Article citation information:

Łukasik, Z., Kuśmińska-Fijałkowska, A., Olszańska, S. An analysis of the services provided by a transport enterprise. Scientific Journal of Silesian University of Technology. Series Transport. 2018, 100, 91-103. ISSN: 0209-3324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20858/sjsutst.2018.100.8.

 

 

Zbigniew ŁUKASIK[1], Aldona KUŚMIŃSKA-FIJAŁKOWSKA[2], Sylwia OLSZAŃSKA[3]

 

 

 

AN ANALYSIS OF THE SERVICES PROVIDED BY A TRANSPORT ENTERPRISE

 

Summary. The escalating globalization of the market, increased competitiveness and the necessity to intensify actions directed at an appropriate level of logistics customer service, as well as the growth in provided services, are the most important strategic decisions made by transport enterprises. The tendency of transport enterprises to ensure fluidity of supplies and reduce the costs of transport processes requires the use of innovative technologies, which allow companies to improve the control of transport services. Enterprises plan transport services to minimize the costs. Therefore, looking for and implementing new solutions, which have an impact on increasing the efficiency of transport processes, are driving forces for every transport company. In this article, the authors conducted an analysis of the process of providing transport services in a specific enterprise. The authors also show that transport processes may be improved through the implementation of innovative monitoring system.

Keywords: transport; monitoring system.

1. INTRODUCTION

 

The potential of transport enterprises has led to a trend in modern logistics, which is focused mainly on the performance of transport services that are adjusted to the individual needs of clients. A significant factor in planning the transport process is shortening the time of execution for a transport task, while providing high-quality customer service [10]. Moreover, the market success of a transport enterprise largely depends on providing services of appropriate quality. Therefore, transport enterprises try to execute transport orders in the best way possible using a vehicle fleet [4,7].

The organization of the processes is complex and includes the following actions: acceptance of an order from a client, planning the transport route, determining the value of transport, both in terms of income and costs, as well as preparing transport documents and monitoring transport execution in real time [9,14]. This process is very time-consuming and also cost-intensive [2,12,13]. Therefore, the execution of the above tasks in modern logistics processes, particularly transport processes, requires the application of modern solutions and concepts, above all, innovative technological solutions that facilitate transport management [1,3,5-6,8,11,15-22].

 

 

2. ANALYSIS OF THE TRANSPORT PROCESS IN A SPECIFIC ENTERPRISE

 

The authors analysed Route 1 and Route 2, in which return cargos are loaded at Szczecin Port. These routes consist of the transport of three cargos:

Route 1:

-  the first cargo on the route Jasło - Odense in Denmark

-  the second cargo on the route Odense - Szczecin

-  and the third cargo on the route Szczecin - Jasło

 

Route 2:

-  the first cargo on the route Jasło - Berlin in Germany

-  the second cargo on the route Berlin - Szczecin

-  and the third cargo on the route Szczecin - Jasło

 

Source data were listed in a five-sectional system and contain such information as: the number of the route, make, date, hour and place of departure, distance of a ride, cargo weight, date, hour and place of arrival, pauses on the route, time of loading operations, time of daily rest (Tables 1-2).

Based on the collected source data, the values of the averages and sums, maximal and minimum values and their standard deviation, whenever possible, the value of standard deviation was compared with the average value in the percentages. Directly from monthly data, the sums of distances, times of loading, unloading, pauses, daily rest and fuel consumption were calculated [23]. Apart from monthly sums, the average values of these parameters were calculated, while their maximal and minimum values and standard deviation were determined and compared with the average value.

The analysis was conducted by calculating such rates as: transport work, time of transport, journey time, time of work, operational speed, technical speed and combustion (Tables 3-4).

Data from Table 4, for Route 2, were integrated using a pivot table (Table 5), because two sections were performed within one shift in this run. In this way, daily rates (it was assumed that the results of the analyses would be in a daily system) were obtained.

                                                                                                                                           

Table 1

Source data of the route Jasło - Odense - Szczecin - Jasło

 

Table 2

Source data for the route Jasło - Berlin - Szczecin - Jasło

 

 


Table 3

Analysis results of Route 1

 

 

 

Table 4

Analysis results for Route 2

 


Table 5

Pivot table for Route 2 containing all daily values of the parameters

 

 

3. RESULTS OBTAINED FROM THE CONDUCTED ROUTE ANALYSIS

 

The results of the analysis of Route 1 and Route 2, in terms of daily distances, daily transport work, daily time of transport, ride and work, as well as daily fuel consumption, daily combustion and technical speed, are presented in Figures 1-12.

