A new Engineering hub

Exciting news as we have unveiled our new, next-generation Engineering hub at our depot in Reading. 

We are continuing our commitment to improving our operation for both customers and employees alike, and helping this we recently unveiled our brand-new Engineering hub!

The new offices were completely refurbished to bring a more modern feel, whilst introducing upgrades in technology to help the department run more smoothly and efficiently. 

We officially opened the new workshop control room following work over the last six months. Our workshop control room is the central hub for monitoring and controlling all our vehicle maintenance activities but was largely unchanged since the building opened in 1998.

The upgrade has been inspired by our 24/7 operations control room, car service centres, and larger shops to provide modern facilities that are both practical and properly represent the company’s values and ethos. 

The refurbished offices have a suite of screens and computers to display live information that sweep away the previous combination of computers, white boards, notice boards and scraps of paper.

Four fully configurable screens display the status of the workshop, including:

• a list of the buses in for maintenance, including the reason
• a list of the scheduled 4-weekly inspections and annual MoTs
• a live view of driver daily safety inspection data
• which buses are currently being worked on, and by whom
• a list of vehicle parts on order for specific jobs

In the next few weeks two additional screens will be added to support our new fleet of electric buses, including live battery monitoring and charging status.

Within the engineering hub, a central workstation area provides four computer terminals for engineers to update job cards and look up information from the maintenance system, and space for all the diagnostic equipment below. This replaces an enquiry counter which was designed before computers and diagnostic equipment were in widescale use.

There are desks for the engineering supervisor, night chargehand and engineering administrator, a small meeting room, and the engineering manager’s office. Automatic doors have been installed through to the workshop floor to make it easier to get equipment in and out, and to improve visibility for the supervisor.

Alongside the introduction of more modern systems the refurbishment has made the offices feel ultra-modern, complete with colourful on-brand vinyls to complete the look.  

The offices were opened by our Chief Executive Officer, Robert Williams, with a ribbon across the door and refreshments provided for the unsung team of 65 engineers and cleaners that keep the town’s buses in tip top condition. The company are confident that these changes will lead to an ever-increasing pursuit of excellence from the already amazing engineering team.