OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Student Transportation Operations Analysis

How well is your school bus or student transportation operation performing? How do you know? Persistent budget pressure has forced school districts to regularly look at their student transportation operations for potential cost savings. Knowing if those savings are available or if further cuts will have a negative impact on service levels requires a clear understanding of the tradeoff between cost and service.

MPS utilizes a unique combination of performance measurement and operational analysis to evaluate the performance of school bus transportation operations against industry standards and determine where improvements can be made. Areas we review include:

• School bus routing and scheduling
• Personnel management
• Fleet maintenance
• Repair parts management
• Fuel management
• Information technology

Transportation Shared Services and Inter-district Collaboration

The continuing budget pressures on school districts are requiring new and innovative solutions to providing transportation services. One growing trend is the consideration of regionalized or cross boundary transportation where multiple districts are providing services to and receiving services from each other. This approach can provide a number of potential benefits including reductions in total number of buses and drivers required, greater economies of scale in purchasing of goods and services, and reductions in administrative and managerial staffing.

MPS has designed an analytical approach that will identify, quantify, and recommend potential opportunities for collaboration that will maximize cost savings, mitigate service disruptions, and improve the utility of transportation services in general. Options to consider include:

• Opportunities that would result from the use of collaborative services to regular education programs, given current program types, locations, and bell times;
• Enhancements that could be implemented as a result of bell time, location, or other programmatic changes; and
• Opportunities that would result from sharing assets, management, infrastructure, or support services.

Transportation Performance Assessment

Excellent performance is a mix of cost effectiveness and high service quality. Understanding that "you can't manage what you cannot measure", our approach incorporates performance standards with the individual constraints and service demands that are unique to your transportation program. Our approach assists you in measuring current performance and establishes an ongoing self-assessment program that utilizes data and performance measurement as one of your key management tools.

At MPS, our diagnostic approach asks the following questions:

• Is our student transportation operation performing cost effectively?
• Are customer expectations for high-quality services being met?
• Can student transportation services be better or cheaper than they are now?

Transportation Performance Improvement Plans

Identification of a problem is important, but implementation of solutions is what is going to make your operation run more smoothly. At MPS, our specialty is partnering with our clients to make sure the changes that must be made are made. Our performance improvement approach has been confirmed in many "real world" school bus operations.

Our Transportation Improvement Plan defines the necessary changes, time lines, and expected results. Put together with our Transportation Task Plan, the "who-what-when-where-how" roadmap is complete, providing a step-by-step action strategy with specific staff assignments, deadlines, and objectives that emphasizes accountability and results. Using these powerful but straightforward tools with our clients has resulted in crisis turnarounds and rapid improvement where other attempts had failed.

Transportation Technology

Navigating the maze of technology available to transportation departments is a complex and difficult endeavor at best and a can result in costly mistakes later if not done properly. MPS specializes in understanding and defining your information technology needs and filtering the array of choices to identify the best system for your operation. We begin by helping you develop the clear vision of how the transportation operation will use the system to improve operations so you can receive the highest possible value from the system. We then translate these needs into specific service specifications. This avoids the "reverse engineering" that so often happens when a technology product is bought without a clear understanding of how you will use it.

MPS can assist you with the identification of and development of specifications for:

• Routing and scheduling packages
• Data analysis and report developement
• GIS and GPS technology
• Fleet maintenance and management systems
• Fuel management technology
• AVL and event data recorders (black boxes)

Personnel Traning

Today's transportation operations cannot be managed with yesterday's skill sets. Increasing demands for service quality and public pressure to be more accountable for cost competitiveness requires more attention to staff training and development. MPS can help train your staff in areas such route design and development; driver management and training; fleet maintenance management; data collection and analysis; and community relations.

MPS can work with you to structure a training program that will address any or all aspects of transportation management. Using MPS staff to supplement your existing training program or to help mentor and develop in-house staff members to fill expected vacancies can be a cost effective and efficient way to make sure that your organization can continue to meet the cost and service quality expectations of your customers.

School and Transportation Facility Assessments

What is the current condition of your facilities? Can you accurately evaluate what is needed and what is already adequate? Knowing if savings are available or if further deferred maintenance or replacement will have a negative impact on service levels requires a clear understanding of the tradeoff between cost and service. MPS has designed a cost effective service that includes a detailed inspection and evaluation of mechanical areas including custodial closets, mechanical rooms, boiler rooms, tunnels, attics, roofs, restrooms, kitchens, general classrooms, locker rooms, and common areas. Exterior surveys would include stadiums and other athletic facilities, parking lots and sidewalks, and the important "first impression" areas of your facilities.

As added value to our Facility Assessments, we will complement your risk management and safety programs providing comments on trip hazards, improper use of extension cords, chemical use and storage, ladders and other suggestions that may help to reduce expensive worker's compensation claims, loss of worker productivity, and potential OSHA violations.