When it comes to transportation, the emphasis placed on time couldn’t be more obvious. Those who rely on public transportation to get to work, school, the supermarket, doctor appointments, vacation destinations, etc. expect buses, trains and planes to depart and arrive on time at every stop.

When a transportation facility fails to meet the expectations of its customers, it must carefully consider the problems it is having and the reasons why. If customers claim that trains are not arriving on time, then something is clearly wrong with the system that is currently in place. Every aspect of the transportation facility’s time system should be analyzed for flaws. These areas that need improvement should then be analyzed to help choose a new clock system that will more appropriately meet the needs of the business.

Look over the following industry example and consider how your transportation facility could also benefit from an IP clock system.

Here’s The Situation:

•A national public transportation company in the U.S. has recently noticed a significant decline in both sales and customer satisfaction, specifically with railroad transportation.

•Many of the filed customer complaints claimed that their trains are consistently late and that clocks at different stations do not display the correct time.

•After inspecting stations dispersed throughout the country, many clocks were found to have a variety of issues including battery power, time drifting
and malfunctioning issues.

•Often, clocks that were otherwise functioning correctly failed to adjust for Daylight Saving Time or time zone locations.

•Station managers claimed they did not have time to monitor each individual clock effectively for issues.

In an industry where timing is everything, these issues are detrimental to the success of a transportation facility and should be avoided.
The facility suspects that in order to recoup and sustain lost revenues, they must choose a new, effective and accurate clock system to implement across their network of train stations before any serious losses occur. After careful speculation, the administration has chosen to install Sapling IP Clocks throughout all facilities.

How Sapling’s Innovative IP Clocks Restore Profits to a Level Higher than Before:

•The transportation facility has chosen to implement Sapling’s IP Clock System across the board which can interface with the already existing network infrastructure and use a PoE power source.

•Because all stations are connected to the same network, all individual clock settings (such as time zones and daylight saving time) will be controlled through Sapling’s Web Interface.

•Instead of physically checking clock statuses, Sapling’s Web Interface can be used to monitor each clock’s functionality from one location at corporate headquarters

•The corporate headquarters runs on the same network and implemented Sapling IP Clocks as well.

•An (S)NTP server time source is used to keep each clock accurate and constantly updating, eliminating the occurrence of drifting clocks.

KAPUT! PROBLEM EXTERMINATED!

After the preceding actions are taken, the transportation company should soon notice a steep decline in customer complaints regarding time issues. Shortly after, sales will begin to rise again and grow beyond the level of sales that previously existed before the old clock system failed. Monitoring clock statuses will become simple and proactive. Because clocks are powered by PoE, costly wiring and battery replacements will not be necessary. When traveling during periods of Daylight Saving or between time zones, passengers will no longer find inaccurate clocks that failed to adjust. Since they are always connected and constantly being updated, drifting between clocks will become a thing of the past as well. Both the administration and passengers will be satisfied with the positive changes that have come from installing a Sapling Clock System.

In a variety of different applications, Sapling products offer maximum flexibility for the time keeping needs of virtually any transportation station.
For more information on IP clock systems, please read our other blog regarding IP clocks.