Report
to/Rapport au :
Commission du
transport en commun
14 March 2012 / le 14 mars 2012
Submitted by/Soumis par : Steve Kanellakos, Deputy City Manager, City Operations
/ Directeur municipal adjoint, Opérations municipales
(613) 842-3636 ext. 2111, john.manconi@ottawa.ca
SUBJECT:
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Q4 TRANSIT
SERVICES PERFORMANCE REPORT |
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OBJET :
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RAPPORT
SUR LE RENDEMENT DES SERVICES DE TRANSPORT EN COMMUN - 4E
trimestre |
REPORT RECOMMENDATION
That the Transit Commission receive this report for information.
RECOMMANDATION DU RAPPORT
Que
la Commission du transport en commun prenne connaissance de ce rapport.
BACKGROUND
On January 20, 2011, the Terms of Reference for the Transit Commission
were approved. As a result, the
Commission was deemed solely responsible for making decisions on all
operational matters related to Transit Services, and providing recommendations
to Council regarding budgets, fares, and strategic plans. It is also
responsible for providing overall guidance and direction to the Transit
Services Department on all issues relating to the operation of public transit,
including the O-Train and the Para Transpo service delivery model.
As
outlined in the Terms of Reference under Responsibilities of Transit
Commission under Delegation of Authority of the Transit Commission, the
Transit Commission is responsible for receiving:
·
The Transit Services Department Annual Report and
quarterly performance reports; and
·
Reports from staff regarding the exercise of
delegated authority (By-law 2009-231 as amended) on items within the
Commission’s mandate.
OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE
Transit performance during the fourth quarter of 2011 has continued to show strong progress in key areas that matter most to customers and residents. Important transit performance highlights for this quarter include:
·
Sustained
growth in ridership, with more people in Ottawa turning to transit as their
mode of choice;
· 99.6 percent of planned service delivered, a very high rate of reliability, meaning that transit customers can count on OC Transpo buses making it to the streets and pulling up to their stop;
· On-time performance exceeding 70 percent through a full quarter for the first time, meaning, that in the morning, OC Transpo buses pull up at customers’ stops on time (not early and within 5 minutes of schedule) more regularly than ever before;
· The undesirable effect of a transit customer missing his or her bus because it was running ahead of its schedule is occurring less often, both during the morning and the afternoon peaks; and,
· Continued decrease in mechanical failure rate while in service, meaning that transit customers can rely on buses pulling up at their stop on time and taking them to their destination.
The following charts measure performance against some of the key policy standards set directly by Council. Through these metrics, OC Transpo can be accountable to Transit Commission and the public, to ensure that its activities adhere to Commission and Council mandates toward enhancing customer experience and the quality of service delivery.
Ridership
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Sustained ridership growth continued through the
fourth quarter of 2011, with October showing the strongest month-to-month increase
of the quarter compared to 2010. Ridership did not increase quite as fast as
employed labour force, a strong driver of transit demand. This may be
explained by the fact that gas prices dropping 5 percent to under $1.20 per
litre in Q4 (compared to previous quarters) would have led some infrequent transit
riders to revert to driving their car. Nevertheless, the strong ridership
growth in Q4 contributed to OC Transpo's record annual ridership of 103.5
million trips. This figure accounts for all conventional transit (bus and
O-Train, commuter transit and school transit), but does not include paratransit. |
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On-time
Performance
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For the first time, running on time at each stop
during the morning peak consistently surpassed 70 percent for a full quarter
in Q4 2011. At the same time, running early, which exposes customers to missing
their bus, fell to an all-time low of 20 percent. In the afternoon, running early has dropped
to 18 percent, another all-time low. However, volatile traffic conditions and
other sources of delay in the afternoon, especially downtown, have an
increasing impact on performance and have generated more lateness. Among the measures to be taken to address
this issue, changes to bus route scheduling practices have been implemented, which
should see an improvement in the reliability of all express routes in the
afternoon starting April 2012. |
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Service Delivery
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High levels of service delivery continued through
the fourth quarter of 2011, with each of the three months achieving 99.6
percent of planned hours operated. The marked improvements of the recent
quarters over the same quarters in previous years built on increased employee
engagement and the implementation of new work processes in maintenance that focus
on a higher portion of the fleet made available for service. Upcoming changes
to bus route scheduling practices should reduce occurrences of express buses
running late in the afternoon and help reduce the number of cancelled vehicle
hours due to timing adjustments. |
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Ride Comfort
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The overall score for ride comfort, established
from observations of customer service experience, increased to 96.1 during
the fourth quarter of 2011, a high for the year. All three contributors to
the score – driving smoothly, operators waiting for reduced-mobility patrons
to sit, and absence of aggressiveness toward other road users and pedestrians
– were well above 90 percent through the quarter. |
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Mechanical Failure Rate
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The fourth quarter of 2011 saw a decrease in
mechanical failure rate for the third consecutive time. Compared to the same
quarter in 2010, the mechanical failure rate has dropped by over 20 percent. New
work processes in Maintenance, combined with the gradual retirement of older,
less reliable buses, have driven this sustained improvement. Operations have
also been successful in significantly decreasing the impact of mechanical
failures on revenue service, with a year-to-year drop from 37 percent to 29
percent of mechanical failures actually causing service to be fully cancelled. |
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Operating Cost
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Fuel price increased by 8.3 percent from the
fourth quarter of 2010 to the same quarter in 2011. Fuel cost per
vehicle-kilometre increased only 7.1 percent, from $0.56 to $0.60, over the
same period. Through its important fuel management initiative, OC Transpo continues
to look at ways to further improve fuel efficiency. The direct operating
cost per vehicle-kilome tre
in the fourth quarter of 2010 shows a high figure as it reflects the past
practice of not distributing pension payments through the year. When
adjusting for this, the direct operating cost per vehicle-kilometre in Q4
2011 would still show a decrease from $5.10 (adjusted) in Q4 2010 to $4.81
in Q4 2011. |
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Park and Ride Utilization
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The number of park-and-ride users in the fourth
quarter of 2011 rose by over 8 percent compared to the same period in 2010,
to an all-time high of over 5,500 users on an average weekday. The rate of utilization
of the park-and-ride lots shows a decrease however, because the capacity of
the park-and-ride lots actually increased faster (almost 12 percent). Most notably,
capacity was increased at Fallowfield Station by 570 spaces in September, and
Leitrim Station also opened this year. |
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DELEGATED
AUTHORITY
The
Purchasing By-law requires the Supply Branch to report to Council on a
quarterly basis. However, the Transit Commission Terms of Reference
direct staff to report to Transit Commission on Transit Services’ delegated
authority. Therefore, the delegated authority information contained in
this report and in Document 1 relates only to Transit Services. Each
quarterly report:
1.
