Controlling System Costs: Basic and Advanced Scheduling Manuals and Contemporary Issues in Transit Scheduling (2009)

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Summary

Summary S-3 As a transit manager, executive, or policy maker you probably already know that schedule making is a vital function for your agency. Without accurate schedules, your agency would be unable to provide a reliable quality service to your riding public. Beyond the need for accurate schedules, your schedulers are vital to virtu- ally every aspect of your agency, from fi nance to labor relations, and from planning to operations management. This summary distills fi ve key reasons why scheduling is vitally important. Cost. A good scheduler can reduce costs, with minimal impact on service levels or quality, in any economic environ- ment. In times of expansion, schedulers can ensure that new service is being provided in the most cost-effi cient matter. In times of belt-tightening, schedulers can identify opportunities to reduce costs while minimizing the impact on customers. How can schedulers do this? At the macro level, cost is a linear function of revenue hours of service, but at the de- tailed route level, cost is a step function that increases to the next step or decreases to the previous step only when a bus must be added to or can be removed from the schedule. Schedulers work at this detailed level and thus have devel- oped innovative means to minimize costs along with a clear understanding of the critical factors that aff ect costs. Contracts and Labor Relations. This understanding of the critical factors that aff ect costs is invaluable to a transit agency general manager, but is not always communicated clearly. The stereotype of schedulers is similar to that of accountants: wear green eyeshades (perhaps today this is replaced by “always at the computer screen”), analyze lots of data, not very sociable. Like all stereotypes, this is not universally true, but scheduling does attract people with a 1. 2. quantitative bent who would rather solve interesting math- ematical problems than make small talk. It is well worth seeking their opinions on ways to control costs because of their detailed knowledge of critical factors. Schedulers’ knowledge is especially useful at the bargaining table. Your schedulers have the most detailed understand- ing of anyone in your agency regarding the impacts of any current or proposed element of the collective bargaining agreement on cost and effi ciency. Schedulers have too many stories of instances where the labor negotiating team agreed to a seemingly innocuous request for a change in the labor contract that ended up costing millions of dollars. Most of you already know this, but it is well worth repeat- ing: always ask your schedulers to run the numbers fi rst. Customer Service. Senior management at one of the case study agencies noted that if you want to pay attention to customer service, then you have to pay attention to scheduling. To customers, a schedule provides the essential information needed to plan a trip, defi nes the arrival and departure times and the time the trip will take, makes suffi - cient capacity of service available so that the customers’ trip will be comfortable, and ensures that customers will arrive at their destination at the promised time. The schedulers’ work has a direct and signifi cant impact on the quality of transit service. Work Environment. The scheduling department defi nes the workday for your operators. Your operators, in turn, are the front line in terms of dealing with customers, and these interactions can be aff ected by elements of the schedule. Good schedules can reduce the stress inherent in this job, thus improving morale and minimizing absenteeism. 3. 4. Controlling System Costs: Basic and Advanced Scheduling Manuals and Contemporary Issues in Transit Scheduling Summary for Transit Managers, Executives, and Policy Makers

Summary S-4 Computerized Scheduling. At this point, you may be thinking, “I approved a huge purchase for a computerized scheduling software package a few years ago—doesn’t that address all of my scheduling issues?” This is one of the more common mistakes we see—the assumption that a comput- erized scheduling package is the solution, and not the tool. The truth is in fact the reverse. There is no substitute for the seasoned knowledge of a scheduling professional. As a colleague once put it: “You give a person MS Word and don’t expect them to write the great American novel—so don’t give them a computerized scheduling package and expect that they can produce high quality schedules!” Computerized scheduling provides many benefi ts: it frees the scheduler from many mundane and time-consuming tasks, its accuracy is unquestioned, and its speed permits more “what-if” testing of alternatives. However, scheduling cannot be reduced to learning another computer program. An experienced scheduler with a thorough knowledge of the craft knows how to tweak the program parameters and will explore diff erent options on the way to designing the most effi cient schedule. While this manual is primarily geared for the scheduling profession- al, you may want to browse through it as well, or recommend it to others who are not directly assigned scheduling duties. The goal of this manual is to provide the reader with the skills necessary to be a professional scheduler, lacking only the years of practice needed to develop and apply the seasoning. Even those with no intention of becoming a scheduler can gain a greater understanding of what the scheduling process entails and how it can aff ect your agency’s bottom line. Chapter ͭ provides a brief introduction to the manual. Chapter ͮ discusses inputs to the scheduling process. Subsequent chapters address the individual elements of scheduling, including schedule building, blocking, runcutting and rostering. 5. Each of these chapters has basic, intermediate, and advanced sec- tions. The advanced sections include discussions of contemporary, cutting-edge issues in scheduling. Virtually all of these issues aff ect your bottom line, either directly or indirectly. While written for the experienced scheduler, these discussions should be of interest to senior managers. A brief summary of the concepts and techniques included in each chapter is provided below Chapter ͭ – Introduction explains the purpose of the scheduling manual and discusses why scheduling is important. Chapter ͮ – Inputs to the Scheduling Process provides an over- view of the scheduling process and describes external factors that aff ect a scheduler’s work. Critical inputs include: Union contracts Route design Service standards This chapter also discusses the organization of the scheduling department, required data, and data sources. Chapters ͯ through Ͳ address the four functional areas of schedul- ing. Chapter ͯ – Schedule Building focuses on the process of pre- paring schedules. The basic level takes the prospective scheduler through all the steps involved in constructing a simple schedule, including span of service, headway, roundtrip cycle time, layover/ recovery time, and the schedule pattern. These are the building blocks of any schedule, no matter how complex. The intermediate level shows how to adjust the basic schedule to accommodate dif- ferent peak and off -peak headways and how to smooth the transi- tion between time periods. The intermediate level also presents a more complex schedule for a two-branch route with diff erent headways and running times throughout the day and demonstrates how to analyze data to determine whether service needs to be changed to meet demand and whether running times need to be adjusted. The advanced level works through actual headway and running time changes to an existing schedule. Advanced topics include: • • •

