DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPUTER BASED SCHEDULING SYSTEM FOR A TRANSPORT COMPANY

1.1 Introduction

Scheduling System for Road Transport permits a customer to know the information about the bus schedule and ticket. Nowadays, online are very common issues to everyone so that checking information using online can save allot of time to the customer, so that customer no need to go to the counter to ask of bus and schedule. Road Transport Scheduling System is a complex system that is difficult to be managed by human, so as a result software system can be used instead of human, which will help to avoid a big percent of mistakes. Automated Road Transport Scheduling System make process of scheduling trips more easier and prevent conflicting in time, also it help customers to book their tickets from their homes and checks the pricing system of the routes, the price of ticket may increase or decrease depending on the season, availability, time of booking, and also depending on the class that customer select and all these factors will be calculated automatically and instantly.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

The transportation community has experienced the beginnings of a cultural shift toward embedding transportation system management and operation into our culture, work ethic Manufacturers, distributors, and third-party logistics companies all have specific business needs and processes concerning the movement of goods and product from sourcing locations to factories to distribution warehouses and retail or customer locations. The movement of product between locations is frequently controlled by software applications referred to as ”•automated transportation system. To support improved efficiencies in the transportation process, companies will look for an automated transportation system that fits their current and planned operational needs and that can be integrated smoothly with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) or corporate financial systems.

The term automated transportation system refers to Transportation Management Systems that allow users to manage inbound and outbound freight shipments by highway, rail, and air. Present automated transportation systems allow users to electronically prepare shipping document s, determine best rates, manage transportation bills. It is a subset of supply chain management concerning transportation operation. A typical scenario of the application of automated transportation system include procurement and shipping orders to be evaluated by the planning module offering the various the user various suggested routing solutions. These solution are evaluated by the user for reasonableness and are passed along to the transportation provider analysis module to select the best mode and least cost provider. Once the best provider is selected, the solution typically moves on to the next module of payments.

An automated transportation system is always expected to improve the shippers’ capabilities to plan, execute, analyze, benchmark and continuously improve the management of product flow. As organizations that are growing fast are having connections to different consumers in different locations, the capabilities and focus of tools designed for the logistics function are changing to meet new demands. Chief among these emerging requests are the needs for: Better cost control tools, Continuous improvement metrics, Automated, best-mode decision support, improved shipment visibility, and the affordability of the automated transportation system itself.

The word transport means movement of people or goods from one place to another, through the means of human, cars, ship, trains, animals e.t.c. According to (Adewumi, 2010), transport modes are the means by which people and freight achieve mobility. They fall into one of three basic types, depending on over what surface they travel- land (road, rail and pipeline), water (shipping) and air. Each mode is characterized by a set of technical, operational and commercial characteristics. The transport of a person or of cargo may involve one mode or several modes, with the latter case called intermodal or multimodal transport. The human powered transport makes use of human muscle-power in the form of walking and running. However, modern technologies have been used to create machines that enhance human-power. Human-power transport remains popular for reasons of cost saving, leisure and physical exercise. The human-power transport is sometimes the only type available, especially in underdeveloped or inaccessible regions. It is considered as an ideal form of sustainable transportation. Although, humans are able to walk without infrastructure, the transport can be enhanced through the use of roads, especially when using the human-power with vehicles, such as bicycles and inline skates. We also have other means of transport including aviation, which is transport by air; Marine transport which is the means of transportation that make use of river or sea where the mode of movement is through the use of canoes, ship; transport by rail which makes use of railways and the means of transport is by train.

