Transport Route Planning in SMEs Company in Thailand - Literature review Example

? Improve Implement of Transport Route Planning In SMEs Company in Thailand Introduction Regional economic stability and development can be greatly attributed to the facet of the provision of transport and infrastructure, which are instrumental in the placement of a country’s competitive state. This has resulted in increasing pressure to construct, extend and expand highway and other models of transport, which has captured the inventing attention of players like NGOs, governments and the general public (Keshkamat 2007; Jankowski 1995). However, least attention has been channeled to the role of making these transport models and service centers known to the public, who are the targeted clientele at all the levels of transport services provision (Orlikowski and Baroudi1991). This role is thus played by transport route planning players, who get the information to the right people, at the right time, and the right cost – as most of these service packages are offered over the internet and accessible to the general public (Niekerk and Voogd 1999; Paulus, Krch and Scholz 2006; National Public Health Partnership 2001). 1. TRANSPORT ROUTE PLANNING 1.1 Definition of transport route planning A transport route planner is a dedicated electronic search engine system, which is used to find the most appropriate journey between two different locations using some mode of transport. Transport route planners have received wide usage in the travel and transport business and industry in general, since the 1970s. These models are run by booking agents, who are accessed over a user interface model from a computer terminal (Oliveira and Ribeiro 2001; Jassen 1992). The services of these agents are supplemented by call support centers, which offer information on transport means and models. With the continued development and usage of the internet, self-service internet-based transport route planner interfaces have been developed, for use by a given client populations or the general public. Transport route planners are most times used together with reservation systems and ticketing models, or simply to offer information on schedule information. Transport route planning is a model of journey planning, which is carried out to offer information on available transport models (Nelson, Lain and Dillenburg 1993; Powell, et al. 1993). Recently, transport route planning services have been offered over the internet, where the process prompts the entry of information on destinations and places of origin – which are processed using the transport route planning engine to locate a route between the two locations entered into the planning interface. Examples of transport route planning include those of municipal authorities, which oversee the running of rail or bus travel. For instance, there is the case of the London tube route planning, which encompasses the organization of trip planning going through the London tube. In the case of London, there are multimodal route planning services, including those offering cycling travel services. 2. TRANSPORT ROUTE STRATEGY 2.1 Definition of Transport route planning strategy Transport route planning strategy is the formulation of a transport route blueprint, which is created and expected to serve the improvement of the wellbeing and successful everyday travel planning among the community members of a given society, in this case Thailand. The strategy involves set targets related to the development and provision of information on strategic routes, among other available routines along different cities, streets and corridors in the shortest time possible. This involves strategic infrastructure, which covers the area of ensuring that the provision of social and economic infrastructure and information on these resources is adjusted to meet population growth needs and need equitability. The importance of strategic transport route planning is outlined within the context of a number of areas and subjects (Pereira and Perez 2000; Render et al. 2006). These include ensuring that industrial lands and regions are available for the development of new processing manufacturing industries, which are accessible through good transport networks and that they are accessible from established and efficient freight networks. Transport route planning strategy takes into account, the fundamental needs and thinking, of the users of such planning (Schafer and Victor 2000; Yarra 2008). An example here is the value expectation of a user intending to explore a given phenomena, which is located in an expansive region (Taha 1997; Reinhard & Delling 2008). In such a case, the best user need will be strategic planning, in route establishment or determination, to offer the user the best option and the best route from which to explore the phenomena in question. An example here is a coastline transport route planning strategy, which should make the best use of the region close or next to the coastline, as it will offer the user the best route option, while exploring the plan or when going through the real expedition (Thill 2000; Daniel 2009). Transport route planning strategy encompasses presenting information to the users of transport services – both international and local, as a way of ensuring that the state benefits optimally, from the varied sector expansion resulting from the access to the information on transport planning. Areas of benefit for the Thailand state include the expansion of transport and networks linking resource centers like mining sites, which contributes greatly to central planning among other areas (Wallace 2000). Transport route planning strategy also contributes to communication of the availability of the well-planned nature of networks in the area of handling passengers and vehicles, as a travel development model, which aids in the making of further planning and strategizing (Myers 1997; Rolf et al. 2009). It also encompasses presenting information, which is helpful in the reduction of congestion at the different transport routes and transport and travel model – as a way of addressing the resultant constraining of the productivity of urban transport services and infrastructure (Yin 1994; Geisberger et al. 2008). 