Transport Corporation Research Articles

PROPENSITY TO TURN OVER AMONG FEMALE EMPLOYEES – A STUDY ON KERALA STATE ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORATION

INTRODUCTION:The world is changing, the economy is advancing day by day. Irrespective of gender both men and women have become part of economic development. It promises a blistering pace of growth in the productivity of each and every sector. Women's empowerment has become a significant topic of discussion on development economics. Women's empowerment shows the ability of women to contribute to the economic development and enjoy the rights to control and benefit from all resources. The role of women is the key to the overall development and growth of any country. It is the time to look around their comforts, their satisfaction, feelings, emotions and commitments because the negative result of all these factors leads to employee turnover and it will adversely affect the performance of the organization. Their Commitment and satisfaction are very much important for overall development of an entity. The practice of leaving a job can be observed regularly in all the organization due to several reasons. There is considerable evidence that money is often not the main reason behind employee turnover, even though it is one among the several factors for employee turnover. Keeping employees satisfied and ensuring their commitment is one of the key ingredients for the growth of an organization. The present study focuses on the effect of organizational commitment and job satisfaction on turnover of female conductors in KSRTC.KSRTC is a passenger transport corporation, providing bus services in Kerala and to neighbouring states Tamilnadu and Bengaluru. It was established by the Government of Kerala in 1965. It is high time that the Corporation as a whole has remittance supporting it in a big way. The earlier dependence on financial supporting from the central and state government has reduced. Even though the remarkable performance of the employees would have resurrected the Corporation to a great extent. Therefore, ensuring the smooth functioning of the Corporation, the investigation about the organizational attitude of the employees is needed. In the 21st century the role of women seems to have in various working fields. The role of the women as a conductor in transport vehicle is one among them. Even though KSRTC was started with male dominance, the decision to open the gateway to women force has become a history in 1990. In KSRTC, female employees show their presence in both administrative and operational workspaces. If we have a closer look at the gender balance in KSRTC, it shows that it is still male dominated. It is a fact that working women have to face certain challenges and problems by virtue of being a woman. The present study focuses on the effect of Affective, Normative and Continuance commitment and Job satisfaction on turnover among the female conductors working in Kerala State Road Transport Corporation.LITERATURE REVIEW:Job Satisfaction:Job satisfaction is defined as 'the extent to which peoples like or dislike their jobs' (Spector 1997). Organizational research shows that employees who experience job satisfaction are more likely to be productive and stay on the job (McNeese-Smith1997). (Irvine & Evans 1995) stated that there was a strong negative relationship between job satisfaction and behavioral intentions and a small negative relationship between job satisfaction and turnover. According to (Singh and Patiraj 1988) Job satisfaction refers to a person's feeling of satisfaction on the job, which acts as a motivation to work. Positive attitudes towards the job are conceptually equivalent to job satisfaction. At various times it has been linked to production, motivation, absenteeism, tardiness, accidents, mental health, physical health, general life satisfaction and job involvement. Job satisfaction is the function of the person's environment interaction. Job satisfaction covers both the satisfaction derived from being engaged in a piece of work, or in any pursuit of a higher order. It is essentially related to human needs and their fulfillment through work. …

A Conceptual Approach for Optimising Bus Stop Spacing

An efficient public transportation system is essential of any country. The growth, development and shape of the urban areas are mainly due to availability of good transportation (Shah et al. in Inst Town Plan India J 5(3):50–59, 1). In developing countries, like India, travel by local bus in a city is very common. The accidents, congestion, pollution and appropriate location of bus stops are the major problems arising in metropolitan cities. Among all the metropolitan cities in India, Delhi has highest percentage of growth of population and vehicles. Therefore, it is important to adopt efficient and effective ways to improve mobility in different metropolitan cities in order to overcome the problem and to reduce the number of private vehicles on the road. The primary objective of this paper is to present a methodology for developing a model for optimum bus stop spacing (OBSS). It describes the evaluation of existing urban bus route, data collection, development of model for optimizing urban bus route and application of model. In this work, the bus passenger generalized cost method is used to optimize the spacing between bus stops. For the development of model, a computer program is required to be written. The applicability of the model has been evaluated by taking the data of urban bus route of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) in Excel sheet in first phase. Later on, it is proposed to develop a programming in C++ language. The developed model is expected to be useful to transport planner for rational design of the spacing of bus stops to save travel time and to generalize operating cost. After analysis it is found that spacing between the bus stop comes out to be between 250 and 500 m. The Proposed Spacing of bus stops is done considering the points that they don’t come nearer to metro/rail station, entry or exit of flyover and near traffic signal.

