Public Transport Companies Research Articles

Optimal bus frequency for Kuwait public transportation company: A cost view

In this study, The Optimal Number of buses for Kuwait Public Transport Company (KPTC) was determined. Integer linear programing model for the general problem was developed first. A case study where this model was applied to Kuwait Public Transport Company was considered. It is important to mention that the most important five routes were selected using Pareto analysis. Finally, the optimal annual profit was computed for each route and the model results were compared with the current condition. The results showed that using Mercedes buses was more economically efficient than using the other types, Volvo and Daewoo. Compared with the existing situation, the number of cycles as well as the number of buses should be increased to satisfy the average daily demand. The overall annual profit for the routes was proportional to their high daily demand except for one route. Even though, the model in this project can be extended to cover more paths and divide the day into shifts, which may lead to a better solution. Further studies are highly recommended to improve the public transport system in Kuwait.

Contributions Regarding the Creation of the Digital Map of the Public Transport in the Metropolitan Area of Cluj

A special importance in the stimulation of the public transport use, is the increase of the informing degree of travellers with regards to the transport networks. The paper presents technical data regarding the making of the digital map of the public transport in the metropolitan area of Cluj. The digital map was created by the authors, using data from Open Street Map site and data collected with the help of GPS, made available by Public Transport Company Cluj-Napoca S.A. The digital map created for public transport in the Municipality of Cluj-Napoca and Metropolitan Area of Cluj, with detailed maps routes, offers to users, information on public transport which leads to the efficiency of services and passengers’ safety, increasing mobility and sustainability of Cluj-Napoca city.

Green Marketing and its Use in a Transport Company

Abstract Green marketing as a part of environmental management has become a new marketing philosophy of many companies. It includes more than just a simple building of corporate image but it also becomes a modern idea of the enforcement of actual environmental trends to a broad spectrum of business activities. The field of action of green marketing tools is relatively extensive, starting with the protection of environment, production and sale of products and services with ecological conditions and requirements, through the final consumption of environmentally friendly products, which affects the quality of life and health of the whole society. The aim of the article includes to provide a literature review on the issue from several foreign and domestic authors. By using methods of description, comparison, deduction, induction, it discusses the essence of a green marketing and also analyses its use in a Slovak public transport company. Based on this, in discussion are indicated some proposals to improve the effectivity and visibility of these activities in the public transport company and thus ensure the image of the company as more environmental friendly. This measures help to improve the positive perception of the company by customers and the general public.

Promoting structured participation for competitiveness in services companies

Purpose: To identify the main drivers that facilitate the successful deployment of a participation program aimed at improving competitiveness, as a prior step to analyze and discuss the implementation of these drivers in three services companies.Design/methodology/approach: The selection of the drivers was based on a “content analysis” of recent literature (2007-2017). To test the level of deployment of these drivers, the “case study” technique was choosen. The authors have selected two public transport companies and one bank, which have more than twenty years´ experience in the development of participation programs.Findings: From the case studies analysis, we conclude that participation can successfully improve a company’s competitiveness, provided that the drivers are developed with this specific aim. Thus, the analysis of these drivers allows to identify some gaps in aspects such as, the extension of participation throughout the company, the methodology adopted in the deployment of participation programs, the organizational structure for monitoring the program tasks, the reward/recognition systems and, especially, the implementation of KPIs for connecting participation and competitiveness.Research limitations/implications: This paper is based on a review of current literature, the analysis of three case studies, and our own personal experience. Our observations and comments may be qualified by future investigation with an increased sample of companies.Practical implications: This paper could be of interest to companies due to outlines the drivers that are critical to implementing participation programs focused on competitiveness. This could help companies that are thinking of implementing such programs, or those that are unhappy with their current programs, to re-design their plans in line with their business strategy. Originality/value: The main contribution of this paper lies in its theoretical and applied approach, analyzing in a comparative and longitudinal way the deployment of the drivers in services companies. This analysis allows the identification of strengths and weaknesses in the implementation of these participation programs focused on competitiveness.This combined and comparative approach is considered especially novel in the academic and professional world. Likewise, the analysis of companies with a longstanding history in their participation programs is also relevant, particularly, in the services sector.

