Private Operators Research Articles

From pragmatic to politicized? The future of water remunicipalization in the United States

The United States has experienced swings of public and private operation of its water services for more than 150 years. This paper examines the most recent swing, that of remunicipalization. We argue that much of this remunicipalization is taking place for ‘pragmatic’ reasons related to cost savings and service quality, but there are also signs of more ‘politicized’ forms of water remunicipalization taking place, similar to efforts elsewhere in the world where the process has often involved heated ideological debates and mass mobilizations. Combined with a growing politicization of other social, economic, and environmental issues in the US, water remunicipalization could become more politicized in the future, but a fragmented ‘pro-public’ movement, combined with ongoing efforts to outsource water services and growing resistance to remunicipalization from private water companies, may constrain this potential.

Noise measurements in the AS 350 helicopter under the specific operating conditions of SAR mission

The AS 350 helicopter is a small and versatile helicopter used in many countries by private and public operators. In some countries the model is also often used for SAR missions. In the Brazilian public rescue services, AS 350 helicopters account for around 80 percent of the whole fleet. SAR missions often require operating conditions different from those for usual passenger transport. This includes flying and hovering with open doors or at low altitudes and low speeds. Noise exposure during SAR missions is of concern not only for the crew but also for the passengers, i.e. injured patients or newborn. While very important, data on acoustic conditions in SAR aircraft are scarce and do not exist for the AS 350 yet. Therefore, to investigate the noise in the AS 350 during SAR specific operating conditions different aircraft of the same model were equipped with recording equipment (microphone and SQuadriga II stand-alone front end ) and flown in the specific operating conditions of SAR missions. Recordings were analyzed using not only 1/n-octave and or FFT analysis, but also variable frequency resolution Fourier analysis for better low frequency analysis and psychoacoustic models available in ArtemiS Suite v12. Results show how noise characteristics vary depending on the operation of the aircraft, and which operating conditions are the most critical and should be avoided. The data can be used by SAR operators to build noise optimized mission profiles for critical missions, such as transportation of newborn and maintaining operational safety.

The Dynamics of Ports Reforms in Nigeria: Implications for Sustainable Ports Operations

Over the time Nigeria economy is largely public sector driven, in which the seaports were not left out: managed by Nigerian Port Authority (NP A). With the seaports under the autonomous of NPA were faced with strangulating problems ranging from inefficiency of it services rendered, insecurity of ships and cargo, lack of modern infrastructures, inefficiency of the NPA staff and excess bureaucracy and sharp practice (corporate) these factors make port tariff on import and export higher than they need to be, couple with the technology trend in maritime transport which required huge capital fund. The government call for ports reforms; a reform that will liberalized and deregulate the seaport by the use of concession contract, this mandate the NPA to transfer terminals operators while NPA concentrates to play the role of landlord oversight functions. The government went further to reform the import guidelines procedures and documentation requirement, changing it form Pre-shipment Inspection (PSI) to Destination Inspection (DI). The Seaport reforms which government introduced in 1996 eliminated the crippling delays in the clearance of import goods in the ports. This research study will examine the dynamics of port operations, the contribution of private operator in seaport operations, and services; technological development: considering the variable attached to seaport operations. Furthermore, this research analyze private sector capital investment in port and maintenance of infrastructures, superstructures and the contract of concession with other practicing nations, while from drawn questionnaire and secondary data the research will examine how and if Nigeria will benefit in the area of capacity building, physical development and if at all there is competition among the terminal operators considering there role in the concession regime. Finally, emphasis and comparison will be laid on cargo throughout, ship tum around, clearing procedures and port charges with the involvement of private participation. DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/11-7-01 Publication date: August 31 st 2021

Exploratory assessment of challenges and issues with private water operators in rural water supply and service delivery: a case study of the Karamoja region, Uganda

Abstract This exploratory assessment was conducted in the Karamoja region of North Eastern Uganda. The aim was to analyse the contextual shortfalls that undermine the effectiveness and sustainability of private operators (PO) in water supply. POs had limited capacity to manage affairs of the water supply systems (WSS). Specifically, their skills were lacking to manage the electromechanical components of the systems, meter reading, and they exhibited poor customer care skills. Intermittent power supplies rendered the WSS unreliable. Solar systems were reported to have erratic frequencies and output which also ultimately resulted in inconsistent water supply. However, the POs hardly pursued corrective measures. The weak enforcement of regulatory policies propagated non-uniformity in tariff implementation approaches across districts contributing to lower willingness to pay. The POs’ focus on profits presents a unique challenge as they attempt to minimise energy expenses in a bid to widen profit margins. We conclude that the limited technical and managerial capacity of POs in running water supply systems is a critical cause of unsatisfactory service delivery to water users. Finally, the weak water governance and regulatory policy enforcement and the non-adherence to water tariff plans not only affect PO economies of scale but also hamper efficient service delivery.

