ITS-facilitated Functions
Bus companies carry out a wide range of non-ITS functions, many of which are computerized. These functions are not usually categorized as ITS. They are broadly in three groups:
- Resource planning and management
- Service performance
- Administration, MIS and audit
When ITS systems are implemented, these non-ITS functions often receive much of their input data from the ITS systems (e.g. trips / kms operated by vehicle, daily revenue by route / driver, fares transaction records). In some cases, the non-ITS functions can also provide baseline or assignment data to the ITS systems (e.g. the scheduling system provides the timetable information to the AVM system).
The relationship between these ITS and non-ITS functions have three main implications:
- The ability to use data generated by the ITS systems can lead to major cost and productivity savings within the administration. As the ITS data is already in electronic format, it can the transferred directly, quickly, and eliminate human / input errors.
- The high level of data transfer requires a structured approach to system architecture, data models, data transfer, data storage, and data quality. All of the ITS and non-ITS systems need to be considered together.
- Some ITS-facilitated functions may be acquired during the ITS procurement. In other cases, the interfaces between the ITS and existing non-ITS software systems are developed within the ITS project. The ITS project scope needs to fully consider all such possibilities.
This section presents the non-ITS Functions that are closely related to ITS and which are facilitated by the ITS systems. The ITS-facilitated Functions cluster consists of ten Applications:
- Network planning
- Service scheduling
- Service performance analysis
- Service contract management
- Systems Payment Management
- Payroll functions
- Vehicle maintenance scheduling
- Fuel consumption monitoring
- Management Information
- Revenue Protection