Applying Time-Dependent Attributes to Represent Demand in Road Mass Transit Systems.

The development of efficient mass transit systems that provide quality of service is a major challenge for modern societies. To meet this challenge, it is essential to understand user demand. This article proposes using new time-dependent attributes to represent demand, attributes that differ from those that have traditionally been used in the design and planning of this type of transit system. Data mining was used to obtain these new attributes; they were created using clustering techniques, and their quality evaluated with the Shannon entropy function and with neural networks. The methodology was implemented on an intercity public transport company and the results demonstrate that the attributes obtained offer a more precise understanding of demand and enable predictions to be made with acceptable precision.

The value of mobile ticketing from a public transport perspective

Within the field of mobile payments, the market segment for mobile ticketing services is expected to grow, driven by the public transport sector. Although a large number of studies have explored the value of mobile payments to customers (ie service end users), there is a lack of research exploring the value of mobile payment and mobile ticketing for business customers (ie transport companies and retailers). This paper aims to address this gap and to explore the kinds of value that mobile ticketing services create for public transport companies. The research considers mobile ticketing services in six Northern European countries. The research findings suggest that within the business-to-business context, mobile ticketing services create multiple dimensions of value, namely enhanced technical functionality; financial value; better working environment; operational value; and reputational and customer relationship value. For passengers, meanwhile, value takes the form of convenience and service enhancement. These benefits are factors driving adoption of mobile ticketing and mobile payment services by public transport companies.

Money Drives

This paper examines the effectiveness of monetary incentives based on real-time monitoring as means to improve driving behavior of company car drivers. We conducted a 5-months 60-drivers field study with one of the largest public transportation companies in Israel. Driving behavior was measured continuously using In-Vehicle Data Recorders (IVDR) that were pre-installed in the vehicles, enabling naturalistic, objective and concise measurements. The driving behavior measurements were then used to examine two different monetary incentive schemes: (1) a simple individual incentive scheme where each driver was rewarded based on his own improvement in driving behavior, and (2) a peer-reward scheme where each driver was rewarded based on the improvement of his peers. Drivers were also provided with daily feedback about their improvement and the reward they gained using text messages and a dedicated smartphone app. We find that the two incentive schemes presented an average improvement of 25% in driving behavior, whereas the control group (that did not use any monetary incentive) presented no improvement at all. Surprisingly and in contrast to the reported superiority of the peer-reward scheme in previous studies, we find the individual scheme to perform better in our setting (31% vs. 15% improvement). Finally, we find that the monetary incentive schemes were able to reduce fuel consumption significantly, suggesting that such incentives can serve as a sustainable mechanism for improving driving behavior in real-world applications.

Life Cycle of Public Transportation Companies of DR Congo <br/>—A Diachronic and Synchronic Analysis

In most of developing countries, the public transportation remains the challenges for most of the population. This inherent situation is observed in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where the demand of public transportation exceeds the supply. It has been found that public transportation companies are created, but they eventually fall into bankruptcy. The causes can be of course diverse. The objective of this study is to trace and describe the life cycles of these transportation companies of DR Congo in the diachronic and synchronic perspective. Using the documentary analysis of secondary data and interviews, the findings provide a description of the life cycles of the DRC transportation companies according to their cycle duration, types and steps in the diachronic and synchronic perspective.

Systematic Approach to Analyze Travel Time in Road-Based Mass Transit Systems Based on Data Mining

Road-based mass transit systems are an effective means to combat the negative impact of transport that is based on private vehicles. Providing quality of service in this type of transit system is a priority for transport authorities. In these systems, travel time (TT) is a basic factor in quality of service. This paper presents a methodology, based on data mining, for analyzing TT in a mass transit system that is planned by timetable. The objective of the methodology is to understand the behavior patterns of TTs on the different routes of the transport network, as well as the factors that influence these patterns. To achieve this objective, the methodology uses clustering techniques to process the GPS data provided by the vehicles of the public transport fleet. The results that were obtained when implementing this methodology in a public transport company are presented as a use case, demonstrating its validity.

