Over the past decade, demographic changes along with increased fuel costs and green legislation have put pressure on those managing train & bus services, HGV’s, ships and distribution networks  This has, in turn, required both operators and legislators to seek better knowledge about their operations and performance.

Lightfoot has built up considerable experience within the Transport and Distribution sector by working with passenger transportation authorities, logistics firms, fleet managers and those who police and control the associated infrastructures.

Passenger Transport

Working with organisations involved in provisioning passenger transport, Lightfoot can provide improved insight through analysis of Electronic Ticketing Machine (ETM) data.  We can help organisations target investment and resources better through a superior understanding of the demand and their capacity to meet it. Typical data sets that are analysed include the following:

• Journeys and routes  (Most popular routes, types, start and end time, duration);
• Passenger numbers (Volumes, popularity of routes and operators, over / under-resourced routes, over-crowded routes, routes required);
• Journey frequency;
• Journey time continuity (Peak and off-peak);
• Fares applied (Passenger type, take up of off- peak, use of offers, concessions etc);
• Gaps in routes and coverage;
• Seasonal variations in demand and supply;
• Geographical factors;
• Vehicle movements (usage, idle time, optimal deployment points);
• Staff (utilisation, rostering); and
• Profitability (identifying profitable routes, lost revenue, return on subsidies).

Lightfoot’s capability to benchmark service providers and suppliers dynamically also allows an organisation to always be on the front foot when negotiating with partners.

Fleet Management and Distribution

The volatility of fuel costs has had a significant impact on transportation organisations.  As fuel costs now overtake labour costs, the need for insight into fleet management processes has become more important than ever before.

Fleet management has now become mission-critical for many distribution organisations.  However, companies must balance overall fuel costs against such considerations as frequency of delivery, load size, store profitability versus distance from distribution centre and the potential impact of stock-outs on high profit stores and merchandise.

Lightfoot Solutions offer transportation organisations better insight across all of their operations by helping them to manage and dynamically monitor performance online, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Our unique signalsfromnoise® (sfn) toolset has been specifically engineered to alert management and front-line staff alike to any significant events and changes in their data.  The system uses dashboards and charts to explore the root causes of unexpected events enabling immediate and sustainable action to be taken there and then.  It also highlights areas of good performance and ensures that 'best practice' is shared across the organisation.

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