Evaluating the performance of logistics with the special reference to transport corporation of india ltd based on certain specific indicators

Evaluating the performance of logistics with the special reference to transport corporation of india ltd based on certain specific indicators

"Statistical Modelling for Job Satisfaction of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation Key Members"

"Statistical Modelling for Job Satisfaction of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation Key Members"

Efficiency and Effectiveness of State Transport Undertakings in India: A DEA Approach

The Indian bus transport industry is dominated by the publicly owned State Transport Undertakings (STUs). Most of the STUs have, over the years, accumulated financial losses. However, since STUs offer their services with a social aim, financial losses faced by them may not be bad per se. For publicly owned organizations, efficiency and effectiveness are more important than mere profitability. This paper attempts to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of fifteen major STUs in India for the period 2003-04 to 2013-14 using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The paper also examines STUs’ scale elasticity and its relationship with firm size. It is found that the STUs operating in the state of West Bengal are not only the least efficient but also the least effective whereas Andhra Pradesh state road transport corporation, which is the largest bus transport operator in the world, is the most efficient and effective operator. In general, there is a strong positive correlation between STUs’ efficiency and their effectiveness. On the other hand, there is a negative relationship between size of the STUs and returns to scale; large size firms are showing decreasing returns to scale whereas small size ones are operating on increasing returns to scale. Therefore, a size correction through mergers, demergers or altering scale of operation, as the case may be, will be economically prudent.

Hybrid optimisation model for blind spot reduction in heavy vehicles

The road accidents are common nowadays and the visibility of the driver is the prime factor in such accidents. Many lives as well as money have been lost during accidents. Reduction of blind spot area improves the area of visibility of the driver which leads towards the reduction of the accidents. This paper aims to optimise the blind spot area by considering the design parameters used in the design of rear view mirror in heavy vehicles. This is achieved by using a hybrid multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach by integrating complex proportional assessment of alternatives (COPRAS) technique and entropy measurement. The effectiveness of the developed model is proved by a case study conducted in a public transport corporation located in the southern part of India.

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation in Karnataka

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation in Karnataka

Sensation Seeking Behavior and Crash Involvement of Indian Bus Drivers

Abstract Road crashes and environmental degradation are among the prominent issues of concern today in most of the developing economies particularly India. Buses, which are key mode of public transit in India, are unfortunately involved in a significant number of crashes in recent time. Bus driver's attitude and his ability to comprehend traffic situations aptly contributes largely to passenger safety. In this study the effect of sensation seeking behavior on crash involvement rates of bus drivers in India was investigated. Study was conducted to assess sensation seeking behaviors of sample bus drivers from Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). Assessment was conducted using a modified Zuckerman's Sensation seeking scale (ZSSS) form V questionnaire that included sub scales such as boredom susceptibility, disinhibition, experience seeking, and thrill and adventure seeking. The survey results were further related to their crash involvement histories through ratio analysis. Further a Generalized Linear Model with log link and Poisson error was developed to ascertain the influence of these traits on their crash involvement propensity. The results indicate that acute levels of Sensation seeking increased crash involvement rate in the tested drivers. Risk of severe crashes (major and fatal) was observed to be high in drivers with high levels of sensation seeking. Extreme levels of boredom susceptibility and disinhibition, and lower levels of thrill and adventure seeking were found to be dangerous in terms of road crash tendencies. These results highlight the importance of driver behaviour on road safety and also validate the use of ZSSS in behavioural studies of Indian bus drivers. Also, the need for setting efficient standards for behavioral evaluation, necessary for the scrutiny of transport vehicle drivers during their licensing and recruitment process in India has been stressed upon. Through this study it would also help in monitoring road safety attitude in transport vehicle drivers and help in reducing road fatalities and other related losses. Some specific recommendations with respect to KSRTC Bus drivers have been made in this paper in this regard.

