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Accessing PUTCO

Business Connexion project manages integrated biometric access control solution for PUTCO’s new Roseville depot in Pretoria.

PUTCO was established in 1945 after the dramatic bus strike of 1944 and today provides commuter bus services in Gauteng, Limpopo and the western parts of Mpumalanga.

PUTCO is the only public passenger company previously listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange SA (JSE) and has grown into the biggest commuter bus operator in the country. It operates 1600 buses, employs just over 3300 people and transports more than 230 000 commuters daily. PUTCO vehicles travel more than 90 million kilometres per year.

According to the company’s system support analyst, time and attendance (T&A), Maarten Dupper, PUTCO is in the throes of a major upgrade in terms of its T&A systems. “We contracted Business Connexion (BCX), through its Innovation Group, to project manage the specific portions of this project and as such they are responsible for assisting with the suggestion and selection of critical equipment and software and the implementation of all resources to pre-specified criteria.”

The system comprises two full height Triumph turnstiles (with four access options); and eight Traffic Master vehicle booms, two of which are for vehicle lane access and six for bus lane access. These gates and barriers were sourced from Turnstar. The Safran Morphoaccess biometric readers, with the ImproNet access control software backbone were integrated to Timekeeper, the T&A software, to offer the turnkey solution.

BCX was responsible for full coordination of the project elements and their experience with similar projects came to the fore in the successful implementation of the access control. “The beauty of dealing with one point of contact was that we were kept informed at every step what the current status of the project was,” said Dupper. “In essence, this meant that we briefed BCX at the start of the project then left them to select and source the appropriate equipment and software to link into the Timekeeper software we were running.

“We also requested BCX to link the system into a data driven system, situated on UniQue (payroll system provided by BCX), which contains information on the Professional Driving Permit (PRDP) or regular driver’s licence status of our bus drivers. By linking the two systems together, the access control system is automatically informed when a licence or PRDP has expired and its holder will not be allowed to access the facility.

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