Employee Productivity Indicators (2023)

Employee Productivity Indicators
Worker productivity is a key indicator of overall operator efficiency. It can also be useful when comparing the efficiency of different operators.

Total personnel per registered vehicle
The staff-per-vehicle ratio is a useful measure of effective staffing but needs to be treated with caution, particularly when making comparisons between different operators.

It is not only influenced by productivity and efficiency, but also by the length of the operating day. In some operations, particularly busy city traffic, three shifts per day are required from bus crews, while in others, such as long-distance services, buses are normally operated by only one crew per day, albeit often with very long shifts. The number of employees will be significantly lower if the buses do not carry conductors.

The figure will also be affected if a significant part of the work, such as B. maintenance, is outsourced, although this is not common for large operators in developing countries.

When calculating the number of employees per bus, it is usually appropriate to base this on thePeak Vehicle Demand (PVR), or the number of buses allowed. It can be misleading to base the figure on the number of buses owned, as many operators have large numbers of buses that are inoperable for long periods and are usually unlicensed.

In an efficiently run urban enterprise in a developed country, a typical employee/bus ratio is of the order of three employees per bus, with all buses being driver-only and all maintenance carried out in-house; If all buses have conductors, that number would increase to about five or six.

In a developing country where wage levels are low and therefore many tasks can be completed using more labor intensive methods, a reasonable number for conductors would be between five and nine. Often, especially in state-owned companies, the numbers are far higher. Too many employees per bus not only leads to unnecessarily high costs, but also increases management and control problems.

Driver per registered vehicle
Depending on the working hours per day, days off per year, proportion of pure peak services, etc., the normal range for a city operation in a developing country is between 1.75 and 2.5 drivers per registered bus.

Conductor per registered vehicle
If conductors are carried on all buses to collect tickets, the minimum number required is similar to that for drivers.

However, in many cities it is common to have more than one conductor on buses, especially at peak times and on high-capacity buses. Sometimes extra conductors are deployed at busy bus stops to issue tickets to passengers before they board the buses, both to reduce boarding times when conductors pay passengers as they board, and to minimize lost revenue.

Additional traffic personnel per registered vehicle
The number of other transport staff, mainly inspectors and regulators employed to oversee revenue control and timekeeping, and other supervisory staff on the road and at depots and terminals, varies depending on the type of operation and the operating practices and procedures of the operator concerned.

The normal range for a city operation in a developing country is between 0.3 and 0.5 per licensed bus.

Maintenance personnel per registered vehicle
If all maintenance is performed by the bus company itself, the normal range for a city operation in a developing country is between 0.8 and 1.5 maintenance personnel per licensed bus.

Administrative and management staff per registered vehicle
Many bus companies in developing countries are overstaffed, particularly in the administrative and management categories.

The normal range for a municipal operation in a developing country is between 0.4 and 0.7 administrative and managerial staff per licensed bus, although with efficient administration and full use of modern information technology the figure should not exceed 0.3.

kilometers per employee and day
This indicator is used by some organizations as a measure of employee productivity. In fact, it combines vehicle productivity and staff indicators per bus and is influenced by the same factors.

It may be useful to present these numbers by categories such as crews, mechanical staff, administrative staff, and others. The kilometers per employee per day may be as low as 5 or 6 in a urban operation in a developing country where bus speeds are very slow due to congestion, drivers and conductors sit on each bus and staffing levels are generally disproportionately high. However, more typical numbers for a municipal operation in a developing country would be between 15 and 30.

kilometers per driver and day
This is a measure of driver productivity. Typical values ​​in urban traffic are between 30 and 100 kilometers per day.

Working days per year and employee
This indicator should be used in conjunction with the number of employees per vehicle. With a high number of working days per employee, the number of employees per bus should theoretically be relatively low and vice versa.

Likewise, there is a correlation between the number of hours worked each day and the number of days worked annually: if it is common for employees to work long hours each day, the number of days worked is likely to be relatively small and vice versa, although this is not the case is always the case. Therefore, when possible, the number of hours worked is more meaningful, but in practice it is more difficult to determine.

The number is also affected by the number of days normally worked per week, the number of public holidays and the number of vacation days.

The number of working days per week varies between five and six in most countries. Five and a half days is common in many developing countries; Assuming that employees work five and a half days a week, have four weeks annual vacation and there are ten public holidays a year on which employees do not have to work, the total working time of each employee is 254. A a number that exceeds this indicates this that some workers work on their days off or during vacations; less than this indicates some level of absenteeism.

Absences are often compensated by days off. If the actual number of days worked per employee is significantly below normal, there is likely an issue of excessive absenteeism, which may be related to an excessive number of employees.

If the actual number of working days per employee is significantly higher than normal, this probably indicates a lack of staff or inefficient use of staff.