DIRECTIONS OF INNOVATION STRATEGY AND KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

[For the English abstract and full text of the article please see the attached PDF-File (English version follows Russian version)].ABSTRACT On the basis of modern methodological approaches, the author investigates the patterns of mutual influence of innovation policy and innovative economy as the basic categories of social and socio-economic processes of Russia’s modernization development. The features of classification, criterial series, models and directions of strategy are shown, which are formed in the conditions of competitive market environment and contributed to the emergence of knowledge economy, intellectual capital of organizations. An assessment is given and examples of innovative projections on the state and prospects of development of transport corporations and structures are given. Keywords: transport, knowledge economy, innovative policy, science-intensive products, development strategy.

Development of hub and spoke model for improving operational efficiency of bus transit network of Bangalore city

In a large city, operating a bus transit service on a route network based on destination-oriented or point-to-point approach, which considers all possible routes with the node set, is cumbersome and impractical. Alternatively, a Hub and Spoke network, which combine the destination-oriented and direction-oriented approaches, could be a more efficient choice. However, this model has only been applied to airline networks, whose influencing factors and variables could widely differ from those of an urban transit network. This paper proposes an approach to develop a hub and spoke network for an urban bus transit service in the Indian context. The proposed methodology consists of finding optimal locations for potential hubs, allocating non-hub nodes to hub nodes, and generating inter-hub and intra-hub routes and the frequencies of the bus service in those routes. For the case study, the proposed model is applied on the bus service operated by Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) in Bangalore City, India. The results suggest noticeable savings in operator cost and CO2emissions compared with the existing point-to-point operational approach. This is significant considering that most of the urban bus transport corporations in India are currently under losses.

Collective Bargaining and Trade Union: A Decision Imbroglio at UPSRTC

Any fundamental change in structures, processes or business operations is bound to trigger reactions from stakeholders’ perception about the intention to change. These reactions need to be addressed with due consideration to the stakeholders’ interest or else may prove detrimental to all. Resolving disputes and trade unions roles are crucial in establishing peace and safeguarding the interest of employees. Trade unions initiate dialogues, organize collective actions and use the dispute machinery for resolving conflicts to bring an agreeable solution satisfying all. Collective bargaining is a major tool towards a mutual consensus and agreement through bipartite measures. Continuous efforts at arriving at a mutual agreement may fail and resorting to the third-party intervention may hold the key to arriving at an agreeable and a peaceful end to problems. This has been demonstrated in the given case. Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) is a major player in roadways transportation with very low competition from private transporters. The corporation provides comfortable and economical services to the passengers and holds a monopoly position with the private operators relying heavily on infrastructure support of the corporation. The state government decided to introduce public–private partnership (PPP) model on which UPSRTC model would work. Such a move by the government was not acceptable to the unions and the employees. Major agitations and intervention of the court forced the government to withdraw some of its decisions perceived as a threat and detrimental to the corporation.

Equity in public transport — a case of Bangalore’s city bus transport

In most urban areas, buses are the most heavily used form of public transportation[1] and more so in Indian cities where buses make up for over 90% of public transport ridership[2]. In the selected Indian metro cities, where formal bus based PT systems are operated by public agencies, they are over-reliant on state support to sustain operations as fare box collections are inadequate in spite of having relatively high ridership. The main challenge for all this is to achieve long term financial sustainability of public transport systems while providing good quality and affordable bus services.This paper investigates internal and external factors that led to the steep and recurrent fare increases in the Bangalore city bus services in the period from 2012–2014 which are operated by Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation. In order to estimate the impact of the recent bus fare increases that have had on the economically weaker sections of the society dependent on these services, the paper presents the results of a random sampling survey study carried out in a central locality in the city that has a large slum area.The key findings throw light on the various ways in which the low income bus users have adapted to reduce their travel costs through changes in travel behavior, travel pattern and modal shifts. The cost of the behavioral changes through lost opportunities and the cost of the modal shifts of the persons earlier favoring public transportation draw attention to the significance of public transport fare policies. Furthermore, the management and operations of the BMTC agency show scope for improvement which can translate into better revenue generation and consequent reduction in fares.

Sickness absence among peer-supported drivers after occupational trauma.

