Title: A case study of cooperative purchasing programs in transportation organisations

Authors: Mario G. Beruvides; James L. Simonton; Natalie M. Waters; Himlona Palikhe; Siva Chaivichitmalakul

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Texas Tech University, Box 43061, Lubbock, TX 79409-3061, USA ' Department of Industrial and Information Engineering Tullahoma, University of Tennessee Space Institute, TN 37388-9700, USA ' Pantex Corporation, Amarillo, TX, USA ' Graduate School of Engineering Seattle, Northeastern University, WA 98109, USA ' Team Built Co., Ltd., Bangkok 10110, Thailand

Abstract: Vast numbers of public transit agencies have increased demands for purchasing and maintenance. Transit agencies organisational growth has increased significantly based on vehicle maintenance costs that include vehicle parts, equipment, and services. Cooperative purchasing programs are methodologies used to share or bundle purchasing volumes, information, and resources. Cooperative purchasing programs can save public transit agencies time and money because of the economies of scale from increased purchased quantities. This paper identifies current preferences needed when considering utilising cooperative purchasing programs through customised questionnaires. Several Texas transportation organisations were featured in this study. These questionnaires highlight the differences between agencies participating in cooperative purchasing programs and agencies not participating in cooperative purchasing programs along with their programmatic paradigms and their current practices regardless of public transit agency type. The results of the questionnaires show the different agencies' purchasing patterns. Vehicles, vehicle maintenance and vehicle insurance are the three of the top four purchasing items for public transit agencies surveyed in this study both utilising and not utilising cooperative purchasing programs. This paper also provides suggestions on best practices for cooperative purchasing programs.

Keywords: cooperative purchasing programmes; CPP; public transit agencies; vehicle maintenance; case study; USA; United States; vehicle purchasing; vehicle insurance.

DOI: 10.1504/WRITR.2015.069237

World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research, 2015 Vol.5 No.3, pp.240 - 262

Received: 01 Apr 2014
Accepted: 31 Dec 2014
Published online: 05 May 2015 *

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