Modeling and managing the joint equilibrium of destination and parking choices under hybrid supply of curbside and shared parking

This paper models the joint equilibrium of destination and parking choices in cities under hybrid supply of curbside parking and shared parking. Given the parking supply (capacities and prices), the joint equilibrium of destination and parking choices is formulated as a variational inequality problem. We then discuss the existence and uniqueness/non-uniqueness of the joint equilibrium. We also analyze the pricing strategies of private and public shared parking operators and how these are related to travelers’ destination and parking choices, where a private operator maximizes its profit (can be either monopoly or oligopoly) and a public operator maximizes social benefit. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the model and analytical results, and also to provide further understanding.

Minimum Round Card-Based Cryptographic Protocols Using Private Operations

This paper shows new card-based cryptographic protocols with the minimum number of rounds, using private operations under the semi-honest model. Physical cards are used in card-based cryptographic protocols instead of computers to achieve secure multiparty computation. Operations that a player executes in a place where the other players cannot see are called private operations. Using three private operations—private random bisection cuts, private reverse cuts, and private reveals—the calculations of two variable Boolean functions and copy operations were realized with the minimum number of cards. Though the number of cards has been discussed, the efficiency of these protocols has not been discussed. This paper defines the number of rounds to evaluate the efficiency of the protocols, using private operations. Most of the meaningful calculations using private operations need at least two rounds. This paper presents a new two-round committed-input, committed-output logical XOR protocol, using four cards. Then, we show new two-round committed-input, committed-output logical AND and copy protocols, using six cards. Even if private reveal operations are not used, logical XOR, logical AND, and copy operations can be executed with the minimum number of rounds. Protocols for general n-variable Boolean functions and protocols that preserve an input are also shown. Lastly, protocols with asymmetric cards are shown.

How has access to legal cannabis changed over time? An analysis of the cannabis retail market in Canada 2 years following the legalisation of recreational cannabis

This study describes the legal recreational cannabis market across Canada over the 2 years following legalisation. We compared changes in access to the legal cannabis retail market for all provinces and territories (jurisdictions) in Canada and explored differences between jurisdictions. We collected data for all legal cannabis stores in Canada over five time periods following legalisation in October 2018. We examined the following measures by jurisdiction and retail model (public vs. private operation): absolute and per capita store numbers, hours of operation and store access across neighbourhoods. Two years following legalisation, there were a total of 1183 legal cannabis stores open across Canada (3.7 stores per 100 000 individuals aged 15+). There was wide variation between jurisdictions in access to retail stores, with the lowest stores per capita in Quebec and Ontario (0.6 and 1.6 per 100 000), and the highest in Alberta and Yukon (14.3 per 100 000 in both). Jurisdictions with private retail models had more stores (4.8 vs. 1.0 per 100 000), held greater median weekly hours (80 vs. 69) and experienced greater store growth over time compared to public models. After adjusting for confounders, there were 1.96 times (95% confidence intervals: 1.84, 2.09) more cannabis stores within 1000 m of the lowest- compared to the highest-income quintile neighbourhoods. While access to the recreational cannabis retail market has increased following legalisation, there is substantial variation in access between jurisdictions and evidence of concentration in lower-income neighbourhoods. These differences may contribute to disparities in cannabis use and harms.