Psychological first aid is a common approach for providing support after potentially traumatic events (PTEs). In Germany, a peer support model is recommended by the German Statutory Accident Insurance (DGUV) to reduce sickness absence after occupational accidents, especially in public transportation. However, data on the effectiveness of peer support are very sparse. To analyse whether peer support has an impact on sickness absence after work-related traumatic events in public transportation. An analysis was conducted in two German public transportation corporations. Due to ethical requirements, we used a historical cohort study comparing peer support by colleagues (VAG-1), peer support at supervisor level (VGF) and a non-intervention group (VAG-0). The study period was from March 2003 to December 2012. We used a negative binominal regression model to estimate the relative risk associated with the interventions and potential confounders. A total of 259 incident PTEs in employees were observed. A regression analysis identified the severity of PTE (severe and fatal events), VGF and age as significant factors in predicting duration of post-event sickness absence. In a stratified analysis, the mode of peer support (VGF) and age predicted sickness absence for less severe PTEs but this was not significant for severe PTEs. Severe and fatal PTEs had the strongest impact on sickness absence after PTEs. For less severe PTE, peer support provided by colleagues may be superior to supervisor support.

Need of Oral Pre Cancer Awareness Initiatives in India.

Need of Oral Pre Cancer Awareness Initiatives in India.

A Proposed Model for Lead Time Reduction during Maintenance of Public Passenger Transport Vehicles

An efficient public transport system contributes directly to a nation’s growth. It influences the development and growth of industries and thereby helps in increasing the national wealth. Transport services should be made available in such a way that the ‘Right vehicles are in the Right place at the Right time’ which also signifies a profitable business. Reliability of a transport vehicle with its key factors plays an important role in deciding its performance. It is also requires to find out the modifications and changes in the servicing and maintenance methods that are to be followed for reducing the lead time taken. Being an engineer, I considered this as a challenge and experimented in Metropolitan Transport Corporation (Chennai) Limited by using a new proposed model of vehicle assembly flow line during maintenance in reducing the lead time in order to increase the efficiency of the existing practices. In this particular case the passenger transport vehicle assembly involved is very vital for the passenger’s transport service. Hence, the lead time taken for refurbishing the vehicle is to be minimized. To meet this requirement, all the subsystems which are undergoing refurbishment are to be closely monitored for servicing, testing and delivery to the final assembly line. In addition, some of the assemblies can be carried out in parallel to minimize the lead time. This has resulted in improving the lead time taken from 60 days to 45 days i.e. 25% of lead time can be reduced. This increases the availability of passenger transport vehicle 15 days ahead to the passengers. Managing maintenance, repair and refurbishing is a more challenging task than managing most manufacturing facilities since high degree of uncertainty has to be overcome in such operations.

Air-pollution and economics: diesel bus versus electric bus

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) took an initiative to check the overall benefits of introducing electric buses as a suitable replacement for the diesel buses to tackle the burgeoning pollution in the city of Bengaluru, India. For a trial run of three months, an electric bus was procured from a Chinese company `Build Your Dreams' (BYD). Data were collected by BMTC on the operation and maintenance of the bus. This new initiative, if rightly guided, could have a direct impact on the lives of those in the city. An economic analysis of the running as well as maintenance of the electric buses within the city limits was performed. For comparison, the same analysis was performed for the data from the existing diesel bus operating on the same route. On the basis of the study, it can be concluded that the introduction of electric buses as a means of public transport in the city would be beneficial both economically as well as environmentally. The electric bus also makes much less noise, thereby helping reduce noise pollution and makes less vibration when compared to the diesel bus. This results in a more comfortable journey for the passengers.

Operational and financial performance of Delhi's natural gas-fueled public bus transit fleet: A critical evaluation

