[sustran] Strategic Logistics Management in Urban Public Transport: Repost

[Wayne Duff-Riddell]

Hello

My apologies for the attachment problem on the last posting.   A 
repost without attachments but a bit long until I get the e-mail 
process properly sorted out.

I am a post-graduate student at the University of Stellenbosch where I am studying towards a 
master's degree in transportation engineering.  My thesis topic is "Strategic Logistics Management 
in Urban Public Transport," which I believe to be topical, given the current DOT policies and recent 
events in South Africa and around the world for that matter.

The basic tenets of the thesis are presented in the attached outline.  The eventual aim is to produce a 
model, either stand-alone, or alternatively, structured to bring together many other models, such as 
VIPS, Crewplan, COBA and others.  The objective of the model is to support the optimal planning 
and operation of a public transport system, measured against a broad set of criteria, along the lines 
of a goal-programming model.

At this stage, I am still trying to establish whether such a model exists and if so where and how 
effective is it.  I would be grateful if you could let me know if such a model or general practice has 
come to your attention.

I would be happy to provide any additional information and would gratefully accept any 
suggestions and criticism of the attached outline.

Thank you for your assistance.

Yours faithfully


Wayne Duff-Riddell 




THESIS OUTLINE


STRATEGIC LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT IN URBAN PUBLIC TRANSPORT.



Objective:

To apply the concepts of "strategic logistics management" to the planning and operation of urban 
public transport, from the point of view of the managing authority.



Goal:

To develop a quantifiable model of urban public transport which brings together the principles of 
strategic logistics management, as applied in the private sector, with the socio-economic 
responsibilities of regional authorities.  This model will, in all likelihood, have the form of a goal-
programming model.



Problem statement:

In developing transport infrastructure for their area of jurisdiction, local and regional authorities 
need to consider many factors.  They must consider the interface between their region and that of 
the surrounding areas at all levels from local to national and even international level.  The cost of 
infrastructure and transit provision must be set off against parking, road space, law enforcement, 
pollution, and other problems.  The benefits to be derived must be included in the evaluation.  Such 
benefits include a tourist friendly transit system that will encourage visitors to their region and 
economic investment when investors perceive the transit service as making their business 
accessible.  In other words, transit decisions go far beyond the minimisation of transit operating 
costs.

The problem is that although there are many tools available to model various aspects of 
transportation systems, there appears not to be any single model integrating all aspects of the 
transport system.

Such a model, for transport in general, would include the ability to evaluate the cost of 
infrastructure provision for each mode and aspect of a transport system.  This would thus include 
land acquisition, road and railway construction costs based on the locality, and many other issues.  
This is too broad a spectrum to include at the development stage and thus the scope of this research 
is limited to the provision of an integrated public transport system utilising existing road and rail 
infrastructure.  Such a model would use as inputs, high level information, that is information which 
has already been generated by other separate models which could themselves later be include in the 
integration.

Although it is intended that the model should be universal in its applicability, the Cape Town 
Metropolitan Region is to be used as the basis for the development of the model.



Transport planning and operation:

The fundamental purpose of transportation is to provide efficient access to various activities that 
satisfy human needs.  Therefore, the general goal of transportation planning is to accommodate this 
need for mobility and accessibility.  Within specific contexts, however, whose mobility, for what 
purpose, by what means, at what cost and to whom, and who should do the planning and how, are 
questions that a not amenable to easy answers.  Contemporary responses to these questions are 
largely rooted in history and have been influenced by a confluence of many factors, including 
technological innovations, private interests, and governmental policies.
 
An authority charged with the duty of providing and managing an urban public transport system is 
faced with a vast array of decision requirements.  In all of these however, two fundamental issues 
are of significant importance:
1. The cost of the system and its management must be kept to an absolute minimum.
2. The system must provide an acceptable and appropriate level of service.

The latter requires that services are provided when and where they are needed within the bounds of 
economic common sense, that is a sixty seater bus service for one or two people is certainly not 
justifiable, but one for thirty or forty may well be.  Further, the service should be of a suitable 
standard.  A tourist oriented service, with relatively high fares must provide top quality facilities 
whilst a captive rider commuter service need provide only the essentials of a safe and comfortable 
service.