The prevalent view in various global circles is that man is presently living in an age growth of information gathering, processing and dissemination, popularly called the information age. For this reason, managers and other users of information especially in transport industries are demanding more kinds of information to support management and operations. They must therefore respond to the increasing requirement for information and data management. Electronic tickets, or e-tickets, gives evidence that their holders have the permission to enter a place of entertainment, use a means of transportation, or have access to some Internet services. The design of this online system will be beneficial to the company because it has not existed before. Therefore, ABC Transport, Anambra State, a viable investment whose primary objectives are: to spread comfort and hospitality to passengers away from their home, to make profit, will definitely appreciate a system which can automate its manual operations in the area of bus ticket reservation in order to meet customers increasing demand during peak and off peak seasons. The ultimate expectation is to inspire a feasibility study aimed at providing proper guidance and awareness to any future potential investors, particularly those in the bus industry, to consider utilizing the Imo transport, as a gateway to the fertile soil of unlimited opportunities in the south-east Nigeria (Asogwa S.E, 2008).

Currently, staff at the bus ticket counter is using an internal system to sell tickets at the counter and customers who are unable to buy bus ticket online at this moment would have to go to the counter to a buy bus ticket. Sometimes, customers’ needs to queue up a long queue to buy bus ticket and ask for information and this brings a lot of inconveniences to customers. However, Online Bus Ticket Reservation System enables the customer to buy bus ticket, make payment, and ask for information online easily. Furthermore, staff can sell bus ticket using Bus Ticket Reservation System after checking the bus ticket availability for the customer and print the bus ticket to the customer.

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1.3 Statement of the Problem

A scheduling situation in a transport company develops when buses are expected to dispatch effectively. Scheduling needs the dispatch and general information about routes to generate optimal transportation resources schedules.

1. Lack of management and scheduling modules has cause a big problem for most transport companies. As a result of these problems, these transport companies have not been able to present charts and text reports for these companies.
2. These transport companies cannot export solutions as text files in MS Word or MS Excel.
3. Lack of scheduling algorithms has led to lack of generating of the different resources schedules.
4. Lack of near-optimal resources schedules generation has prevented benchmarking an existing solution. Existing routes along with resources assignments can not be imported into the system “as is’ and calculate to reproduce the benchmark solution. The solution can not be generated and compared to the benchmark solution. The two solutions cannot be compared in the form of reports and Grantt Charts to identify opportunities for better resources utilizations.
5. Route data cannot be imported in the form of ASCLL files.
6. There is no data import wizard that will guide user’s through a set up process for importing route data into the system. Lack of data view to enable user’s to sort the routes based on different criteria (route ID) Departure Time etc).

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1.4 Purpose of the Study

This research work is meat to find out whether the above mentioned problems can effectively be eradicated by employing computer system to control the scheduling system of a transport company. In other words, to find solution to these problems mentioned above using a computer system.

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1.5 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The main aim of this study is to design and implement a Computer Based Scheduling System for a Transport Company. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To design a workable computer based Scheduling System for a Transport Company that will eliminate completely the above mentioned problems.
2. To create a system that can be used to record transportation scheduled records to database.
3. To design a system that can be used to accurately compute transportation bills.
4. To design a system that can be utilized to obtain reports of transportation records.

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1.6 Significance of Study

This project work covers every area of scheduling activities where a scheduling tool generates optimal buses and drives schedules for a given dispatching scenario. For instance, this tool provides an estimate of required number of buses and drivers for a particular dispatching scenario. It also generates resource scheduling that can result in significant cost reduction by using the optimal number of resources required.

The system is also of significance in that it covers the three major kinds of transportation of freight namely; air, land and sea. The implication of this is that any module can be used independent of other modules. The study will also be useful to other researchers seeking for information on the subject.

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1.7 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the Design and Implementation of a Computer Based Scheduling System for a Transport Company using ABC Transport in Anambra State as a case study.

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1.8 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

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1.9 Definition of Terms

Travel: To be on a journey, often for pleasure or business, and with luggage; to go from one place to another.

Rate: To assign or to be assigned a particular rank or level.

Ticket: A piece paper or card holder that gives right to admission to a place or event or travel on public transport.

Reservation: The action of reserving/booking or arranging for use of a particular person.