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Routing and Bell Time Analysis
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"How come our school buses are half empty?" is a question that transportation
and business managers often hear from school boards and the public. The expense associated
with purchasing and maintaining a school bus creates a distinct sensitivity to how
"full" buses are. Answering this question takes more than a casual observation
of a bus somewhere on its route. Truly answering the question of whether or not your
buses are half empty requires an understanding of the entire student transportation
network.
MPS has developed a capacity utilization analysis service that can help you use buses
more efficiently, reduce the total number of buses required, and improve the quality
of service provided. MPS incorporates an understanding of board policies, logistical
requirements, available seats, and bell time requirements to diagnose bus route networks
and suggest changes that can answer the question "Can we do more with less?"
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One of the key principles of student transportation efficiency is being able to
reuse a minimum number of buses a maximum number of times. Misaligned school bell
times often result in the following problems:
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Escalating transportation costs; |
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Poor service to the individual school buildings; and |
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Half empty school buses |
MPS has designed a bell time analysis service that will assist you with developing
alternative bell time schedules that will reduce the number of school buses in the
fleet, shorten trip times, minimize costs, and improve the quality of service.
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Transportation Shared Services and Inter-district Collaboration
The continuing budget pressure on school districts is requiring new and innovative solutions to providing
transportation services. One growing trend is the consideration of regionalized or cross boundary transportation
where multiple districts are providing services to and receiving services from each other. This approach can provide
a number potential benefits including reductions in total number of buses and drivers required, greater economies of
scale in purchasing of goods and services, and reductions in administrative and managerial staffing.
MPS has designed an analytical approach that will identify, quantify, and recommend potential opportunities for collaboration that will maximize cost savings, mitigate service disruptions, and improve the utility of transportation services in general. Options to consider include:
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Opportunities that would result from the use of collaborative services to regular education programs, given current program types, locations, and bell times; |
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Enhancements that could be implemented as a result of bell time, location, or other programmatic changes; and |
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Opportunities that would result from sharing assets, management, infrastructure, or support services. |
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"Is your transportation program cost effective?" Measuring the cost
of school bus transportation services and determining whether costs can be reduced
or if resource investments need to be made is critical to properly allocating limited
school district resources.
For school districts, untangling the influence of regular education; special education;
non-public education; athletic and field trips on the cost of student transportation
has to be done but can be difficult and confusing. For fleet operations, calculating
true maintenance costs, overhead allocations, and internal labor costs can be a daunting
and time-consuming effort. MPS has the tools to help you understand student and school
bus transportation costs on a unit basis in a way that will allow you make better
decisions on how to provide transportation services economically and efficiently.
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Excellent performance is a mix of cost effectiveness and high service quality.
Understanding that "you can't manage what you cannot measure", our approach
incorporates performance standards with the individual constraints and service demands
that are unique to your transportation program. Our approach assists you in measuring
current performance and establishes an ongoing self-assessment program that utilizes
data and performance measurement as one of your key management tools.
At MPS, our diagnostic approach asks the following questions:
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Is our student transportation operation performing cost effectively? |
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Are customer expectations for high-quality services being met? |
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Can student transportation services be better or cheaper than they are now? |
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Routing Software and Related Technology
Navigating the maze of technology available to transportation departments is a
complex and difficult endeavor at best and a can result in costly mistakes later
if not done properly. MPS specializes in understanding and defining your information
technology needs and filtering the array of choices to identify the best system for
your operation. We begin by helping you develop the clear vision of how the transportation
operation will use the system to improve operations so you can receive the highest
possible value from the system. We then translate these needs into specific service
specifications. This avoids the "reverse engineering" that so often happens
when a technology product is bought without a clear understanding.
MPS can assist you with the identification of and development of specifications for:
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Routing and scheduling packages |
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Data analysis and report development |
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GIS and GPS technology |
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Fleet maintenance and management systems |
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Fuel management technology |
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AVL and event data recorders (black boxes) |
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Us
Management Partnership Services
9710 Traville Gateway Dr. #363 Rockville, MD 20850
888-518-3377 (phone)
888-348-0335 (fax)
inforequests@managementpartnershipservices.com
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