2.2. Different Strategy in Transport route planning Strategy in transport route planning is affected to serve the role of updating strategic infrastructural modeling regarding the future needs of transport route planning services users – which is central to the mapping out, of infrastructural planning on the part of the Thailand government – both in the short and the long-term. The different strategies on transport route planning points out the need for strategic transport routes; from the consumption levels and patterns on the transport route planning services available. From such information, indicators on quantity on freight can be drawn, based on which adjustments are to be implemented in meeting the, often, dynamic transport route planning services available (MacNealy 1997; Myers 1997). The strategies on transport route planning include improving Thailand’s competitiveness, through getting the different areas of effective transport networks and improved global linking known to the users of the planning services – both locally and internationally. For example, from the development of a model of delivering the information to the intended consumers of such information, a number of sectors across the Thailand economy and state are boosted, including tourism, tour and travel, and strategic policy making and planning (Nelson, Lain and Dillenburg 1993). Another strategy is the minimization of the impact of the movement of freight vehicles at the environment and the community in general, through the effective location and protection of routes. This is done through keeping these freight routes available for the expansion of planning, which allows for increased availability of fast, effective transport route planning opportunities and increased reliability of these services. This strategy is realized through the assistance of transport mode authorities and other players within the travel industry, thus the potential to map out the freight routes and models that can be left to the planning services, or its delivery. The third strategy is affected through focusing and concentrating transport and transport resource services on the maintenance and the improvement of existing infrastructural models, rather than focusing on the extension of the network (Orlikowski and Baroudi 1991; Goldberg et al. 2005). From this strategy, the transport route planning exercise sheds light on the nature of the different travel modes and facilities – towards addressing the inefficiencies that can be reflected from the planning services as well as the information drawn from the users of the planning services. From the planning services it is possible to draw feedback and counteractive information from the user group, which offers insights on the areas requiring revision and address (Oliveira and Ribeiro 2001; Goldberg & Werneck 2005). 2.3 Transport route planning strategies apply to business in Thailand Transport route planning strategies revolve around updating the strategic infrastructural model available across Thailand, with regards to planning for the future needs of the users of the planning services. These strategies also seek to address the future needs of the Thailand economy, with regards to adjusting to the increasing demand of the businesses within the economy as well as, the dynamic needs of the economic players operating within the economy (Pereira and Perez 2000; Hart, Nilsson & Raphael 2007). These include businesses, business actors and economic development movers – local and international as well as, those falling under the private or the public sector. From these planning services, which reflect information transport planning services consumption, users can draw information on consumption levels and the patterns of the ever dynamic consumption. Based on the indicators collected from this planning model, adjustments in the area of economic implementation can be affected, as well as planning towards developing these businesses, through adjusting to the indicators collected (The government public relations department 2003; Taha 1997; Moritz 2007). The strategies include taking into account, the fundamental service needs of the users of the planning services, which are reflected throughout the economy of Thailand, and capitalized upon by major information and pattern users, including businesses, especially SMEs. These players are known to play the critical role of driving competition and innovation across the economic sector. For instance, this information has been used across the sector in realizing repositioning of the economy, which is expected to boost the logistics system as well as the regional transport model (Thill 2000; Ikeda 1994). An example here is the recent case of boosting the regional transport and logistics model, which was realized, largely, through the indicators driven from transport route planning players’ information on the indicators of the economy and its overall performance. Relevant to this area is the case aired by the Thailand’s prime minister on march 6, 2004, over the radio, where he offered the information that the government was placing special emphasis on the improvement of the logistics system and the general transport network, so as to boost the economy into a regional transportation center. From this move, which was partly caused by the transport route planning, businesses’ information. For instance those operating within the transport sector received great advantage from the improvement of the country’s position. Other businesses to benefit from such a strategy include those investing in importation and exportation businesses; as such a move will lead to the entry of more players within the transportation sector. An example is the entry of budget class flight service airlines, which promote the profitability of international business actors. The benefits are drawn, mainly from the competition that develops among the increased number of players as well as the innovativeness developed by these players in the area of cost reduction. Examples of the moves by the Thai government in response to the strategies in question include the development of the Suvarnabhumi airport to make the country an aviation center within the region. Another example was the development of an airport rail link program affected between Bangkok and Suvarnabhumi airport (The government public relations department 2003; Karp & Orlin 1980). The other area of strategy on the implementation of transport route planning is the improvement of national competitiveness, from the indicators offered in the area of transport route planning consumption. The competitiveness is fostered through the development of highly resourceful international links and freight transport networks, which foster the level of development and economic stability. An example here is the efforts of the Thailand government to foster the development of the country into a tourist hub around the Asian region. In pursuing the strategy, the country and the tourism sector ventured in tourism campaigns, intended at increasing the number of tourists