Food traditions and consumer preferences for cured meats: Role of information in geographical indications

Growth and development are two economic concepts that should go hand in hand. In a specific territory, the search for sustainable development is intertwined with the objectives of private operators but also with the public ones of collective well-being. As we know from the economic literature, the presence of information asymmetries leads to market failure as sustainability in the production of food products determines positive externalities that are not adequately remunerated. In this work some evolutionary trends in the demand for cured meats are analyzed, highlighting the relevant innovations introduced by sustainable consumption. Faced with this evolution of demand, with consumers increasingly responsible for the effects deriving from their choices, instead, the company has the possibility of improving its competitiveness through diversification strategies, with an ideal expansion of the business boundaries of companies that go beyond from a conventional food production to a competitive and attentive to the consumer. Through the analysis of the dynamics of supply and demand, it is highlighted how the redefinition of the production strategies of food companies can offer the opportunity to reduce, if not synergistic, the competitiveness objectives of the food sector with the public's expectations of sustainability. environmental. In this case, market failure is reduced thanks to the redefinition of corporate strategies, through which some public goods and guaranteed externalities become productive resources for the same companies, helping to broaden and better define the offer of economic goods and services they produce. The study examined the consumer's preferences for a food product, the San'Angelo di Brolo salami, a Protected Geographical Indication. The study highlights that the Protected Geographical Indication reduces the inforamative asymmetry and creates a long-term developmental condition.

User acceptance of electric car-sharing services: The case of the Netherlands

Abstract To reduce the externalities associated with the excessive use of carbon-fueled private vehicles, transport authorities and operators have recently been promoting one-way electric car-sharing services (ECS). Several studies attempted to identify the user acceptance and profiles of various car-sharing services, but there is a lack of consistent evidence of the psychological drivers of user acceptance. Based on an extension of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), this paper investigates the effects of six psychological constructs on behavioral intention to use ECS. Results from applying structural equation modeling to a survey with 656 respondents in the Netherlands show that social influence represents the most important driver of behavioral intention, followed by performance expectancy and personal attitude. It is also found that high satisfaction with the current means of transport for urban trips contributes to building trust in ECS companies, while car ownership has a negative indirect effect on behavioral intention. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of hygienization measures on behavioral intention is considered. The result shows that respondents have a high degree of trust in ECS operators complying with cleaning requirements, which is translated into a lower degree of anxiety and consequently higher behavioral intention.

Climate Change Perceptions by Smallholder Coffee Farmers in the Northern and Southern Highlands of Tanzania

Smallholder farmers are among the most vulnerable groups to climate change. Efforts to enhance farmers’ adaptation to climate change are hindered by lack of information on how they are experiencing and responding to climate change. Therefore, this paper examines smallholder farmers’ perceptions of climate change, factors influencing their perceptions, and the impacts and adaptation strategies adopted over the past three to four decades. A list of farmers was obtained from the Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Society (AMCOS) and filtered on the basis of age and farming experience. In order to explore factors influencing household perceptions of climate change, a structured questionnaire was administered to the randomly selected household heads. Data on rainfall and temperature were acquired from Lyamungo and Burka Coffee estate (Northern Highlands zone) and Mbimba and Mbinga (Southern Highlands zone) offices of the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) with the exception of data from Burka Coffee estate, which were acquired from a private operator. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models were used to analyze the data. Farmers’ perceptions were consistent with meteorological data both pointing to significant decline in rainfall and increase in temperature since 1979. Factors such as level of education, farming experience, and access to climate information influenced farmers’ perception on climate change aspects. Based on these results, it is recommended to enhance timely and accurate weather information delivery along with developing institutions responsible for education and extension services provision. The focus of education or training should be on attenuating the impacts of climate change through relevant adaptation measures in each coffee-growing region.

Formation of minimum social standards in the field of public transport services for the provinces of Syria

The problem of planning public transport in most Syrian cities is an essential problem since until now almost no one has addressed it. The reasons for this are the lack of adequate information about volumes of passenger traffic and the work of urban passenger transport, which affects on the quality of decisions made by the management of transport organizations, which, as a rule, choose either unsuitable systems for organizing urban passenger transport (UPT), or allow private operators to make their own decisions. Depending on the results of practical researches of passenger transportation in the province of Latakia, as well as after studying the social standards of different countries of the world, including the Russian Federation, authors have defined some parameters which that characterize the passenger experience before, during and after each trip. These materials have allowed to formulate recommendations in the field of public transport passenger service in the form of minimum social standards. These standards should become the basis for Improving public transport services for passengers not only in Latakia province, but also in Syria as a whole.

