Author(s)

C. García, G. Padrón, F. Alayón & J. Caraballo

Abstract

In order to provide a quality service to the clients, the public road transport companies have to perform operations scheduling. To achieve this goal, these companies have to handle various types of information: geographic, traffic, statistical, technical, etc. Processing these kinds of information leads to a problem: the high level of dynamism and high volume of data implied. In this paper we explain a system model to resolve this problem; this model is based on distributed computing and remote sensing. Nowadays, this model is used in the metropolitan road transport of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) and it enables the automatic processing of all the information related to the production, generated by a fleet of 305 buses, transporting more than 30,000,000 passengers and controlling all the planning operations of the fleet. Keywords: management information system, intelligent transport systems, geographic information system and remote sensing. 1 Introduction An important objective of the transport companies is to achieve a high level of fulfilment of service planning. This is an important requirement to provide the clients with a quality service and to guarantee the efficiency of the vehicle fleet operations. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to handle proper information. It implies to handling information obtained at the time (real time requirement) and in the required amount. This information represents the activity of the company, the resources used (drivers and vehicles), the precise time and the geographical area. The transport company has to evaluate the level of fulfilment of the plan, in order to provide information to the client, to act in response to incidents which

Keywords

management information system, intelligent transport systems, geographic information system and remote sensing.