Tushar's Take on Public Transport Management System


Tushar's Take on Public Transport Management System

Objective of imple­mentation of Trans­port management system is better Maintenance man­agement, Inventory controls, Improve operational ef­ficiency and controls, Centralized procurement, Efficient handling of break down & Driver com­plaints, Optimization of vehicles and crew.

To improve the operational efficiency, we need to take care of above factors by using the integrated trans­port management system. The most important part is first mile and last mile connectivity. It helps to make such operations sustainable and feasible. Integrated transport includes the connectivity for first mile and last mile connectivity. To achieve the first mile and last mile connectivity multiple mode of transport need to bring on the mobile application. So if the passenger book a ticket from point A to point B, pick up from home, drop at point B and from that point pick up and drop at desti­nation. Multi modal transport system with single media (Smart card, Personalized Mobile device) would help to increase the load factor and customer ease. The main objective of TMS is customer centric approach to bring the effective transport management system.

Planning and Scheduling

Based on demand, supply and seasonal changes need to do tweak in scheduling. Manually or excel based solu­tions are not feasible as the frequency always goes for the toss and we face the chal­lenges of bus bunching or pas­senger need to wait for a long time for a bus. Based on the given inputs system calculate and display multiple options for the better operation. Every day the demand and supply is different hence same sched­ule cannot be used as a bench mark and hence each day the schedule would be different. Planning and scheduling plays an important role to get the maximum load factor and ultimately the passenger timely service.

Operations

Once the schedules are ready the key role of operations is to dispatch the vehicles on time to adhere the schedule timelines. Crew duties need to plan accordingly. Based on traffic conditions need to control the bus speed to avoid the bunching. All day to day incidents are also captured in system like wise break down of vehicle, trip lost, operational KMs lost, accident on road, exceptional crew changes if any. The systems also permit auto dis­patch if it is integrated with GPS devices.

Public Information System

Public transport should always be customer centric where the technology played an important role in it. Public information systems help the passenger to know the next bus stop, when the next bus would arrival. In emergency conditions important messages are also possible to display in bus. The system is consisting of GPS device, digital boards and Audio systems.

Fleet Management

Due to technological evolutions the buses are also coming in hy­brid versions, now the buses are not mechanical they are Mechatronics buses having multiple sensors in it. The vehicle health monitoring sys­tem is connected to vehicles OBD port to know the health of the ve­hicle at any point of time. System generates alerts based on the type of issue in vehicle. TMS fleet manage­ment module would help to define the preventive maintenance sched­ule templates in it. As per Original Equipment Manufacturer schedule plan, system throws alerts as per defined templates. After completion of shift the driver have provision to enter the vehicle defects in installed Kiosk. Forecasting of spare parts is also based upon the defined tem­plates in system. Tyre management is also very crucial which is also con­tributing high cost in cost manage­ment. Tyre tracking, tyre life, Tyre NSD, Tyre rebuilding.

Crew Management

System generate crew roster based upon the generated schedule. System optimizes crew duties based upon the given inputs in system. It helps to avoid the overtime amount using the optimi­zation tool in system. Every week the duty time table is published.

Attendance Management

Biometric machine integration is done with transport management system. TMS takes care of weekly of, crew changes in case of he is on leave, it also helps if the crew is worked more than the scheduled time. The system automatically gen­erates the report to incentivize the crew members.

Inventory and Purchase Management

The minimum and maximum level is set in to the system which helps to plan the spare by using the auto requisition. All the preventive main­tenance templates are fed in system which helps in spare parts forecast­ing. Hence, the system is cloud all the procurement is centralized. It also helps to analyze the supplier performance, Spare parts aging on shelf. System keeps a track of repeat consumption, demand vs Consump­tion, PO vs Receiving.

Fuel Management

The major cost in any transport in­dustry in India is Fuel which is con­tributing highest cost of buses. Im­provement of 0.1 percent in KMPL is saving Hugh cost in terms of Fuel cost. Vehicle health monitor­ing system also helps to see the daily KMPL of each bus. Apart from ve­hicle health, Driver's behavior also contribute in vehicle KMPL, which is also monitored using system.

Revenue Management

Automatic Fare collection system helps to avoid the cash transactions and cash leakages. There are multiple ways to do the cash less transactions. Mobile ticketing, web booking, in­ternet based electronic ticketing sys­tem. For students or regular travel­ler smart cards like RFID, NFC or Magnetic strip swipe cards to re­charge the cards on board.

Payroll and Financial Management

Hence, the entire roster is system based, payroll processing is also easy to process it hassle free without any manual intervention. The financial system is also centralized.