Contains
information on contracts exceeding $10,000 awarded under delegated authority
to Transit Services.
2. Identifies all contracts
categorized as:
(a) Consulting
Services
(b) Professional
Services
(c) Follow-on
Contracts (F)
(d) Amendments
(A)
3. Identifies the reason for outsourcing in
accordance with the definitions discussed below.
The contracts approved for the period of October
1, 2011, to December 31, 2011, are listed in Document 1 of this report.
Where
appropriate, staff used the following definitions as outlined in the Purchasing
By-law to identify the contract category, the outsourcing reason and the
non-competitive exception.
Professional Services
Professional
Services means services requiring the skills of professionals for a defined
service requirement or for a specific project related deliverable including
but not limited to the areas of engineering, architecture, design, planning,
information technology, financial auditing and fairness commissioners.
Consulting Services
Consulting
Services means assistance to management, including but not limited to the
areas of strategic analysis, organizational design, change management, policy
development, feasibility studies and other services intended to assist
decision making within the organization.
Reasons for Outsourcing the Work
The reason Consulting and Professional
Service contracts are let is identified as follows:
(a) Workload related or lack of internal
resources by a “W”;
(b) Need for specialized
expertise by an “E”;
(c) Need for independent third party oversight
by an “I”;
(d) Regulatory requirement by an “R”;
(e) Proprietary service or unique market
position by a “P”; and
(f) Business model required outsourcing by an
“O”.
Amendment
An amendment is an increase in the scope of
an approved contract, which is unanticipated. Those amendments that are
both greater than $50,000 and 50% of the original contract will be identified
in the quarterly report.
Follow-on Contract
A follow-on contract differs from an
amendment in that the original contract or bid solicitation document
recognizes the fact that it is likely that the initial defined contract scope
may be expanded to include a number of related phases that are either included
in the tender document, or are customary in relation to the work assignment.
Rates charged for the follow-on contract are reviewed by the Supply Branch,
and must be based on those rates proposed by the service provider in the
original competitive “bid”.
An
extension to a contract is not categorized as an amendment or a follow-on
contract. An extension is a contract term allowing the City to continue
purchasing the good or service for an extended period of time where the option
to extend the contract was outlined in the bid document, or is deemed to be in
the best interest of the City.
Non-Competitive Purchases
22(1) The
requirement for competitive bid solicitation for goods, services and
construction may be waived under joint authority of the appropriate
Director/General Manager and the Supply Branch and replaced with negotiations
under the following circumstances:
(a) Where competition is precluded due to the application of any Act or
legislation or because of the existence of patent rights, copyrights,
technical secrets or controls of raw material,
(b) Where due to abnormal market conditions, the goods, services or
construction required are in short supply,
(c) Where only one source of supply would be acceptable and cost effective,
(d) Where there is an absence of competition for technical or other reasons
and the goods, services or construction can only be supplied by a particular
supplier and no alternative exists,
(e) Where the nature of the requirement is such that it would not be in the
public interest to solicit competitive bids as in the case of security or
confidentiality matters,
(f) Where in the event of a "Special Circumstance" as defined by
this By-law, a requirement exists,
(g) Where the possibility of a follow-on contract was identified in the
original bid solicitation,
(h) Where the total estimated project cost for professional services does
not exceed $50,000, or
(i) Where the requirement is for a utility for which there exists a
monopoly.
Document 1 identifies all non-competitive
purchases as well as references the appropriate subsection 22(1).
Supply
Branch certifies that all the contracts awarded under Delegation of Authority
for the period of October 1, 2011, to December 31, 2011, are
in compliance with the Purchasing By-law.
RURAL IMPLICATIONS
There are no rural implications to implementing the recommendation in this report.
CONSULTATION
No public consultation was undertaken or necessary as this report is administrative in nature.
LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
There
are no legal impediments to receiving this report.
RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
There are no risk management implications
to implementing the recommendation in this report.
CITY STRATEGIC PLAN
There are no implications to the City’s
Strategic Plan to implementing the recommendation in this report.
TECHNICAL IMPLICATIONS
There are no technical implications to
implementing the recommendation in this report.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Prior to a contract approval,
Supply Branch staff confirms that the appropriate funds are available in the
budget, based on receipt of a funded requisition in SAP. The
availability of funds is a condition of approval under the Purchasing By-Law.
ACCESSIBILITY IMPLICATIONS
There are no accessibility implications to
implementing the recommendation in this report.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION
Document 1 List of Transit
Services’ contracts with a value of $10K or more, awarded under delegated
authority for the period October 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011.
DISPOSITION
Transit Services will begin preparation of Q1 2012
Performance Report.