1. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Vehicle & Crew Scheduling Unit 5: Staff & Fleet Scheduling

2. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Service Planning Steps Crew scheduling Vehicle blocking Timetabling Frequency determination Route design and stop layout Network design

3. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Connecting to Last Lecture Last time: – Determined schedule of service for routes in the service area Now: – Select the number of vehicles and drivers to serve those routes

4. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Vehicle Scheduling Breaks down service schedule into a specific set of trips that a single vehicle will cover May include >1 route, >1 driver Also referred to as “blocking” Timetable : Passengers :: Block : Vehicles

5. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Why Important? Blocking dictates the cost associated with operating a transit system on a given day – Vehicle operation – Worker assignments

6. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Components of Blocking Pull-out time from depot Sequence of trips from timetable – Including time at specific locations Interline/Deadhead trips Pull-in time to depot

7. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Frequency Timetable

8. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Blocking Vehicles

9. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Blocking IDs

10. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Goal of Blocking Minimize time, budget, distance traveled by all vehicles on network Specifically concerned with: – Layover times – Deadhead time – Recovery time – Wastes money, utilize same drivers over multiple routes

11. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Blocking Policies Layover & Recovery Times Rest or break time for operators along a route Buffer time built into the schedule to keep on-time Interlining Switch vehicle from one route to another within a major terminal Deadheading Switch vehicle from one route to another at a different terminal

12. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Interlining & Deadheading

13. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Constraints Each trip in the timetable must be made by a vehicle A vehicle cannot be assigned more than one trip at any point in time If a vehicle must be repositioned for a trip, the time and distance it takes to get to the new start point must be considered

14. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Challenges to Blocking Frequent bus service More than 1 depot location Coordination over multiple routes # Vehicles = Cycle Time/ Headway

15. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Easy Blocking Solution Have a set of vehicles run on single cycles around each route all day – First in-first out rule – Not efficient – Not cost-effective

16. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Example Many feeder routes for University of Texas at Austin Campus

17. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Example Many feeder routes for University of Texas at Austin Campus Specifically Red River Route

18. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Overall Shuttle Schedule

19. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Red River Schedule

20. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Red River Blocking ActivityStart TimeStart LocationEnd Location Pull-out6:25 AMDepotCampus Core Trip7:00 AMCampus CoreBennett Rd Trip7:30 AMBennett RdCampus Core... Trip7:00 PMCampus CoreDepot ActivityStart TimeStart LocationEnd Location Pull-out6:30 AMDepotCampus Core Trip7:05 AMCampus CoreBennett Rd Trip7:35 AMBennett RdCampus Core... Trip6:35 PMCampus CoreDepot

21. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Crew Scheduling Once the vehicles are blocked, we get to now assign drivers to operate them! Come up with work shifts – Minimum total labor costs that still meet service requirements

22. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Why Important? Scheduling is critical for allocating funds efficiently Ineffective methods generate – Too much overtime – Too much guaranteed time Leads to financial instability

23. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood A Significant Share of Operating Costs 60-70% of total operating costs are for drivers Small reductions in number of operators or total work hours can save significant funds for an agency

24. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Challenges Cannot just assign one driver to one vehicle for the day – Vehicle operates longer than typical 8-hour work period – Driver may not get sufficient break time during layovers

25. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Driver “Duties” The work shifts for drivers Also called “runs” Can be: – One-piece duty A single block over an 8-hr period of time – Multiple-piece duty More than 1 block over an 8-hr period of time

26. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Run-cutting Process of breaking up vehicle blocking into individual pieces and set duties In the past: pieces of paper Today: with computers

27. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood The Process Run-cut each vehicle block into pieces of work Assemble pieces of work into duties – Based on worker constraints

28. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood The Process Veh #1 Blocking Veh #2 Blocking Veh #3 Blocking Run-cutting of BlocksAssigning of Duties Driver 1 Driver 2 Driver 3 Driver 4

29. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Driver Limitations/ Constraints Duty should start and end at same terminal Crew gets 2 breaks during the day Break is required after no more than 3 hours of work Crew must have at least 8 hours off between duties 20% of duties can be long than 9 hours 25% of duties can be split intervals with unpaid breaks 30% of duties can be covered by part-time operators

30. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Drivers get… …a guaranteed set number of hours – Even if don’t work them, they are paid …on-call hours – Even if don’t work them, they are paid …paid an hourly rate …paid premiums for overtime …paid premiums for spread time – If a duty exceeds a certain time …paid premiums for swing time – If a duty starts and ends at different locations

31. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Rules of Assigning Duties Drivers must have minimum % of straight runs Limit on # of part time duties Restriction # of split runs starting/ ending by certain times

32. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood How do we come up with run-cutting pieces? It’s an optimization problem! – Find the most cost effective run-cutting option – Based on meeting a set of constraints/ objectives Need a computer to help solve

33. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Objectives What goals would you have with your schedule to get it to be the smallest cost possible?

34. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Objectives Minimize number of drivers hired by company Maximize number of full 8 hour shifts Minimize shifts over 8 hours Maximize number of shifts with contiguous days off Maximize number of shifts with Saturday-Sunday off

35. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Assigning Process It’s a bidding war! Those with seniority go first – Get to pick their duties for the next period Happens 2-3 times per year

36. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Assignment Option #1 Cafeteria-style, or “a-la-carte” Drivers pick individual duties on a day-by-day basis Do not pick duties on days you want off Some rules need to be followed

37. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Assignment Option #2 Rostering, or “packaged” Scheduler puts together weekly duty packages, called rosters Drivers pick a roster from the options given

38. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Cost Awareness Cafeteria-style – Operators are more invested in their work because they scheduled it – Better attendance, fewer accidents, fewer complaints, etc. Rostering – Really cost-effective – Best when guarantees are lifted as well

39. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Conclusions Vehicle blocking and driver duties are complex processes. Both are critical to financial stability of agencies. Many options for organizing vehicles and drivers. – Most likely use computers to assist.

40. Materials developed by K. Watkins, J. LaMondia and C. Brakewood Reference Materials in this lecture were taken from: Mark Hickman, Fundamentals of Transportation wikibook, “Network Design & Frequency”, http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Fundamentals_of_T ransportation/Network_Design_and_Frequency http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Fundamentals_of_T ransportation/Network_Design_and_Frequency UC Berkeley Bear Transit Schedules and Multi- Modal Transportation Map, (2009), Trillium Solutions, http://www.trilliumtransit.com/2009/09/07/uc- berkeley-bear-transit-schedules-and-multi- modal-transportation-map/ http://www.trilliumtransit.com/2009/09/07/uc- berkeley-bear-transit-schedules-and-multi- modal-transportation-map/