PRODUCTIVITY BENEFITS AND COST EFFICIENCIES FROM ITS APPLICATIONS TO PUBLIC TRANSIT: THE EVALUATION OF AVL

David Gillen, Elva Chang and Doug Johnson

Research in Transportation Economics, 2004, vol. 8, issue 1, 549-567

Abstract: This research uses Total Factor Productivity (TFP) techniques, with which we develop measures of productivity performance for public transit systems of varying size and location, and use this baseline to examine the potential contribution of alternative Advanced Vehicle Location (AVL) applications. TFP aggregates outputs on the basis of their revenue contribution and inputs on the basis of their relative importance to total costs to calculate the overall firm productivity as a function of these quantities. The results from the study are very insightful. AVL was found to be an important factor in both system performance and cost savings. The introduction of AVL had a positive and significant impact on transit firm productivity. Improving productivity and developing better service information can be obtained through the use of AVL. The use of AVL also leads to increased passenger trips by a non-trivial amount. Unfortunately, due to limited information, it is not possible to explore further as to how the increase in passenger trips is accomplished. In the bus fleet regression, AVL has a negative coefficient indicating the use of AVL by the transit firm will result in fewer buses being used, given the number of vehicle miles and the number of passenger trips. Similarly, we found the cost per vehicle mile was lower when the transit firm used AVL. In addition to these cost savings, our research indicates that given fleet size and usage, AVL will reduce the annual maintenance hours for a given agency.

Date: 2004
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