Cardiff Council plots route to savings
Given the economic landscape of having to make serious spending cuts, local authorities are already looking at how to deliver ‘more for less’. But by using geographic information (GI), organisations can produce significant savings and a host of other benefits, as seen here at Cardiff Council.
They’ve managed to save an amazing £1.3 million by using GI to better organise the transport arrangements for 840 special educational need pupils from home to school, and back again.
By using Ordnance Survey transport data, which maps all the roads in the country including any routing restrictions like low bridges and one way streets, the Council has modelled all their bus routes against a background of data showing the location of each stop and pupil.
They then compared the needs against where the existing routes had been allocated. The Council planning team was the able to group the pupils together based on their needs and location. The system then adjusted each route to determine the best new journey time and cost.
The benefits that the council has realised are not just monetary either. Apart from the very impressive £1.3 million saved since September 2008 (the majority of which has come from being able to re-tender on a route‑by‑route basis) they’ve also:
- Reduced the distance travelled each day by a whopping 1,200 miles resulting in significantly reduced carbon emissions.
- Help the children send less time on school buses with the average journey down from 14 to 12 miles.
- Helped reduce school-run congestion on the roads as they now need 40 less vehicles.
Stephen Gerrard, Schools Transport Team Leader at the Council says: “Special Educational Needs Vehicle Management is having a major impact on how we manage transport needs. It is very easy to use and its intuitive menu system means that you don’t have to know the whole system in detail to be able to use it. It is very user-friendly.”
Councils and organisations across the country are using geographic information to find savings and better ways of working. And with tough times ahead, it’s something that more people could start to look at.
Themocracy
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ordnance Survey, Michael Sharp. Michael Sharp said: GI data: analysis of Geographic Information helps UK Council save £1.3m and Co2 #digital @OrdnanceSurvey http://bit.ly/9ZZ6CK [...]
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