SC_13Digital solutions for planning and managing public transport routes and journeys

PROBLEM IN ONE SENTENCE:

Public transport routes and journeys are planned and managed manually in a very inefficient way producing about 600 paper document folders daily.

HOW BIG IS THE PROBLEM: 

The number of public transport drivers starting servicing routes is about 600 per day, which means that dispatchers personally put together and distribute about 600 document folders at the beginning of shifts. After the shifts they collect the folders to fill in journey forms with information regarding routes (distance travelled, etc.) and then start reassembling them. This process prevents organizing route work more efficiently. Such activities also undermine the goal of Tallinn City Transport to be an environment friendly company (eg all the environmental impact related to the printing of documents).

WHO’S PROBLEM IS IT: 

Approx. 2,100 employees (the whole company) are affected by the problem (drivers, dispatchers, route network planners and other people who need route information for their work). Making the work process more efficient would make it possible to make other processes more efficient that directly affect the consumer of the basic service (citizen, visitor of the City of Tallinn). That is providing public transport service with buses, trolleybuses, and trams to the citizens in the City of Tallinn.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: 

Previously, no project has been run to make the work process more efficient. We believe that digital solutions should be introduced into the work process and help integrate these with other relevant programmes where route information is used. Initial idea in more detail: the documents in today's document folder should be digitized and made available to each specific driver of the public transport vehicle at the beginning of the route operation. The public transport driver will be given the opportunity to fill in an electronic journey form (or the data would be gathered automatically) and this data will be transmitted electronically to employees with a need for knowledge and to various other applications.

POSSIBLE LIMITATIONS: 

There is an expectation and hope that the work process will be improved already in 2021. This would allow reorganizing other processes that affect the main service, also side activities that Tallinn City Transport is putting energy into. The project also has a budgetary constraint (the cost of the project cannot exceed the expected benefits) and procurement requirements must be taken into account (when wanting to purchase the solution).