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AN


ANALYSIS


‘Is the Bus on Time as Long as We Don’t Get Any Calls?’


We have all experienced complaints about buses being late, no matter how well our


programs are run. In some respects, the service we provide is simple; picking children up and bringing them to


By John P. Fahey


school. To an outsider, the question “Do your buses run on time?” might seem like one of the most basic measures of our industry. Our parents have reasonable expectations that we will be able to tell them what time the bus will arrive at the stop. Our schools have the same expectations; we will deliver students to the school at the designated time. But measuring on-time performance is an area where the industry is challenged. Tere is little


standardization in the industry for what “on time” means. Without standardization, it is difficult to track our performance year by year and nearly impossible to compare our programs to others. Recognizing that this gap exists, School Transportation News dedicated an entire session to


discussing the issue at the 2011 STN EXPO in Reno, Nev. Te goal of the session was to develop an “on-time” definition on which we can all agree and to create a key performance indicator (KPI) for our industry that accurately measures this metric. A group of about 30 transportation profession- als participated in the session. Te discussion was lively but always respectful and highly engaged in this interesting challenge. A main ingredient of a suc-


cessful KPI is the establishment of standardized definitions so that data captured across dif- ferent programs is consistent. For the purposes of creating an “On-Time Performance KPI,” it was first necessary to define what “on time” means. Tis


question sounds


simple, but much discussion ensued before we could come to a consensus. Bell times, breakfast times and loading queues all factored into the discussion. Ultimately, we agreed to measure our performance in comparison to the “planned time,” which is defined as the time we plan for the bus to pull up to the school regardless of what happens afterward. Te reality of our process is that we designate a time for our buses to arrive at the school and time the route backwards from that moment. We ask the school the question, “What time do you want the busses to pull up?” Tis planned time becomes the time we use to measure our “on-time” performance. During the discussion, there was a strong school of thought expressed that “on time” means “on


time.” If we expect the bus to show up at the school at 8 a.m, it had better get there by 8 a.m. A bus arriving at 8:01 a.m. would therefore be considered “late.” Tese concepts led to a discussion on the inclusion of an acceptable window of time within


which the bus could arrive. We all know the issues with traffic, weather and human interactions our bus drivers face every day. We can start the route on time, but that is no guarantee it will finish on time. Ultimately, we decided that a KPI to measure school bus on-time performance needed to be


stated in two parts. Te first part measures the percentage of busses that arrive at a school on or before the “planned time.” Te second part measures the percentage of busses that arrive at the school within10 minutes after the planned time. Examining the combination of these two measures


40 School Transportation News Magazine October 2011


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