Internal Benchmarking of Inter-City Public Bus Operators in India

Abstract

This paper introduces a methodology to carry out a performance assessment of public bus service operators. This study uses data from twenty-nine Public Road Transport Corporations (RTCs) in India that offer inter-city bus transit services in various regions. Performance rating and internal benchmarking of these public bus operators are carried out to highlight the prevailing inefficiencies in the current systems. An optimization-based indexing method, Data Envelopment Analysis, is used for quantifying the RTCs’ performance attributes, and the RTCs are then ranked based on these indices. Finally, the associations in these RTCs’ performance ranks across seven attributes are studied using Spearman’s rank correlation. The findings of this research provide the RTCs an opportunity to understand their performance levels and inefficiencies, thereby facilitate the formulation and implementation of appropriate policy.