Assessment of the efficiency of municipal companies based on local collective transport

The main objective of this article is to determine the effectiveness of enterprises providing municipal services and a model approach for processes related to the provision of local public transport services in Poland. In particular, the identification included methods of organisation and implementation of public utility tasks as well as organisational and legal forms and forms of ownership in the case of local collective transport. An attempt has been made to determine the effectiveness of enterprises providing urban transport services in cities in Poland, assessing their operational, financial, technical and social effectiveness. The research design and methods used in this article are based on the assessment of the effectiveness of enterprises using taxonomic methods of grouping e ntities according to selected characteristics and efficiency measures. The use of the k-means method with the number of clusters determined on the basis of the hierarchical Ward method, in which the contribution of variables to the differentiation of clusters was determined on the basis of a one-way analysis of ANOVA variance, to obtain groups of companies with similar efficiency indicators. The findings, based on the conducted research, present the relationship between the economic efficiency of public transport companies and their organisational and legal form as well as the type of ownership. Recommendations from empirical studies indicate that public enterprises operating in the field of municipal services provide public utility services with a higher level of economic efficiency than other distinctive groups of carriers. The added value is that the research methods presented in this work can be successfully applied to other sectors of the economy and other countries in order to verify the effectiveness of individual organizational, legal and ownership forms of enterprises. JEL classification: L300

Transport modes junction in an airport

The paper tries to improve the multimodal passenger transport system. The growing demand for mobility has led to the need of finding ways to deal with it. The Authorities should focus on providing an attractive public transport which implies a public transport with sufficient transport capacity and with announced and correlated transport schedules.Transfer time is one of the most important service quality indicator for evaluating intermodal transit system.The paper is making available to decision-makers from transport domain a methodology for correlating both transport capacities and transport schedules, exemplifying it on a case study in Henri Coanda airport.To increase the airport accessibility, the airport Authority depends on other involved organizations like: urban and regional public transport companies; taxi operators; rental car companies etc. The transport options for air passengers from/to home to/from Henri Coanda Airport are: individual long distance modes (private vehicle, taxi); collective long distance modes (bus transport). The paper presents the correlation of transport capacities and transport schedules in Henri Coanda airport considering the air traveler passengers flow

Public Transport Pricing in Nigeria

Public transport is an important social service to satisfy the travel needs of citizens. There is the need to regulate fare so that it can be affordable to the transit riders. This study examines pricing of public transport operation in Nigeria. The information on fare pricing and regulation was sourced from the management of public and private transport companies and executives of transport unions in Lagos. Also, 200 willing passengers were sampled using purposive incidental sampling technique to ascertain their views on the fare charged. There is no government agency regulating transit pricing in the country. Public transit operators perceived transport service as social function; hence they generate revenue that is not enough to cover costs. The private transit operators are profit conscious and as a result charge fare that realise enough revenue to cover all costs and make some profit. They also engage in nefarious activities such arbitrarily hiking of fare during traffic hold up, peak period, festive period, night and scarcity of fuel. The passengers’ perceived that transport fare is high and does not correspond to services being rendered especially by individually owned transit operators. The study concludes that transit pricing is not regulated in the country, which has socio-economic implications on the transit riders.

The Value of Corporate Social Performance: The Case of a Local Public Transport Company

The Corporate Social Responsibility is traditionally viewed not as a productive investment, but like an expense of defensive character, destined to consume resources without producing new value. However, in the actual context, the public interest cannot be an objective only for the Public Administration; each enterprise should integrate in the management choices a CSR strategy (Borgonovi & Rusconi, 2008).The CSR is, primarily, intended as the ability to follow those lines of action which are desirable in relation to the aims and values of our society (Bowen, 1953). The development of studies on CSR has produced subsequently further definition, which tend to emphasize the importance of expectations of the community and the resulting social role played by itself in increasing weal (Frederick, 1960); to the definition of corporate social responsibility contained in the EU Green Paper, which identifies CSR as those behaviours oriented to the integration between economic, social and environmental variables in the management company (EU, 2001).This work aims to investigate the potential of investment in CSR in terms of creating new value as part of a new definition of sustainable business performance based on the joint and balanced maximization of economic, social and environmental objectives (Elkington, 1997). The objective of this research is to verify the impact on business performance due to the implementation of a specific design of CSR, named Contact, in a local public transport company of medium/big size (Turnover € 56.613.130, Employees 1.341).

