Title: Improving the route effectiveness of the intercity bus operators by co-optation: a data envelopment analysis

Authors: V. Moovendhan; Githa Heggde; Shatakshi Agrawal; Moyuk Mukherjee

Addresses: Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India ' Institute of Finance and International Management, Bangalore, India ' Institute of Finance and International Management, Bangalore, India ' Institute of Finance and International Management, Bangalore, India

Abstract: Indian private bus operators suffer from cyclical demand in weekly bookings. During the slack days, the entire passenger transport industry operates with loss or low margin. This research proposes a co-optation model to overcome the losses arising from the cyclical demand. This paper researches the comparative efficiency of pre and post co-optation scenarios among the Indian private bus operators. We assume reverse aggregation of less under booking schedules of operators of the same sector can be assigned to a single bus operator who has relatively higher booking than other operators. The co-optation model of reverse aggregation could enhance the efficiency of the industry. Though numerous studies have been done to measure the efficiency of operators, we focused our research on how the operator's co-optation could improve the efficiency of the industry. For this purpose, we analysed the daily trips data of Bangalore-Goa route of the Indian private public transport for a month. The comparative efficiency is measured using the DEA method.

Keywords: data envelope analysis; intercity bus transport efficiency; co-optation; route efficiency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPSPM.2022.121735

International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management, 2022 Vol.9 No.3, pp.273 - 283

Received: 20 Apr 2018
Accepted: 23 Aug 2018
Published online: 07 Apr 2022 *

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