The complexity of stakeholder influence on MaaS: A study on multi-stakeholder perspectives in Shenzhen self-driving mini-bus case

Emerging technologies are changing our preferences for transportation solutions, which focus on service efficiency, safety, and sustainability. Mobility as a service (MaaS) is a user-oriented transportation solution that integrates both public and private operators into the same platform. The implementation of MaaS aims to simplify users’ booking procedures and increase the usability of various kinds of transportation resources. However, the integration of a myriad of transportation subsystems raises interpretation challenges from associated multi-stakeholder and subsystems. To overcome these challenges, the authors have involved different stakeholders from related subsystems to reveal concerns. This study aims to analyse a novel public transportation system - the self-driving mini-bus service in Shenzhen. The result shows that system characteristics and stakeholder concerns can be established using an Action, Factor and Goal structure. Stakeholders involved described their perceptions of self-driving bus integration in MaaS. The description could be used by analysts to uncover integration gaps further and could be updated by involving more stakeholders according to project developments. This study highlights the complexity of self-driving mini-buses integration challenges in MaaS from a stakeholder perspective, which provides learnings to advance the MaaS adoption in the future.

Railway efficiency. Metodological aspects

Improving market competitiveness and economic efficiency was the objective behind the demonopolisation and liberalisation of the railway sector in the European Union. Achieving this objective remains important and crucial to the development of a single rail transport market. The transport performance and financial results of the sector under the new, separative organisational structure of railways in the EU is the result of the action of many different actors, private operators and public entities. This significantly complicates the development of uniform and clear comparable performance evaluation indicators for the sector and makes comparative analyses difficult. Moreover, the specific situation of railways in the EU as a tool for implementing environmental and social policy may conflict with the requirements of financial efficiency. The article presents determinants and methods of measuring railway efficiency proposed by researchers and practitioners.

Smart Roads Geometric Design Criteria and Capacity Estimation Based on AV and CAV Emerging Technologies. A Case Study in the Trans-European Transport Network

Smart roads, AV and CAV are emerging technologies that represent the new paradigm of mobility. To support the public and private road operators better prepare themselves to implement these technologies in their respective existing or planned infrastructures, there is an urgent need to develop an integrated analysis framework to evaluate the impact of these novel systems on road capacity and safety in function of different market penetration levels of AVs and CAVs. The research focuses on novel smart road geometric design and review criteria based on the performance of AVs and CAVs. The case study of one of the first planned smart roads in Italy has been analysed.

Dynamic pricing of free-floating carsharing networks with sensitivity to travellers’ attitudes towards risk

Free-floating carsharing (FFCS) systems are characterised by volatile fleet distribution as well as customers’ heterogeneous price sensitivity and spatiotemporal flexibility. There is thus an opportunity for operators to employ dynamic pricing to manage various aspects of fleet allocation: which customer is provided which vehicle, at what time and price, and the agreed pick-up and drop-off location. While there are emerging examples of dynamic pricing in FFCS, there is as yet no general framework for the interaction of consumer and operator behaviours in this context, most particularly consumer response to the inherent risks and uncertainties in the journey characteristics noted above. In this study, we propose a choice-based framework for modelling the supply/demand interaction, drawing on behavioural models of decision-making in risky choice contexts and empirical stated-choice data of user preferences in a dynamically priced FFCS market. In addition to the ‘spot market’ mechanism of dynamic pricing, the proposed framework is capable of evaluating operator strategies of allowing (at an agreed price) customers to make guaranteed advance reservations. We demonstrate that this approach allows the system operator to set an optimal pricing strategy regardless of whether user risk preferences are risk-seeking or risk-averse. We also demonstrate the applicability of the proposed framework when the operator seeks to maximise revenue (as with a private operator) vs social welfare (as with a public operator). In the case study which employs empirical user preferences, we show that users’ risk preferences have a relatively small impact on revenue, however the impacts are much larger if there is a mismatch between users’ actual risk preferences and the system operator’s assumptions regarding users’ risk preferences.

Dynamic analysis of residential and enterprise water supply and leakage efficiencies.

