The Yard Monitor is part of the Comparative Analysis (CA) module; it enables you to observe fleet vehicles in yard locations in real time (for an individual yard or for multiple yards) as they arrive or depart. You can view planned versus actual arrival and departure times, vehicle locations, and the status of each bus.

Note: For more information about Comparative Analysis, see An Introduction to Comparative Analysis.

Note: The Yard Monitor primarily is used to watch the vehicles as they leave the yard, to make sure that all the vehicles are leaving on time, but you also can use it to monitor vehicle arrivals.

To monitor vehicles in yard locations live, follow these steps:


  1. Click  >> Yard Monitor.
     
    The Yard Monitor screen will appear and display a yard-selection box, with your yard locations listed alphabetically.
        
  2. To select a yard to monitor, click its check box.
    Note: You can select multiple yards by clicking all their check boxes. To select all your yard locations, click the check box above the check box column. You also can select by zone category by clicking the Categories tab.
  3. Click Apply.
     
    Data from the selected yards will appear in a grid, and the vehicles will appear on the map. By default, departure data will be displayed.
    Note: To change to monitoring vehicle arrivals to the yard, click  at the top right of the screen and select Monitor Arrivals in the Monitor drop-down list.
     
    Each column in the grid shows you how many vehicles are currently in each state, as shown by the number in parentheses. The column headers are as follows:
     
    • On-Time: The number of vehicles that departed (or arrived) on time, based on the planned time and the specified On-Time time range in Performance Categories. (See Performance Categories for information about performance categories.)
       
    • Early: The number of vehicles that departed (or arrived) before the planned time.
       
    • Late: The number of vehicles that departed (or arrived) after the planned time.
       
    • Missed: The number of vehicles that didn't make their departures (or arrivals) at all, per plan. (Buses that are assigned to a route but were substituted out may also have a Missed status.)
       
    • In: The number of vehicles currently in the yard.
       
    • Out: The number of vehicles currently outside the yard (of those that are assigned to that yard).
       
  4. To remove a yard from the list, click  in its row on the left.
     
  5. To add a yard, click  at the top right of the screen. The yard-selection box will appear again, in which you can repeat steps 2 and 3.
     
  6. To view details for one of the yards, click it in the list.
     
    The yard's route and vehicle data, including the time the Ignition On event occurred, the planned and actual exit times, and the vehicle's current status, will appear in the lower grid on the left, and just its vehicles will be shown on the map. The data will be refreshed every minute.
    Note: If you are watching arrivals rather than departures, the Ignition Off event's time and the planned and actual entry times will be displayed instead.
      
    The Status column in the lower grid reflects the first four states detailed in the upper grid, with the following color code:

    On-Time
    		*
    Early
    		*
    Late
    Missed

    *In other words, no color: It's just the standard grid background color.
    Note: You might notice Late items in your grid that aren't red. Late vehicles will be red only if the vehicle is still inside the yard (when you are monitoring departures). After the vehicle leaves, there is no need to highlight the row because a supervisor will no longer need to check to see if the vehicle's driver is going to leave soon, to prevent a route from being missed. (If you are monitoring arrivals, a Late cell will be red only if the vehicle is outside the yard.)
  7. To limit both grids' data to only certain status types, click  at the top right of the screen.
      
    The Options dialog box will appear.
        
  8. Select the status types you want to appear in the grids and deselect those you don't want to see. ( means selected, and  deselected.)
    Note: In the Options dialog box, you can also limit the vehicles shown to just vehicles inside or just vehicles outside the yards by clicking the Display drop-down arrow and selecting In Yard or Outside of Yard. The default is All.
  9. Click Apply.
     
  10. To export the grid data to PDF or Excel, click the  or  button at the top right of the screen.
    Note: If you have one yard's details open in the lower grid, both grids will be exported. For the PDF option, the map will be exported as well.