Bus Punctuality Soars From 17% In 2009 To 76% In Feb 2011: Al Tayer

 His Excellency Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA), revealed that the public bus occupancy had rocketed from 17 per cent in early 2009 to as much as 76 per cent in February this year i.e. more than four-fold increase. Likewise, the percentage of actual journeys made compared to scheduled journeys has soared from 86 per cent in 2009 to about 99 per cent last February, and the percentage of calls inquiring after bus delays dropped from 500 calls in March 2010 to about 15 calls only last February.

The above indicators were announced during an inspection tour made by Al Tayer to RTA Public Transport Agency which took him to the Automatic Vehicle Monitoring Control Center, and the Booking & Despatch Center at Transportation Systems Dep’t, Public Transport Agency. During the tour, Al Tayer was accompanied by the CEO of Public Transport Agency Eisa Abdul Rahman Al Dosari, and a number of Directors of the Agency.

Al Tayer attended to a briefing from Al Dosari about the operational results of buses in the first quarter of this year, where the number of kilometres covered by buses recently have dropped remarkably, meanwhile the number of passengers served has grown as a result of the Bus Journey Rescheduling exercise adopted by the RTA based on a study of passenger movement patterns following the operation of the Dubai Metro. The average distance covered by buses in a single month during 2009 was about 8.5 million kilometres in which about 7 million passengers were lifted, whereas the distance covered by buses in last February was about 4.5 million kilometres in which about 7.5 million passenger were served.

Commenting on RTA public bus operational results Al Tayer said: “Seats occupancy rate of public buses in Dubai exceeds 40 per cent; which is a high rate compared to the life span of public transport system in the Emirate as the prevailing bus occupancy rate in seasoned countries with lengthy experience in public transport systems is 24 per cent in the UK, 25 per cent in Sweden, 30 per cent in Finland, 32 per cent in Japan, 55 per cent in Belgium and 58 per cent in Austria.”

RTA Chairman of the Board & Executive Directive made a tour of the Automatic Vehicle Monitoring (AVM) Control Center during which he reviewed the work mechanism, bus schedules and the process of tracking bus movement. He was then briefed by Al Dosari on the training regime of employees comprising five phases and lasting six months. In the initial phase, the trainee is subjected to a two-weeks training course conducted in collaboration with the supplier of the AVM system during which he or she is subjected to a practical training on the technological & technical aspects of the system. The trainee then sits for a test run by the training expert of the INIT AG, and Manager of the Control Center.

Once the employee passes the test, he or she moves on to Phase II, which lasts for two weeks, during which the trainee is trained on the mechanism of the Control Center, and the Trusted Procedures & Operations Manual set for the Center relating to Bus management on roads. The employee will have to undergo a test to measure the extent of his or her knowledge of the Procedures & Operations Manual adopted by the Center.

The trainee then moves on to Phase III of the training regime which lasts for 3 weeks during which he or she shadows the expert in the Control Center to learn the work mechanism and running of operations, and in the meantime the trainee will be assessed by the expert.

Should the trainee clears the test, he or she will shift to Phase IV, which continues for four weeks during which the trainee will be deployed on the AVM system but will have no power to take a decision without recourse to the shift supervisor assessing the trainee.

Then the trainee moves to Phase V; which runs for three months during which he or she will be performing on his own workstation under the direct follow up of the Manager of the Control Center and will be assessed on the basis of statistics compiled and decisions taken by the trainee.

Al Tayer inspected the Booking & Despatch Center at the Transportation Systems Dep’t where he reviewed the operational statistics of the Section which reveal that the number of taxi booking calls received by the Section during the first quarter of this year clocked 4.46 million calls resulting in 4.394 million booking executed. He was also briefed on the indicators, job nature and mechanism in place at the Center as well as the handling of incoming calls, shift system and the applicable quality controls; which include daily tracking of employees’ performance level, and phone-delivered services.

At the end of the tour Al Tayer conferred with the Directors & Managers of Public Transport Agency where he commended their efforts, asked them to make more endeavours towards achieving excellent results, and directed to offer more training exposure to better qualify Emiratis on administrative & technical fields.

Captions:

•  Al Tayer inspecting the AVM Control Center
•  Al Tayer attending to a briefing about Bus Operational Performance Indicators
•  Al Tayer inspecting the Booking & Despatch Center
•  Al Tayer meeting the staff of Public Transport Agency

Emirate:  Abu Dhabi

Date: May 7, 2011

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