Following a Supreme Court of India directive, the bus fleet of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) was converted to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) from around 1999 to 2000, to address the city's air pollution. We critically evaluate the operational and financial performance of DTC's bus fleet from 1989–90 to 2010–11 – that is, from ten years prior to CNG implementation until 10 years after – to assess how this performance was affected by the fuel switch, as well as the introduction of low-floor CNG buses.CNG implementation caused a significant reduction in the capacity to deliver transit service at DTC in the initial stages of the fuel transition. Also, it necessitated investments in buses at a considerable cost premium relative to their diesel counterparts. Operating costs per kilometre grew, due to increased fuel expenditures per kilometre, because of the lower fuel economy, and increased maintenance costs and breakdowns per kilometre, on the CNG buses. These costs were further exacerbated by the introduction of the low-floor CNG buses. Despite increased capacity due to the investments in the CNG buses, passenger-kilometres generally declined over our analysis period. As a result, operating costs per passenger-kilometre, and the ratio of operating costs to traffic revenues, have progressively worsened.We conclude that the financial situation resulting from these effects due to CNG implementation may have detracted from the ability to enhance transit capacity and provide transit service overall. Our study also demonstrates the need to analyze policies such as CNG implementation broadly, in terms of conflicts and trade-offs between environmental, and other (transit operation, socio-economic and equity) objectives, rather than narrowly in terms of only environmental outcomes.

Job Insecurity Research is Still Alive and Kicking Twenty Years Later: A Commentary

This paper comments on the review of longitudinal job insecurity studies in this special issue. The main conclusion of that review, namely that job insecurity leads to poor health and well‐being, remains undisputed. It is argued, however, that future job insecurity research should focus more on: (a) uncovering the underlying psychological mechanisms of job insecurity; (b) the effects of new forms of labor contracts; (c) differences across nations as a function of different social security systems; and (d) the effects of organisations. It is concluded that job insecurity is a problem of our time and that 20 years after the publication of Dekker and Schaufeli's study on job insecurity among workers in Australian public transport corporation, psychological job insecurity research is still alive and kicking.

A simulation- and genetic algorithm-based optimisation of closed-loop multi-echelon inventory system

The objective of this research is to develop a genetic algorithm (GA)-based optimisation approach for a multi-echelon closed-loop inventory system of items, which are repairable in nature. In the context of the passenger transportation industry, engineering aggregates like engines, alternators, axles and tyres are representative examples of such systems. The present work is motivated by a real-life example of state-owned transport corporation having more than 9,000 buses. Operationally, the corporation is divided across several depots (the lower most echelon) and divisions (the next higher echelon). The contribution from this research is manifold. In terms of specific insights, it is established that keeping a higher base stock of spare tyres at the divisions than at the depots is operationally better. This is a consequence of the risk pooling effect. The present research enables us to understand the optimal policy parameters of a complex multi-echelon inventory system. The whole optimisation approach and the simulation model can be generalised and can fit well in several other related problems and their contexts. Typically, the approach is applicable to the problems of repairable-parts inventory related to industries with heavy utilisation of equipments like the chemical and the petrochemical industries.

Union Management Relations in APSRTC (Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation)

In the industrial scenario of India, both employer and employee play a vital role. In some service-oriented industries both should work together for the enhancement of customer satisfaction. As the management starts taking constructive steps for cordial relations with the unions, unions are also responding to the cordial steps the organization might take to achieve their goals faster. This is the key to a sincere and cordial atmosphere between the union and the management. When the two parties think that their relationship should move from an unproductive state to productive state, outside interference from the state government, arbitrators or negotiators becomes redundant. If this doesn’t happen, the strength of conviction can be tested and resources should be provided to reinforce those convictions. Furthermore, each party must be introspective of their way of functioning instead of blaming the other party. The consequence of this acknowledgement is that both the parties would think that they have to change for the betterment of the relationships and for the long run of the organization. Sometimes, what the parties are prepared for might be an improvement of quality of relationships through committees established for health, occupational hazards 34 safety and security. The involvement of external facilitators might sometimes highlight the shortcomings of the relationships between the union and the management. Where the parties feel that their relations are on the verge of a breakdown and that rectification might not be possible, they might focus on overall relationships. But to establish a cordial relationship might be a challenge between these two parties. The Relationship Programme by objectives adopted in North America since 1975 is a good example of this situation. Another successful model is the 7-step model for improving union–management relationship (Cohen – Rosenthal & Burton 1994). Because of the lack of resources, industrial relations might get affected. The resources can be anything from financial, human, marketing or physical resources. The effect of bad industrial relations will have a multiplier effect (effect upon sectors). It can be gauged by the fall in normal tempo, resistance to change, frustration and social cost. This study proceeds to find out the ways to increase customer satisfaction by improving Union-management relations.