Transport and Mobility Services

Demand is how many people want to travel and supply is how many seats you offer. They rarely match all day. Counting trips by hour shows where the gaps are.

• Count the number of people travelling in each hour of the day on at least two ordinary days.
• Compare the count with the seats available in that hour to find the load percentage.
• Mark the hours where demand is above 100% of seats and the hours where seats are mostly empty.
• Look for reasons behind peaks, such as school start times or work shifts.
• A common mistake is to plan from the daily total, which hides the busy hours.

Activity. Count trips for a full day on each of two ordinary days at one stop or on one route, and produce an hourly table with seats, demand and load percentage.

Standard to meet. Cover every service hour in your table, calculate the load percentages correctly and name the two busiest and two quietest hours.

A good route is simple and a good timetable is regular. Stops should be close to where people need to go. Even gaps between services are easy to remember.

• Place stops within a short walk of homes, schools and shops, and avoid detours that add little demand.
• Use an even gap, such as every 15 minutes, so passengers can remember the times without looking.
• Add a layover at each end so late arrivals do not delay the next trip.
• Work out the vehicles you need as round-trip time including layover divided by the gap, rounded up.
• A common mistake is to schedule trips with no layover, so one delay passes down the whole day.

Activity. Draft a timetable for one route with stop times, gaps, layover and the number of vehicles needed, and explain your choices in a short note.

Standard to meet. Space the gaps evenly in your timetable, show the layover and vehicle calculation correctly, and check that a peer can read it without help.

Only licensed drivers and vehicles in good condition may carry passengers. You check licences and run daily vehicle inspections. An emergency plan is ready before the first trip.

• Check each driver licence and the vehicle documents against the rules, and note the expiry dates.
• Run a daily inspection of at least 12 items, such as brakes, lights, tyres, seat belts and doors.
• Do not run a vehicle that fails an item that affects safety, and record what was done.
• Write an emergency plan with contact numbers, a first-aid kit location and steps for a breakdown or accident.
• Check with your local authority about the licences, insurance and rules for carrying passengers or goods.

Activity. Create a daily checklist, a licence record sheet and an emergency plan, then complete one practice inspection on a real vehicle with the owner.

Standard to meet. Cover at least 12 items in your checklist, get the owner to sign the practice inspection and confirm your plan with your local authority.

Knowing your cost per trip lets you set a fare and see if the service can last. Costs include fuel or energy, the driver, upkeep and insurance. You divide by trips and by passengers.

• List the costs for a period: fuel or charging, driver time, repairs and tyres, insurance share and booking or admin.
• Divide the total cost by the number of trips to get cost per trip.
• Divide cost per trip by the passengers on average to get cost per passenger.
• Compare cost per passenger with the fare and decide whether the service covers its costs.
• A common mistake is to ignore upkeep and insurance because they are not paid every day.

Activity. Complete a cost sheet for your trial with each cost, cost per trip, cost per passenger and break-even passengers per trip.

Standard to meet. Calculate correctly, give every cost a source and show the break-even number of passengers per trip.

You now run the service and record every trip. Honest data on lateness, loads and incidents is the base for improvement. Do not tidy the numbers.

• Record the planned and actual departure and arrival times for every trip.
• Count passengers on each trip and note the stop where the loading was heaviest.
• Record every incident or complaint with the time, place and what was done.
• Calculate punctuality as the trips on time divided by the total trips, and decide in advance what on time means, such as within 3 minutes.
• A common mistake is to change the definition of on time after seeing the results.

Activity. Run the trial for 30 days and submit a full trip log, a punctuality calculation and an incident list.

Standard to meet. Log every trip with times and passenger counts, and calculate your punctuality figure using your original definition.

Passenger data can reveal where people live and work. You collect only what you need and keep it safe. Counting is better than naming.

• Collect counts of passengers, not names, unless a name is needed for the service.
• Store the data in a protected file and limit who can open it.
• Delete data you no longer need after the agreed period and note the date you did so.
• Tell passengers what you count and why in a short, plain notice.
• Check with your local authority about the data protection rules that apply to you.

Activity. Write a one-page data note covering what you collect, why, how it is stored, who sees it and when it is deleted.

Standard to meet. Cover all five points in your note, collect no more than needed and have your mentor review it.

To fix delays you first find where and why they happen. A table of delay by stop and by cause points to the real problem. Fix the cause, not the symptom.

• Calculate the delay at each stop as actual time minus planned time and record it for every trip.
• Add up the delays by stop and find the stop where most delay builds up.
• List the causes you saw, such as slow loading, traffic or late start, and count each one.
• Rank the causes by how many late trips each one explains.
• A common mistake is to blame traffic for everything without checking the data.

Activity. Build a delay table by stop and by cause, draw one chart and write two sentences naming the main cause and the evidence for it.

Standard to meet. Match your table totals to your trip log, label the chart with units and support your main cause with at least 50% of late trips.

Improvement is about picking the fixes that give the most benefit for the cost. You compare options, choose, and set a date. You also decide how you will measure success.

• List at least three possible fixes and the number of late trips each could remove.
• Estimate the cost of each fix in money and effort.
• Divide the benefit by the cost to rank the fixes, and choose the best one or two.
• Write next steps with dates and the measure of success for each.
• A common mistake is to pick the cheapest fix even when it solves little.

Activity. Present an improvement plan with at least three fixes ranked by impact against cost and a timeline.

Standard to meet. Base your ranking on numbers from your trial and give each chosen fix a date and a measure.