Case Study: GCTD Shifts to Proactive Maintenance Operations with Spare EAM

Serving 550,000 residents across 2,200 square miles service area 

100+ vehicles unified under one maintenance platform

100% mechanic adoption achieved within 30 days of implementation

20% more inspections completed

2+ hours of admin saved daily

15% more vehicles available for service

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Gulf Coast Transit District (GCTD) serves one of Texas's fastest-growing coastal regions, providing essential mobility to roughly 550,000 residents across nearly 2,200 square miles. The district operates urban fixed-route service, ADA paratransit, demand-response microtransit branded as "Ride The Wave," park-and-ride commuter routes, and veterans shuttles.

As demand surged - with the agency growing from 36 employees in 2018 to 95 by 2025 - GCTD's fragmented maintenance systems struggled to keep pace. In July 2025, the district partnered with Spare to deploy its Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) platform, unifying inspections, work orders, parts inventory, and asset data into a single, AI-powered system. 

Within the first months, GCTD achieved 100% mechanic adoption, reduced administrative burden by 80%, and increased vehicle availability by 15%. 

"Our mission is to serve our community with dependable transit. We saw an opportunity to transform how we manage our fleet - replacing manual processes and scattered information with an integrated proactive approach. This is more than just new software - it's a leap forward for how we serve our riders."

Ted Ross, Executive Director, Gulf Coast Transit District

Scaling maintenance operations to serve a rapidly growing region

GCTD operates in a region that mirrors the complexity of Texas itself - urban centers like Texas City and Lake Jackson alongside rural agricultural communities spanning two counties. GCTD doesn't just move commuters - it serves dialysis patients who depend on consistent, on-time service for life-sustaining treatments, students traveling to high school and college, senior citizens without personal vehicles, and veterans accessing essential services.

"We're not typical transit," explains Executive Director Ted Ross. "We're giving rides to the less fortunate - people not fortunate enough to have vehicles, the elderly, kids that are disabled. We have a lot of people depending on us to get those rides where they need to be."

Before 2025, GCTD’s maintenance relied on a patchwork of disconnected systems: inspections in one platform, fueling in another, parts in Excel, and work orders on paper.

This fragmentation created significant operational friction. Reports that should have been instant took hours to compile. Preventive maintenance schedules were difficult to track, leading to missed service intervals, unplanned breakdowns, and vehicles pulled from service unexpectedly - directly impacting riders who counted on GCTD to reach medical appointments, jobs, and school on time.

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Facing mounting pressure as the region expands

The challenges intensified as GCTD's service area grew. Between 2018 and 2025, the district nearly tripled its workforce to meet rising demand and launch new microtransit services. But the maintenance infrastructure hadn't evolved at the same pace.

Lead Mechanic Sean Jackson describes the daily struggle: "Before Spare, we were tracking inspections in one system, fueling in another, parts in Excel, and work orders on paper. It took hours just to pull reports or plan preventive maintenance. We needed everything in one place."

The consequences extended beyond inefficiency. Without real-time visibility into vehicle health, small issues - a low tire, a failing AC unit, a minor electrical problem - would go unnoticed until they escalated into costly road failures. Vehicles would be shut down for entire days while mechanics scrambled to diagnose problems without access to complete maintenance histories. Compliance reporting for FTA audits required manual data gathering across multiple sources, consuming valuable staff time that could have been spent on actual repairs.

Deputy Executive Director Lacey Hernandez saw an opportunity to strengthen safety protocols. Pre-trip and post-trip inspections are critical for identifying issues before vehicles enter service, and the team wanted a system that would make these checks seamless and automatic. 

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Building a proactive maintenance culture from the ground up

GCTD's leadership recognized that incremental fixes wouldn't solve the fundamental problem. The district needed a comprehensive platform that could unify all maintenance functions, provide real-time asset visibility, and support the agency's rapid growth trajectory. The team focused on three priorities:

1. Automate manual processes

2. Connect maintenance and operations

3. Use predictive insights to prevent failures.*

"We carry a lot of dialysis patients, students, seniors—people who really rely on us," Ross emphasizes. "It could be trying at times, but as a team we get it done. To do that effectively, we needed technology that worked as hard as our people do."

At the core of this vision was a shift from reactive maintenance - fixing problems after they occur - to proactive asset management that predicts issues before they disrupt service. The district sought a system that would make vehicle health data immediately accessible to both mechanics and operations staff, enable faster response times, and create a foundation for long-term asset lifecycle planning.

