Transit is the backbone of thriving, efficient cities. As we’ve partnered with agencies like the MBTA and Votran to modernize operations with Spare’s platform, we’ve seen what connected, real-time tools can unlock. More reliable service, better visibility, and faster decisions. But one challenge kept surfacing: fleet maintenance.

We kept hearing the same frustration about public-sector fleet maintenance. Vehicles essential to delivering reliable, safe service were managed by systems that haven't kept pace with how transit and municipal operations actually work. Paper inspection forms that disappear into filing cabinets. Work orders that ping-pong between legacy systems. Preventive maintenance schedules that ignore how your vehicles are actually being used.

Your fleet doesn't break down on a schedule. So why does your maintenance software act as if it does?
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Why we built Spare EAM

We built Spare EAM with agencies like Citibus in Lubbock and GCTD that were looking to expand Spare's optimization and intelligence into their fleet maintenance.  

Here's what we saw when we sat down with maintenance supervisors and fleet managers across transit agencies and municipal operations: they were running tight operations with good people, but their systems were working against them.

A technician finishes a pre-trip inspection on a bus or public works vehicle, writes up issues on paper, hands them to a supervisor, who enters them into one system, creates a work order in another, and then checks a third system to see if the parts are in stock. By the time the work order gets assigned, the vehicle might already be back in service or broken down on route.

Meanwhile, leadership is trying to answer basic questions like "What's our actual cost per mile?" or "Why are we replacing brake pads on Bus 47 every three months?" but the data lives in spreadsheets, legacy systems, or someone's institutional memory.

This isn't a people problem. It's a tool problem that spans every asset-intensive public sector operation.
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Predictive, smart integrated EAM

Spare EAM puts everything in one place. Preventive maintenance, work orders, inventory, asset tracking, and the real-time data your team needs to stay ahead of problems instead of reacting to them.

But here's what makes it different. We built AI into the foundation, not added on later as an afterthought. The system learns from your actual usage patterns, fault codes, and inspection data to catch issues before they turn into breakdowns.

Say Bus 47 keeps going through brake pads. Spare doesn't just log it. It flags the pattern, compares it to similar vehicles in your fleet, and suggests whether it's a parts issue, a route problem, or driver behaviour. Your team gets the context they need to fix the root cause, not just swap parts and hope.

“Spare is proving that Enterprise Asset Management doesn't need to be overly complex. We are revolutionizing the industry with a platform that combines modern simplicity with enterprise-grade power. Whether you run a small team or a massive operation, Spare delivers the scalability and innovation you need without the clunky interface you hate." 
- Serge Jarlian, Director of Sales, EAM

Serge has spent five years working with transit agencies and municipalities on their fleet and maintenance challenges. Previously at Trapeze, he deeply understands the needs of transitioning from legacy operations. He's heard the same pain points from dozens of agencies, and he knows what actually works versus what just sounds good in a product demo.
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Built for how public sector teams actually work

We designed Spare EAM with clear roles in mind because a technician on the shop floor needs different tools than the director presenting to the city council.

Technicians get mobile tools that replace clipboards and paperwork. Inspections happen on tablets with auto-populated checklists based on vehicle type and mileage. When they flag an issue, it automatically creates a work order and checks whether parts are available, all in real time.

Supervisors see live dashboards showing what's being worked on, what's waiting for parts, and where bottlenecks are forming. Fleet managers get the visibility they've been asking for. Trends in downtime by vehicle or department, cost anomalies that need investigation, and predictive alerts about upcoming maintenance needs based on actual data, not just calendar dates.

Leadership gets dashboards that demonstrate compliance and identify efficiencies and improvements  to elected officials and taxpayers. Track savings from reduced downtime, monitor cost-per-mile trends, and show the board or council exactly how preventive maintenance extends vehicle life and improves readiness across your entire asset portfolio.
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Beyond transit

What we learned building for transit applies directly to municipalities managing police fleets, fire apparatus, public works vehicles, and infrastructure assets. The opportunities are interconnected: aging systems, reactive maintenance, siloed data, and the need to prove value to taxpayers.

Whether you're running a transit system with 200 buses or a city fleet with 500 mixed vehicles across departments, there’s an opportunity to have a single pane of glass across maintenance, operations, and capital planning. Intelligent insights recognizing patterns, ability to forecast, and focus on the community rather than fighting g fires.  Not a patchwork of disconnected tools, but a unified intelligent platform.
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From assets to platform intelligence

Public sector agencies don't need more point solutions. They need a platform that connects operations and maintenance, daily service, and long-term asset planning, as well as front-line staff and executive leadership.

"We are witnessing a fundamental shift in how transit and government approach their infrastructure, and that is why it is so incredibly exciting to be part of the journey here at Spare. We aren't just building software; we are powering the new era of Enterprise Asset Management.

This new era is defined by the convergence of three critical missions. First, we are delivering enterprise-level visibility, giving agencies the control they need to run smooth, efficient operations that their ridership can count on every day. Second, we are anchoring that efficiency in trust, ensuring uncompromising compliance with FTA standards to keep rider safety at the forefront. And finally, we are changing the game by moving from reactive to proactive, utilizing modern AI and predictive maintenance to solve problems before they even happen. We are building the future of reliable transit."
- Serge Jarlian, Director of Sales, EAM

We're building deeper integrations with AVL systems and diagnostic tools so your data works harder and your teams stay in sync across departments. Your assets are already telling you what they need through telematics fault codes, inspection trends, energy consumption patterns, HVAC runtime anomalies, and environmental sensor data from facilities and infrastructure. The problem isn't a lack of signal. It's that no one's listening across the full portfolio.

Spare EAM's predictive engine connects these dots across vehicle fleets, facilities, and fixed infrastructure to surface maintenance intelligence that would take your team weeks to uncover and manually communicate across teams. A bus trending toward compressor failure is flagged alongside a maintenance bay with declining air-quality readings and an elevator approaching its service threshold. All prioritized by operational impact, not just calendar dates.

This is what shifts maintenance from a cost center to a strategic function: the ability to allocate labor and budget toward what actually matters next, not what's next on a spreadsheet.

Spare EAM is proof that we're building exactly that. Not just another fleet management system. A complete operations platform that grows with how transit agencies and municipalities work.