Summary S-5 Establishing running times Intertiming with even and uneven headways Joint consideration of running and layover times Running time myths Chapter Ͱ – Schedule Blocking addresses the process of assigning trips to specifi c vehicles. The basic level discusses the importance of blocking within the scheduling process and blocks the simple schedule developed in Chapter ͯ. Specifi c topics include layover time, layover location, interlining/through routing, calculation of vehicle statistics, and graphing the blocks. The intermediate level blocks the more complex schedules from Chapter ͯ and provides basic rules for blocking complex routes. The intermediate level also discusses how to evaluate a blocking solution and presents examples of reblocking the initial solution to be more effi cient. The advanced level blocks the revised schedule from Chapter ͯ. Ad- vanced topics include: Applying garages to each block Midday storage lots Interlining on a garage or system basis Route assignments by garage Chapter ͱ – Runcutting presents the process of converting vehicle blocks into work assignments for operators. The basic level dis- cusses runcutting objectives, types of runs, runcutting inputs and outputs, the need to understand rules, constraints and practices, penalties and costs, operator reliefs, and means of evaluating a runcut. The basic level also presents an example of a runcut based on the simple schedule and blocking from previous chapters. The intermediate section presents a more complex runcut, and address- es the iterative nature of runcutting in recutting pieces of work and revisiting the blocking solutions. The advanced level considers more intricate runcutting challenges, such as more complex work rules, additional relief types and locations, and runcutting multiple routes and/or garages. Advanced topics include: • • • • • • • • Joint consideration of trips, blocks, and runs (emphasizing the interaction among all scheduling elements) Multipiece runs Meal breaks Relief types Overtime optimization Use of part-time operators and Ͱ/ͭͬ work schedules Runcutting and computerized scheduling software packages Chapter Ͳ – Rostering describes the process of grouping daily op- erator runs into packages of weekly work assignments. The basic level defi nes and discusses diff erences between agency-developed and cafeteria-style rostering, develops examples of both types and presents means of evaluating diff erent rostering solutions. The intermediate level develops more complex rosters based on the schedules, blocks, and runcuts from previous chapters; discusses issues such as days off , impact of part-time operators, and fi ve- day vs. four-day (Ͱ/ͭͬ) rostering; and highlights factors related to rostering effi ciency. The advanced level includes the following advanced topics: Revisiting run types Rotary rostering Rostering with spreadsheets and computerized software packages Extraboard considerations Holidays The scheduling manual is oriented toward bus scheduling, but Chapter ͳ – Rail Scheduling addresses the process of light rail and (briefl y) heavy rail scheduling. Additional factors to consider in rail scheduling include yard balancing, adding/cutting cars, scheduling yard staff , and the impacts of terminal design on scheduling effi ciency. • • • • • • • • • • • •

Summary S-6 The Glossary includes a glossary of scheduling terms. Scheduling “language” has a wide variety of dialects. The manual includes a running glossary in the margins, but a grouping of common terms and variants in a glossary should prove benefi cial for the transit industry. Scheduling is not merely a production activity. One premise of this manual is that scheduling is the brain of the transit organism in its day-to-day function. By its nature, scheduling provides the clearest understanding of how and where cost effi ciencies can be achieved in daily operations and of the impacts of specifi c provisions of the collective bargaining agreement on effi ciency. It also clearly aff ects the service that operates on the street. In summary, scheduling signifi cantly aff ects service quality and sig- nifi cantly controls operating costs—probably the two key elements of a transit system. A savvy general manager makes full utilization of the scheduling department’s knowledge in these areas, particu- larly during contract negotiations and in times of budget constraints.