that the driver has got stuck in traffic. With it, parents know exactly where the bus is and don't have to send their child out there to wait.
That's what I wanted to give parents, real-time control and communication, and it's a two-way street, really – I'm telling them the bus will be there in five minutes, so I expect their child to be ready and waiting. Because if we wait at one stop, it has a domino effect – we're late for the next, and the next after that, so in effect we also benefit from the addition of the app.
RN: I was going to ask if you saw any tangible benefits from a business point of view, rather than just for parents?
Mo Rehman, Owner of FlightLink Wales, said:There's definitely some time saving evolved. The idea is we're working together with the parents to get their child ready – and these are high school kids, so sometimes they're getting themselves ready, sulky teenager and all. Even when you're waiting right outside the house and they know you're coming, you still end up waiting. You can't legislate for that, but you can politely flag it to the parents. 'Can you make sure Annie's ready by such-and-such time please?' The benefit is that we can see them and they can see us, so things happen at the time they're supposed to, which avoids delays.
RN: Do the kids have access to the app too – can they check you’re on time?
Mo Rehman, Owner of FlightLink Wales, said:With their parents' permission, yes, though not through anything we provide directly. Actually, that ties into another benefit. Before, drivers would set up a WhatsApp group with parents – and possibly unbeknown to them the actual children – to share the route. I had to shut that down because it's a GDPR issue. That's really what pushed me toward needing something better. With BatOnRoute no personal information is shared. All anyone sees is the info they actually need: where's the bus.
RN: It sounds like the biggest benefit of this app is safety/security then really, isn’t it?
Mo Rehman, Owner of FlightLink Wales, said:Indeed. Personal information is kept secure, and parents can relax knowing exactly where their kids are.
RN: So would you recommend this kind of solution to other school bus operators?
Mo Rehman, Owner of FlightLink Wales, said:I would definitely recommend they go for something like BatOnRoute, yes.
But it really comes down to whether you're looking to just maximise profit, or to offer a better quality service. I think it's the latter that this really delivers. Yes, I'm running a business to make money, but I'm also asking what more I can do to make it a better service. That's why I went with BatOnRoute even though we've got our own in-house programmer – because this was already a niche, tailored solution that existed off the shelf. Our booking system, by contrast, we had to build ourselves, because nothing out there covered the specifics and variables of airport transfers. I could have built something for this too, but it was already there, so I didn't need to.
It also translates into the rest of my business. If parents see me as a reliable, punctual operator for their children, they'll trust me with their airport transfers too, and we're the incumbent taxi operator at Cardiff Airport. We've already got a high profile and a strong social presence, but this is about showing people what we're doing to look after their child's safety and wellbeing, not just taking the money and running. If a parent trusts us with their child, they'll trust us to take them to the airport as well.
This article was originally published by Nunsys Group.
