Title: Economic life cycle of the bus fleet: a case study

Authors: Hugo Raposo; José Torres Farinha; Luís Ferreira; Filipe Didelet

Addresses: CEMMPRE – Centre for Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Processes, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, 3030-788, Portugal ' CEMMPRE – Centre for Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Processes, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, 3030-788, Portugal; IPC – Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Coimbra, 3000-271, Portugal ' UP – University of Porto, Porto, 4200-465, Portugal ' IPS – Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, Setúbal, 2910-761, Portugal

Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to discuss the application of econometric models to life-cycle cost (LCC) of an urban bus fleet with an emphasis on the maintenance costs. The practical results are compared with theoretical ones, which represent a good maintenance and functioning management. The influence of inflation ratio, as well as the price of fuel in the withdrawal time are evaluated. The paper analyses if there is a variation at the time of the vehicle replacement, obtained from several econometric methods namely the annual uniform income and minimisation of the average total cost with reduction to the present value. It also emphasises an eventual relation between the maintenance policy and the reserve fleet, and the relation between maintenance performance and time replacement of bus fleet. Finally, the paper analyses differences between replacement simulations from theoretical econometric models and the same ones applied to real data.

Keywords: equipment replacement; LCC; spare fleet; planned maintenance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.2019.097109

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 2019 Vol.26 No.1, pp.31 - 54

Received: 15 Apr 2016
Accepted: 25 Jan 2017
Published online: 21 Dec 2018 *

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