 

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Fig. 1. Daily distances - Route 1

 

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Fig. 2. Daily transport work - Route 1

 

Fig. 3. Daily time of transport, ride and work - Route 1

 

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Fig. 4. Daily fuel consumption - Route 1

 

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Fig. 5. Daily combustion - Route 1

 

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Fig. 6. Technical speed - Route 1

 

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Fig. 7. Daily distances - Route 2

 

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Fig. 8. Daily transport work - Route 2

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Fig. 9. Daily fuel consumption - Route 2

 

 

Fig. 10. Daily time of transport, ride and work - Route 2

 

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Fig. 11. Daily combustion - Route 2

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Fig. 12. Technical speed - Route 2

 

 

4. IMPLEMENTATION OF MONITORING SYSTEM

 

The journey time for Route 1 is 40 h and 10 min, divided into five working days. The journey time for Route 2 is 26 h and 10 min. We should check whether the application of a monitoring system would shorten the time of transport. Table 6 was created to check Route 1 and Table 7 to check Route 2. To simplify the process, it was assumed that departure starts at midnight, but it could be changed in the table. The data sets were also changed and include loading and unloading, journey time and pauses. Data were entered into the fields and marked in purple, whereas the remaining fields, such as hour of departure and arrival, the end of the shift, and time of work and day, were not changed (Table 6).

With reference to Route 1, it is possible to shorten the time of execution of this transport to four days in five shifts by maintaining the norms of time of work and driver’s rest. In the case of Route 2, it is possible to shorten the execution of this transport process by one day. However, the necessary conditions are the change in the place of daily rest from Cracow to Zielona Góra. In addition, unloading in Jasło must be improved. According to the source data, this unloading lasted 4 h, which is too long. To sum up, it is possible to shorten the journey time by one day. It allows for a vehicle and driver to be used for an additional run.

 

 

5. CONCLUSION

 

The conducted analysis showed that the selection of transport routes for both runs is optimal. Alternative routes are longer, while the roads are of low categories and require longer journey times. Changes in the route may be considered only in a run to Odense, that is, driving “there” through Szczecin, which would shorten the journey time through Germany and decrease the amount of remuneration for the driver in this section, because the number of hours payable in accordance with German minimal rates would be lower. As a result of conducted research, the authors claim that, on Route 1, the place of daily rest can be changed, on the return path, from Cracow to a town situated about 100 km earlier. This would avoid a 10-h shift on the route Szczecin - Cracow, decreasing it to about 8 h and 30 min, whereas this distance would be covered during the short shift to Jasło. Analogically, on Route 2, we can add to the section Olszyna - Berlin - Szczecin part of the return ride on the section Szczecin - Zielona Góra, which would allow for a better use for the permissible journey time during the day. Unloading in Jasło on Route 1 was too long, because it lasted 4 h. The obtained data showed that unloading usually lasts about 2 hours; therefore, we can assume that some disturbances occurred, for example, waiting for unloading.

The present study showed that this innovative system offers transport enterprises notable benefits, that is, savings in the execution of a transport task and improvements in the quality of offered services. Therefore, the research conducted by the authors highlighted the importance of logistics management, where we observe particular costs, which constitute a decision-making base for the appropriate management of a transport process in a transport enterprise.

 

Table 6

Monitoring system - data for Route 1
(purple fields refer to data obtained from the monitoring system)

 

 


Table 7

Monitoring System - data for Route 2
(purple fields refer to data obtained from the monitoring system)

 

 

 

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Received 20.03.2018; accepted in revised form 12.08.2018

 

 

Scientific Journal of Silesian University of Technology. Series Transport is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License



[1] Faculty of Transport and Electrical Engineering, The University of Technology and Humanities, Malczewskiego 29 Street, 26-600 Radom, Poland. Email: z.lukasik@uthrad.pl.

[2] Faculty of Transport and Electrical Engineering, The University of Technology and Humanities, Malczewskiego 29 Street, 26-600 Radom, Poland. Email: a.kusminska@uthrad.pl.

[3] Faculty of Transport and Electrical Engineering, The University of Technology and Humanities, Malczewskiego 29 Street, 26-600 Radom, Poland. Email: s.olszanska@uthrad.pl.