Charging cost optimization for EV buses using neural network based energy predictor

For conventional buses, based on the decades of their operational knowledge, public transport companies are able to optimize their cost of operation. However, with recent trend in the usage of electric buses, cost optimal operation can become challenging. In this paper an offline optimal charging strategy is developed to minimize the energy cost. This is done by exploiting the periodicity and predictable operation of the city buses. For effective usage of the developed offline strategy, the actual energy demand of the electric bus must be known a-priori, which can be demanding. In order to address this issue, a predictor is designed. The neural network based predictor is able to estimate the energy demand for the next day. Using this, three different optimal charging strategies are implemented. Initially, only the operational constraints are considered to ensure the completion of a trip, later, a more involved problems consisting of battery state of charge (SoC) constraints and temperature constraints are included for the second and third optimization problems, respectively. All the three approaches result in significant energy cost minimization when compared to the non-optimal strategy of charging the electric bus to the full capacity at every available opportunity. Additionally, for the second and third formulations, namely, SoC and temperature constraints, by using a qualitative aging approach, some enhancements in the battery health is observed when compared to the non-optimal charging strategy.

SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATIC SELECTION OF THE SPEED RATE OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES FOR REDUCING THE POWER CONSUMPTION

Purpose. The work is aimed to design a system for automatic selection of the optimal traffic modes and automatic monitoring of the electric energy consumption by electric transport. This automatic system should provide for the minimum energy expenses. Methodology. Current methodologies: 1) mathematical modeling of traffic modes of ground electric vehicles; 2) comparison of modelling results with the statistical monitoring; 3) system development for automatic choice of traffic modes of electric transport with minimal electrical energy consumptions taking into account the given route schedules and the limitations imposed by the general traffic rules. Findings. The authors obtained a mathematical dependency of the energy consumption by electric transport enterprises on the monthly averaged environment temperature was obtained. A system which allows for an automatic selection of the speed limit and provides automatic monitoring of the electrical energy consumption by electric vehicles was proposed in the form of local network, which works together with existing GPS system. Originality. A mathematical model for calculating the motion curves and energy consumption of electric vehicles has been developed. This model takes into account the characteristic values of the motor engine and the steering system, the change of the mass when loading or unloading passengers, the slopes and radii of the roads, the limitations given by the general traffic rules, and other factors. The dependency of the energy consumption on the averaged monthly environment temperature for public electric transport companies has been calculated. Practical value. The developed mathematical model simplifies the calculations of the traffic dynamics and energy consumption. It can be used for calculating the routing maps, for design and upgrade of the power networks, for development of the electricity saving measures. The system simplifies the work of the vehicle driver and allows reducing the energy consumption, also provides for an automatic energy cost monitoring. The calculated dependency of the energy consumption on the environment temperature may be used for an improvement of methods which regulate the work of the public electric transport companies. It has been proved that there is a possibility for reducing electrical energy consumption by 10% to 45% using the efficient motion regimes. Author’s certificate was obtained for the invention of the system for an automatic selection of the velocity regime for a public electric transport vehicle.

Timetable for Multi-Level Bus Transit Considering Differences in Arrival Time

The differences in arrival time at transfer stations, including internal hierarchy and between levels based on layout mode and service characteristics, were considered to maximize the cohesion efficiency of transfer stations and improve the utilization ratio of the network in a multi-level public transit system. In this paper, a timetable model that aims to minimize the cost incurred by passengers and companies was created in terms of departure time and interval. The timetable model was solved by genetic algorithms and subsequently achieved a multi-level bus line running timetable. The model was verified by a numerical example. Calculation results show that although this model increases the investment in public vehicles by 8.5%, the timetable shortens the waiting time of passengers by 23.5% and reduces the overall cost. In the actual operation, the interests of the passengers and public transport companies should be balanced when considering the actual demand.

