Evidence on Performance

Case Study One – Dusseldorf International Airport

Dusseldorf Airport located in Germany sees millions of passengers pass through it terminals each year. Unlike most other airports Dusseldorfs 74 docking bays are spread over a 723 square km area with 50 shuttle buses to service them. The time pressures inherent in an airport set up make providing consistent and fast services extremely challenging. An airports profit margin depends upon turning around planes faster and faster and so passengers need to be taken to and from their docking bay as efficiently as possible. Added in with this is the fact that the background noise makes communication between vehicle drivers and the dispatch centre very difficult with only radio telephones. As a result the operational efficiency of was proving difficult to maintain. What was needed was a fleet management system that could provide real time information about vehicle locations and also an efficient two-way communication with the drivers of each vehicle to allow optimal routing between docking bays. A fleet management solution was provided by Psion Teklogix and has seen an improvement in fleet effectiveness and service reliability from a passengers viewpoint.

Case Study Two – Shanghai , China

The bus industry in Shanghai has more than 200 bus routes, thousands of buses and a large number of bus terminals. The administration of these buses used to be carried out manually in each terminal, from information collecting, inquiry sorting and statistic analysing to summary reporting and dispatch ordering. This frequently resulted in scheduling mistakes which inconvenienced both staff and passengers and which led to the bus fleet to be larger than what was actually required. After consulting with a number of fleet management system manufacturers Shanghai decided to install a TagMaster AB fleet management system ( www.tagmaster.com ). The system has a communicator installed at the entrance to all bus terminals, connected to signal lights and communicating with the host. All buses have unique tag IDs, all of which have been stored in the communicator's database. As soon as the bus arrives at a terminal its ID is detected and a green signal light is activated by the TagMaster communicator. Simultaneously information is sent to the control centre which can then send departure information to the bus terminals' LED display for passengers to inform them when the bus will leave. On exiting the terminal the communicator informs the control centre and this information is logged on the system. The system provides we bus performance reports on a weekly, monthly and annual basis allowing bus managers to optimise routings and schedulings, and to provide passengers with more precise travel information.

Case Study Three – Demand Responsive Transport in Plymouth and Cornwall

Demand responsive transport (DRT) is a new form of transport that complements fixed route buses. These services dynamically adjust themselves to the needs of the travelling public. No vehicles will run unless someone wishes to travel, and the vehicles will detour as necessary to accommodate a number of trip requirements into a single vehicle. This dynamic routing is managed from a Travel Dispatch Centre which takes bookings and uses a sophisticated computer system to optimise the allocation of people to vehicles.

The Plymouth and Cornwall DRT service utilises a bus fleet management system provided by ACIS, Mobisoft and Vodafone. The new system will equip the transport operator with powerful new management tools and the public with real time departure information using signs in bus shelters and potentially using the web, WAP, SMS and a phone services.

Case Study Four – Fixed Route and Demand Responsive Transport in Montachusett Regional Transit Authority

The Montachusett Regional Transit Authority (MART) serves the counties of Fitchburg , Leominster and Gardner in the State of Massachusetts , US. The authority serves a largely rural area of around 700 square miles using 150 vehicles and with daily trips of around 6,500. Besides improving the productivity via better scheduling and real time routing of their operations, MART was also concerned about the safety and security of its transit operations. As a result it implemented a fleet management system that included automatic vehicle location, GIS, electronic fare collection and real time information via the web. An additional spin-off of the system has been detailed information on bus arrival and departure times which has been used to check against customer complaints, particularly those who use the demand responsive service.

Case Study Five – Denver Regional Transportation District's Automatic Vehicle Location System

In 1993 the Regional Transit District (RTD) in Denver , Colorado installed an automatic vehicle location (AVL) system which was developed by Westinghouse Wireless Solutions. The system covered an area for 2,400 square miles and was capable of tracking the 1,335 vehicle fleet. The key objectives of the system was to: 1) develop more efficient schedules; 2) improve the ability of dispatchers to adjust on-street operations; and, 3) increase safety through better emergency management. Whilst the system has been successful in achieving objectives 2 and 3, it has not achieved the first because of conflicts in scheduling procedures and difficulties in coordinating existing and new software applications. Although ridership on RTD buses increased substantially between 1992 and 1994, the number of passengers carried per vehicle revenue mile declined due to the expansion of service and the increase in long-haul service which carries each passenger for more miles per trip. Similarly, although operating costs per vehicle hour and per passenger declined between 1992 and 1997, the decrease cannot be directly attributed to the AVL system. It does, however, coincide with its implementation.

Where the AVL system has been effective is in improving the quality of service provided to customers. Between 1992 and 1997 there was a 12% decrease in the number of vehicles that arrived at stops early. At the same time the number of vehicles that arrived at stops late decreased by 21%. This was reflected by a 26% fall in customer complaints during the same period. The AVL system has also improved the quality, timeliness and availability of customer information available at customer service centres.

The AVL system has also received wide spread acceptance from operators, dispatchers and field personnel. The operators felt that the system provided them, and customers, with more safety and security, while dispatchers felt that the knowledge they had of vehicle locations helped RTD maintenance, supervisors and emergency response teams to quickly reach incident locations. They also felt that the quality of service they could offer improved as they were able to alert drivers that they were ahead or behind schedule.