In an effort to provide a service which meets these criteria, as well as the possibly hundreds of 
others involved in the overall management of a multimodal system, such as present in the Cape 
Metropole, the use of Strategic Logistics Management may be applicable as a method of 
minimising TOTAL costs, even though this may well mean that no individual service is 
operated under least cost conditions.

Minimise:
Total cost  = 
	+	Transportation cost
	+	Warehousing cost
	+	Order processing and information cost
	+	Lot quantity cost
	+	Inventory carrying cost

Subject to:
Customer service levels =
	+	Place
	+	Price
	+	Product
	+	Promotion

The minimisation of total costs requires an accurate knowledge of real costs of all aspects of the 
system.  These costs will necessarily be associated with the policy decisions attached to the desired 
customer service levels.


Cape Town, being our project model, has a wide variety of urban transport modes in use:
1. Metro rail
2. Bus
3. Minibus taxi
4. Private taxi
5. Tuk Tukkie
6. Private motor car
7. Motor cycle
8. Bicycle
9. Walking

(The private motor vehicle must be included in any public transport system analysis as it 
may well prove to be the least cost alternative in some circumstances.)

In addition to the above, Cape Town has interfaces with air and sea transport modes.  Although not 
used for local commuting, ferry service facilities already exist between Cape Town and Hout Bay 
and Cape Town and Robben Island. This could possibly be extended to include False Bay from 
Simon's Town to Gordon's Bay as part of a commuter service.  In other words, Cape Town is a city 
with a wide range of choices and as a result also with the potential for the application of overall 
transport cost minimisation measures through appropriate use of the various available modes.

Any transit system must include flexibility to easily accommodate new industrial, commercial and 
residential developments, especially the latter in the current South African situation.  An integrated 
system of information transfer between departments is required so that transport authorities are kept 
constantly informed by zoning authorities, urban planners and developers.



Primary elements of Strategic Logistics Management Model:

In each of the elements of the strategic logistics management model, the main objective is to 
determine what possibilities will best meet the overall objectives.  The components are discussed very 
briefly below as they may be viewed from a public transport perspective.

Transport:  
The authority has many options in terms of actually moving the customers from point A to point B. 
They could own and operate the transport fleet or parts of it, they could lease the fleet but provide 
the staff, or do what they do now and contract out the work.

Warehousing:
The product being sold is route-seats, the retail outlet is the station, or stop, the warehouse is the 
place where the route-seats are stored while not in use, overnight for example, or during off-peak 
day hours.  The time dependent directional nature of the demand can have a strong influence on 
costs.

Inventory:
If the product being sold is route-seats, then the inventory is the number of route-seats available for 
sale during the inventory period.  This is a function of the origin-destination demand using medium 
to long term prediction.

Order processing:
In commercial applications, order processing is the function of ensuring that an order received is 
timeously and fully completed.  In public transport, this is a similar process in which event driven 
adjustments are made to the system to offer the necessary service.  (Third party, advance sale of 
tickets and a event oriented information could be used for short term planning.)  There may also be 
an extension of this to the development of new industrial and residential areas which would 
constitute "new orders."

Information systems:
A product is unsaleable unless properly marketed.  Customers require information.  The cost of 
providing the information must be matched to its ability to attract custom and improve service but 
only until the desired level of service is achieved.

Lot quantity costs:
In industry, producing a lot of items may be cheaper than producing a few but, if the cost of storing 
the many outweighs the saving, then nothing is gained.  In transit provision, it may be cheaper to 
move two thousand people by train than bus, but only if they all want to travel at the same time.  
The commercial and transit logistics models are thus very similar in form.

Desired customer service level:
The desired customer service level is essentially a political decision.  How much are we prepared to 
spend and what do we want to provide for our customers?  The main issue here is that the public 
authority is the representative of the entire community, not only the users of the public transport 
system.  Customer service levels, as mentioned earlier, must therefore reflect both transit and non-
transit issues.  The prescribed levels must also reflect the 80:20 public to private transport usage 
ratio desired by the government.



Wayne Duff-Riddell (BSc.Eng.Mech)
Institute for Transport Technology
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Stellenbosch

Tel:	(021) 808 4647
Fax:	(021) 808 4361
E-mail:	driddell at ing.sun.ac.za