With per capita water resources at only around a quarter of the world average, China's water resources are limited and unevenly distributed. Past research on water resource utilization has mainly focused on industrial water use (agriculture and industry), water plant ownership efficiencies (private or public operation), or water resources and economic production; however, there have been few studies focused on water supply livelihood. Therefore, this paper considered both industrial production water services, non-production water services (public sector and residential water use), and water leakage losses, which is a water supply problem seldom mentioned in other studies. An undesirable directional distance function (DDF) dynamic data envelopment analysis (DEA) model was employed for the dynamic analysis as it was able to deal with both desirable and undesirable outputs at the same time. The model examined collected water supply and water leak efficiency data from 30 Chinese provinces/municipalities from 2007 to 2018, from which it was found that (1) Beijing, Gansu, Guangdong, and Ningxia had efficient water supply and water leak losses from 2007 to 2018 and the most improved province was Jiangxi; (2) the eastern provinces, in general, had better water efficiencies and the central and western provinces needed greater improvements; and (3) the lowest water leakage loss efficiencies were in Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, and Heilongjiang, all of which required significant improvements.

E-scooter sharing to serve short-distance transit trips: A Singapore case

Abstract E-scooter sharing provides a last-mile solution to complement transit services, but less was known about its effectiveness in serving short-distance transit trips. We investigate the potential of using e-scooter sharing to replace short-distance transit trips of excessive indirectness, multiple transfers, and long access-egress walking. First, we conducted a stated preference survey on e-scooter users in the Central Area of Singapore and estimated mixed logit models to examine factors influencing the choice of e-scooters and transit. We then calculated the number of transit trips that can be replaced by e-scooters. Second, we analyzed the decision of e-scooter companies in terms of the trade-offs between serving more e-scooter trips and making more revenue under varying fares. The results show that fare, MRT transfer, and MRT access-egress walking distance have significantly negative impacts on mode utilities with random tastes among respondents. Male, young and high-income groups are more heterogeneous in e-scooter preferences compared with other groups. The loss of mode share can be nearly 17% if maximizing the revenue. We classify trade-off situations into five categories and provide suggestions of how to balance between mode share and revenue for each category. Several implications are drawn for better harnessing and regulating this new mobility service, including where to deploy e-scooters to satisfy the demand unmet by the transit and how to reach a proper balance between private operators and public welfare.

Performance analysis of a privately managed public hospital in Burkina Faso

Hospitals in Sub-Saharan Africa face many challenges. Burkina Faso has experimented a private operating system in a public hospital, in order to improve its performance. To assess the Tengandogo Teaching Hospital's (TTH's) performance in Ouagadougou. Burkina Faso. We carried out a mixed-method cross-sectional study. We collected data in April 2017 using document review and quantitative data (key performance indicators), individual interviews with key informants. The analytical framework covered services continuity, health department efficiency and staff working environment safety. Our study findings indicated that the performance of TTH hospital is hampered by frequent shortages in medicine and medical consumables, deteriorating facilities, poor coordination of care and lack of data on patients and staff security. Private management of public hospitals is not sufficient to improve the performance of hospitals in Burkina Faso. More attention should be paid to improving supply management of medicine, consumables and ensuring a safe work environment for health workers.

Enhancing public-private partnership efficiency by using life cycle contracts: a conceptual approach

Public-private partnership is a popular form of cooperation between the state and private operators. Thanks to this cooperation both parties can achieve their goals. The state attracts investments into capital-requiring projects while private companies get stable long-term cash flows and good rate of return in combination with law risks.However, being a form of cooperation of two parties, public-private partnership depends on the quality of organization of this cooperation.This paper presents an overview of public-private partnership and highlights its advantages for the state, business and the end user. Further, it presents an analysis of the life cycle contract system and identifies the disadvantages of this form of interaction. The authors propose to modernize the system of life cycle contracts through the concept of total cost of ownership. The nature of this concept is explained, its advantages and shortcomings are discussed. The paper provides practical examples and research that substantiate the authors' opinion.

March 2021 Land Transportation News [Transportation Systems

The Department of Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) in South Australia awarded Keolis Downer the contract to operate and maintain the commuter rail network of Adelaide in the state of South Australia. This is the first time this network has been managed by a private operator. Formed in 2009, Keolis Downer is a joint venture between Keolis, a leading public transport operator established in 15 countries (including the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and The Netherlands), and Downer, a provider of multimodal public transport services in Australia and New Zealand. Prior to this eight-year contract, Keolis Downer has operated and maintained the tram networks of Melbourne (the largest and oldest tram network in the world), the light rail networks on the Gold Coast and in Newcastle, and more than 1,000 buses across Australia.