Improving work-life balance through personalized driver schedules in Dijon

Driver retention: a key challenge for the transportation sector

For several years, the public transit sector has faced a serious driver shortage. Among the causes behind this shortage, some have pointed to the difficulty of finding a proper work-life balance in this field.

Indeed, drivers are often constrained by a strict schedule of shifts over which they have no control. Many drivers would like more simplicity and flexibility in the organization of their working time.

The traditional system of drawing up schedules based on standard weeks and a principle of rotating shifts between different drivers does not offer much in the way of flexibility. To overcome this difficulty, Keolis subsidiary DiviaMobilités in Dijon is testing out a new digital tool called Kustomize. The tool enables drivers to personalize their schedules while also taking into account individual preferences and service constraints.

The project was launched in December 2023 following an innovation workshop organized by the Keolis Group. The testing phase, which began in April 2024 with the participation of 84 drivers, enabled the teams to refine the solution. After obtaining approval from the unions involved in the pilot program, the system was rolled out in October 2025.

Since January 2026, a new testing phase has been underway, this time involving tram drivers.

Personalized schedules for a new organization of working time

The Kustomize digital solution operates in three steps:

1. Drivers input their preferences into the app, including rest days, constraints, and availability.

2. These preferences are cross-checked with network needs and labor regulations.

3. An algorithm generates a personalized schedule for each driver, supervised by the planning and scheduling team.

The project is led by Keolis Dijon Multimodalité, the Operations Management team, and Keolis' Open Lab, which prototyped the tool using insights from industries like food service, aviation, and urban transport—sectors known for shift-based work schedules. Drivers were involved from the start, contributing through dedicated working groups.

A more flexible organization of working time adapted to every driver

The ability to customize schedules represents a significant step forward in organizing drivers’ work schedules. This tool takes drivers’ preferences into account, thereby improving their well-being and work-life balance. This innovation reduces driver absenteeism, allows them to be more involved in their scheduling, removes a barrier to recruitment, and ultimately improves service quality and passenger satisfaction. A success for this Dijon pilot

The Dijon pilot aims to fine-tune the model’s performance and ensure the satisfaction of internal teams, who have been key stakeholders in the project.

Following the pilot phase, the Kustomize project was rolled out in October 2025 via a digital app for bus drivers and through a solution integrated with other service planning tools. Since January 2026, a new testing phase has been launched with tram drivers.

Today, teams from Keolis Dijon Multimodalité and the Keolis Group’s Operations and IT departments are working on scaling up Kustomize with the goal of deploying the solution across several subsidiaries.