We wanted a brand that was well known so the staff trust it. We chose Samsung because of the brand, their reputation, the product and price point.

Adel Al-ShehabHead of IT,CrossCountry, Arriva Trains Wales, Arriva TrainCare

Through the use of mobile technology, Arriva looked at alternative methods for distributing the information. It concluded a move from paper to electronic formats would be both appreciated by drivers and save the company tens of thousands of pounds a year on print and distribution costs. “We wanted to transform our processes to reduce cost and our impact on

Revolutionising train driver documentationSamsung

The challenge:To transform the way train drivers access essential operating manualsArriva UK Trains has 14 years’ experience of running trains and is one of the primary train operating businesses in the UK. It currently operates fi ve major contracts covering 14% of the UK market. Arriva’s UK train operating companies are CrossCountry, Chiltern Railways, Arriva Trains Wales and Grand Central Railway. It has also just won the Northern rail franchise contract, and, in total, Arriva UK Trains now employs around 3,000 drivers across its diff erent train services.

For each railway service there’s a complex set of rules and regulations, laid out in Rule Books and Appendices. On top of these there are weekly and periodic notices consisting of several hundreds of pages covering varying geographical areas of the network. There are

also detailed operating and fault fi nding manuals for each type of train. The company provides each driver with a hard copy of this weighty compendium of manuals and information covering all the information they require.

Drivers have to carry the majority of these publications around with them as a legal requirement. The information is printed on quality-bound A5 and runs to thousands of pages. The vital documents are so big and bulky they have to be carried around in a large wheelie type bag.

The documentation is not only inconvenient to carry around but also incredibly expensive to print and update. On top of this, it takes a great deal of time and administrative eff ort to get updates of the publications out to drivers. It currently costs Arriva CrossCountry alone around £80k a year to print this material and keep it up to date.

The customerMajor transport solutions provider Arriva, which

runs a handful of train operating companies in the

UK – CrossCountry, Chiltern Railways, Arriva Trains

Wales and Grand Central.

The challengeTo replace Arriva’s process of printing bulky

operating manuals and rulebooks for its drivers

with a lightweight tablet computer and digital text.

Samsung products and services• 650 x Samsung Tab 4.

Benefi ts• Huge cost savings, with Arriva moving away

from administering the printing, updating and

distribution of printed publications to managing

the distribution of digital information accessed

through Samsung Note tablets.

• High quality, cost eff ective lightweight devices

that are well liked by Arriva’s drivers.

The drivers have really embraced the technology and have welcomed the introduction of the tablets. They are actively using the devices to improve and check their knowledge and skills. Adel Al-ShehabHead of IT,CrossCountry, Arriva Trains Wales, Arriva TrainCare

the environment and to enable staff to receive updates much more quickly,” sums up Adel Al-Shehab, Head of IT for CrossCountry, Arriva Trains Wales and Arriva TrainCare.

Arriva began a process of investigating its options and evaluating all the vendors providing mobile devices for storing and accessing digital publications. Following this evaluation period, Arriva made a commitment to invest in Samsung tablets.

“We evaluated diff erent manufacturers and wanted to standardise on one product. We wanted something that’s small enough to fi t into a coat pocket and that represented good value for money. We obviously wanted the right brand as well – one that was well known so the staff trust it. We also didn’t want to go for the absolute top-end as this wouldn’t be the most cost eff ective option. We chose Samsung because of the brand, their reputation and of course the product and price point,” says Al-Shehab.

The solution:An initial rollout to Arriva of 650 Samsung Tab 4 tabletsArriva’s fi rst batch of Samsung tablets has been rolled out to CrossCountry train drivers, with 650 Tab 4 devices now being used.

The company is using enterprise mobility management platform AirWatch to look after the management of publications and synchronise updates of information across its fl eet of Tab 4s. Each of the devices is synchronised via Wi-Fi every morning prior to the driver beginning their shift, ensuring they have access to the very latest information.

The size and weight of the tablet compared to the weighty printed publications Arriva used

before has had an immediate positive impact on these drivers. “Many are now carrying much smaller bags with them and this is seen as a welcome improvement from the large amount of documentation that was previously carried,” says Al-Shehab.

And the benefi ts for Arriva’s administrative processes are just as notable: “Having documentation issued to a driver electronically enables our driver management team to receive a notifi cation electronically when a document has been received and read,” explains Al-Shehab. “This reduces overheads in administration and auditing and is something we are looking to implement soon.”

As well as enabling drivers to use the tablets as a digital replacement to printed operating publications, Arriva is also extending the use of the Tab 4 tablets to give drivers access to email and keep them informed of the latest developments and company news. “It’s modernising our way of working and enables both employee engagement and better communications – it’s really helping to make these remote workers feel part of the wider organisation,” says Al-Shehab.

Another benefi t is the tablets are substantially increasing the amount of time drivers engage with the material in the operating publications compared to before, says Al-Shehab: “The drivers have really embraced the technology and have welcomed the introduction of the tablets. They are actively using the devices to improve and check their knowledge and skills; it’s no longer frowned on by fellow drivers to be reading such documentation in the mess room as this can now be done discreetly on the Samsung tablets.”

Contact detailsVisit: www.samsung.com/uk/business

Email: BusinessUK@samsung.comTel: +44 (0) 1932 455 000

Samsung Electronics (UK) LtdSamsung House, 1000 Hillswood Drive,

Chertsey, Surrey, KT16 0PS, United Kingdom

The results:The continual ongoing investment in Samsung tablets throughout 2016 Following the successful introduction of Samsung tablets for CrossCountry train drivers, the company is now planning on expanding the rollout. As Al-Shehab explains: “We’re not sure which model we’ll go for as yet, but it’ll be equivalent to the Tab 4. We are planning to extend the use of tablets to other parts of our business, and we’re also exploring ruggedised devices, too.” “Our immediate plans are for a further 300 devices for our CrossCountry catering staff and 150 for our fl eet maintenance engineers at Arriva Trains Wales,” reveals Al-Shehab. “We’re also planning to invest in more devices in our new Northern rail franchise over the coming year.”