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Choosing a platform built specifically for transit operations

GCTD evaluated multiple enterprise asset management solutions but found that most legacy systems were adapted from other industries rather than purpose-built for public transit. These platforms required extensive customization, lengthy implementation timelines, and often suffered from poor adoption among mechanics who found them cumbersome to use in the field.

Spare EAM offered a different approach. As the first AI-native asset management system designed specifically for public transit, it connected inspections, work orders, inventory, and asset health in a single, integrated platform. The mobile-first interface was built for mechanics working in garages and in the field. Preventive maintenance could be scheduled around actual service windows rather than arbitrary calendar dates. Reports were automatically audit-ready without requiring additional administrative work.

Critically, Spare EAM integrated directly with GCTD's existing operations platform - the same Spare system the district was already using for its Ride The Wave microtransit service. This meant maintenance and operations would share a unified view of fleet health for the first time.

"What we really like about Spare is that it's one software. Everything's combined so we're no longer spending time going through multiple systems. It's right at the tip of their fingers and it has made our jobs ten times easier."

Lacey Hernandez, Deputy Executive Director, Gulf Coast Transit District

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Rapid deployment delivers immediate operational impact

In July 2025, GCTD launched Spare EAM across its 100+ vehicle fleet with comprehensive deployment and intensive training. Within two weeks, mechanics were logging vehicle defects in real time, updating work orders from anywhere in the garage, and accessing complete vehicle histories instantly. 

The impact was immediate: 100% mechanic adoption within 30 days, a 20% increase in completed inspections, and 80% reduction in administrative time. Vehicles that previously would have been shut down for an entire day when a defect was reported could now be quickly triaged and returned to service.

 "Before EAM, when we had a defect on a vehicle, that vehicle would get shut down for the day," explains Jackson. "With EAM, our mechanics know about it immediately. I could pull up Spare right now and see exactly what's going on with one of my vehicles."

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Enforcing safety compliance through intelligent automation

GCTD made safety compliance a top priority. With Spare EAM, pre- and post-trip inspections became non-negotiable through built-in digital controls.The platform integrated directly with vehicle systems, preventing drivers from starting a bus until required inspections were completed in the app. Each inspection followed a standardized digital checklist, capturing specific defect details with photos and timestamps.

The automated enforcement delivered immediate benefits. Safety compliance reached 100% from day one, with all required inspections completed. Mechanics received better information about vehicle conditions, including specific details like AC units blowing warm air or tires running low on pressure. When the Federal Transit Administration conducted audits, GCTD could generate comprehensive compliance reports in minutes rather than spending days manually compiling data from multiple sources.

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Extending asset lifecycles through predictive intelligence

Beyond immediate operational gains, Spare EAM enabled GCTD to take a more strategic approach to fleet management. The platform's AI-powered analytics analyzed patterns across inspection data, maintenance histories, and diagnostic codes to identify vehicles at risk of failure before problems escalated. This predictive capability allowed GCTD to shift maintenance dollars from emergency repairs to planned preventive work, reducing both costs and service disruptions. The comprehensive tracking of parts usage, labor hours, and maintenance costs provided unprecedented visibility into total cost of ownership for each vehicle.

"One feature I use on the system daily would be the issues with the vehicles. If there's a flat tire or headlight out, I use that daily to ensure that we can fix that unit properly and get it on the road safely. Now, I can see the vehicle history right on my screen and update work orders on the spot. It makes my day a lot easier."

Sean Jackson, Lead Mechanic, Gulf Coast Transit District

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Delivering on the mission to serve the community

For GCTD, improved maintenance operations translate directly to better service for the riders who depend on public transit. Dialysis patients reach their appointments on time. Students get to school and college consistently. Senior citizens can count on rides to grocery stores and medical facilities. Veterans access the services they've earned.

By eliminating hours of daily administrative work, Spare EAM allows GCTD's maintenance team to focus on what they do best- keeping vehicles safe and reliable. The unified platform improved communication between operations and maintenance staff, reducing misunderstandings and enabling faster problem resolution.

Ross sees Spare EAM as integral to fulfilling the district's core promise to the community: "We do it all with great customer service, and we do it for pennies on the dollar. Gulf Coast Transit District is helping connect communities one ride at a time."

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Building for continued growth and innovation

GCTD's Spare EAM implementation is still in its early stages, but the agency has already established a strong foundation for the future. The district has made Spare integration a standard requirement for all new applications and systems, ensuring that maintenance data remains unified as the technology ecosystem evolves. Looking ahead, GCTD plans to expand its use of predictive analytics, leveraging more advanced AI capabilities as the platform accumulates additional historical data.

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