Responsabilidad social empresarial en las empresas de transporte público urbano del Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá

Este artículo describe la responsabilidad social empresarial que las compañías de transporte pú- blico urbano del Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburra están aplicando con base en la gestión y sostenibilidad medioambiental. Para esto, se indagó en empresas del Código de clasificación internacional uniforme -CIIU- 4921 Transporte de pasajeros, respecto de los criterios relacionados con formas de gestión medioambiental que actualmente están practicando, a fin de resarcir el daño causado por el desarrollo de su actividad económica empresarial. La investigación es de tipo descriptivo con enfoque cuantitativo, se realizaron encuestas al 35% de la población total que equivale a 61 empresas pertenecientes a dicho código. Esta investigación ratificó que, aunque las empresas cumplen con la normatividad exigida, se limitan para generar acciones autónomas en aras de preservar la buena calidad del medioambiente, debido a que la responsabilidad social empresarial es considerada para estos casos, una opción y no una obligación en las organizaciones.

An integrated algorithm for shift scheduling problems for local public transport companies

This paper presents an integrated approach to solve two shift scheduling problems for local public bus companies: the first one aims at finding a schedule for vehicles, given a set of rides to do; the second one aims at assigning drivers to vehicle schedules. The first subproblem to be faced is the Multiple Depot Vehicle Scheduling Problem that is known to be NP-hard. Therefore, heuristic algorithms are needed to find feasible solutions for real-life instances. In this work a starting solution for this problem is found by using a greedy algorithm. This solution is then improved by a simulated annealing strategy that exploits several local search techniques. The second problem to deal with is the Crew Scheduling Problem where each trip is assigned to a driver. This problem is still NP-Hard. In this paper an initial solution for the Crew Scheduling Problem is firstly found with a classical sequential approach. This solution is then modified by changing the allocation of trips on vehicles in order to minimize the combined objective function. Both the problems have been modeled taking into account as more real-world constraints as possible. Several constraints take into account the European Union restrictions related to how the driver shifts must be composed. The proposed problem is different from the ones presented in the literature, as the mathematical model, and the related algorithm, are designed based on real world-requirements. Computational results have been carried out on large real-word instances. The results show that the proposed algorithm is able to find quickly good solutions within a limited computational time.

Las posibilidades de integración del transporte escolar y regular en Aragón

El presente artículo explora las ventajas y el potencial de integrar las líneas de transporte escolar en la red de transporte regular de viajeros en Aragón. Con este propósito, se ha recopilado información sobre los puntos de origen, destino y características básicas de todas las rutas escolares. Los resultados muestran la incipiente aparición de dos modelos de integración diferentes. El primero de ellos se corresponde con las rutas escolares integradas cuya principal ventaja es la mejora en la accesibilidad de la población rural a los servicios. El segundo son las rutas regulares con reserva de plaza cuyos beneficios son un menor coste para la administración y una mejora de la rentabilidad de las líneas regulares. Ambos modelos todavía cubren una pequeña parte de la demanda por lo que atendiendo a sus ventajas tienen un gran potencial de expansión.

A General Morphological Analysis to Support Strategic Management Decisions in Public Transport Companies

Abstract: This paper presents a General Morphological Analysis (GMA) meta-model aiming to help decision-makers wishing to integrate sustainability concerns into the company strategy. This is made by joining Operational Research (OR) analysts, decision-makers and stakeholders as participants in the problem structuring and formulation process. This is particularly relevant in societal issues, where public transport companies are particularly important. Indeed, public transport companies play a quite visible role in the dimensions of corporate social responsibility, namely because of four reasons: (i) they provide daily services crucial to mass customers’ mobility; (ii) their investments are usually of high value and rather sensitive to technological development; (iii) they play a crucial role in the energy sector and (iv) are strongly dependent upon macro-policies.