Company insight Making the apron smarter
By leveraging the power of data analytics, HiSERV can increase GSE efficiency while reducing fleet size and cost, ensuring resources are allocated efficiently and swiftly with less downtime.
iSERV has been revolutionising the GSE rental market since 2017 by delivering premium quality, great flexibility and fair and transparent prices. As one of the leading GSE service providers in Europe, the company manages a young and modern fleet of more than 4,000 GSE units and offers pricing and services that enable its customers to be competitive in ground handling. HiSERV’s various rental options, including short-term rental and pay-per-use (PPU), gives its customers ultimate flexibility.
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By using digital solutions, HiSERV is able to provide reliable data to help its customers optimise their fleet usage. All the company’s GSE is equipped with tracking devices that facilitate the localisation and complete monitoring of operations.
Smart data key to fleet optimisation
Roland Ückert, managing director of HiSERV, believes that smart applications have a direct positive impact on the bottom line for ground services companies. By knowing the exact location of each GSE unit, it usually becomes evident that too much equipment is either owned or rented. The reduction of fleet sizes by approximately 10% is easily achievable. The number of fleet management staff can also be reduced, since less time is needed to locate GSE and allocate it on the apron areas. Data can help even further, too, through predictive maintenance features enabling workshop use to be optimised and equipment downtime to be reduced to a minimum. This translates into an increase in the availability of assets.
Smart applications also play a vital role in life-cycle concepts since the data collected provides clear information on the optimal timing for substituting old
38 The FB-600 Electric towing tractor, for the pushback and maintenance towing of wide-body aircraft.
GSE for new. There is a tendency in the market to repair old equipment well beyond the point at which it still makes economic sense to do so. Without reliable information and data, fleet managers must rely on their gut instinct when deciding whether to repair existing equipment or purchase new equipment. Information on fuelling, engine running hours and idle times all helps support commercial decisions. With its many years of experience and expertise working with a wealth of customers, HiSERV has collaborated with industry partners on both the supplier and customer side. In one of its current projects, it is working with its supplier to make towable units (baggage carts and container dollies) intelligent. This includes tracking and weighing functions that indicate where the equipment is and whether it is loaded or available. Ückert is confident that such developments will be well-received by customers, due to the considerable cost savings and huge potential for additional revenue they harbour. HiSERV leverages established standard tracking solutions but has also developed its own software applications. The goal is always to keep the cost of the reliable
operation of the GSE low and to provide a stable working environment. And because all HiSERV’s tracking functions are available on smartphones, getting started with smart GSE is as easy as ABC, and the relevant data is available anytime, anywhere.
Ückert sees two areas in which smart applications will be of great benefit in the future. The first area is smart charging applications for the growing fleets of electric GSE, for which smart management of charging cycles is critical. Charging infrastructure differs significantly between airports in Europe, so any smart charging vendor will have a competitive edge.
The second area in which innovation is set to accelerate in the coming years is autonomous driven GSE. The increasingly severe shortage of personnel and ever-greater availability of fast and powerful networks will ensure that self- driving GSE will quickly gain traction. “We’ll be keeping a close eye on the market, and HiSERV will be among the first providers to deploy this technology,” Ückert says. ●
www.hiserv.aero Future Airport /
www.futureairport.com
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