visiting the country in the year 2004 (Wallace 2000; Queiros 1984). Following the pursuit of the goal, the Tourist Authority of Thailand (TAT) organized a number of worldwide global events under the scale of the campaigns, with the goal of escalating the number of global tourists to 12 million, up from the year 2003’s number of 9.9 million. The campaign activities revolved around a number of major events, including the New Year’s festival, Songkran, the Chinese New Year, and the Loy Krathong. From the different events, Thailand registered great success in 2003, including that 750,000 tourists took part in the Chinese New Year’s festival in February 2004 to mark the event. During the Songkran event, the customary Thai New Year of April 2004 registered 1.6 million tourists. From the Loy Krathong of November 2004, the campaigns were able to attract 1.1 million visitors into Thailand. After the success of these events, the minister of tourism was noted arguing that some of the activities would be run on a wider scale. Particularly he pointed out the annual Pattaya music event of March 2004, arguing that it could have been done at a larger scale to attract more visitors into the country (The government public relations department 2003; Sanders & Schultes 2007). From this event, the Thai economy was able to attract a large number of visitors, which contributed to increased level of linkage between the economy and the Asian region, as well as the larger global tourist population. From the large number of tourists attracted into the Thai tourist market, the businesses that benefited from the inflow included those operating within the travel business, those operating within pro-tourist businesses, for example those dealing in items like antiques and heritage items. The major beneficiaries of this strategy would include the actors within the service industry, who would benefit directly from the increased inflow of visitors into Thailand. For instance, airlines would register more travelers, either visiting or those leaving the country after their visits, more supplies would be sent into the country, so as to meet the high number of customer inflow. There would be an increase in the number of tourist traffic, which would positively affect the business of hotels, which would serve as the sources of accommodation centers for these visitors – regardless of the level of operation of these service sector players. To be positively affected was also the travel and tour businesses operating within the country, which must have enjoyed the increased in and out-flow of travelers – whether moving to these events or leaving to their hotels and the airport among other destinations they were likely to visit (Golden 1976). Another strategy area for transport route planning was the appropriate location and protection of freight routes, which is affected to minimize the impact of freight vehicle movement within the country, towards offering effective travel opportunities and modes of transport. From an address of this area, which would be checked using the indicators and the information attained on consumption patterns from the planning services, the transport sector and other associated authorities would re-direct traffic to the less frequented modes of transport, for example rail and public transport, which will be greatly fostered by the redirected business. An example here is the development of the route linking Thailand and the neighboring country Cambodia, which was made operational before the event, “the ASEAN economic Community (AEC) to be held three years after 2012 (NNT 2012; Holland 1992). From such transport network diversifications, more information on transport route planning will be made available to the users of the information, which will lead to more investment in anticipation of such developments. An example of the benefits to be drawn by businesses include the business travel operators, who would invest in the transport means to be used in ferrying people between the two countries, across this particular route. Other parties to benefit from the strategy include the business ventures to be set along the new route, which would draw business from the movement of people across the transport link (NNT 2012). From the developed trade relations and association, there would be a resultant formation of industry opinions, which will be of particular importance in the development of further planning networks and opportunities across the different sectors (Satoh et al. 1996). 3. THE CAUSE EFFECT IN TRANSPORT ROUTE PLANNING 3.1. The cause effect in transport route planning at a worldwide level The cause effect in transport route planning at a worldwide level include the cause of rechanneling travel traffic among the different transport models and timings, routings, and other travel details related to the different transport models. The effect of this aspect of transport route planning is that the local as well as international transport service providers will receive a, somehow equitable growth patterns amongst one another. For instance, at less developed countries, rail transport is overlooked, as the travelers will offer attention to more flexible modes of transport like road and air. However, due to the rechanneling of traffic into these routes, the different modes of transport receive wider usage, thus the realization of a balanced growth in economic stability, employment creation, and the promotion of local economy players (The government public relations department 2003; Korf 1990). Transport route planning also directs attention to the linking of different countries, for example the discussed case of planning link between Thailand and Cambodia. As a result, there is a resultant increase in the in and out-flow of the business, investments, technology, production resources, and labor resources moving across the different areas, regions, and nations – which results form the effect of the planning services, as it creates awareness of such routes and expansion opportunities. The effect is that there is increased inflow of revenue to the state in the form of trade levies and the production capacity of the inflowing labor players. As a result, the overall productivity of these two linked companies, after the planning efforts, increases in a stable manner, which is likely to drive the growth of such economies higher. In the case of Thailand, the projects affected after the inflow and outflow of visitor populations increased due to the efforts of transport route planning include the Bangkok fashion city project. After the endorsement of the project, the government mapped out eleven programs under the development plan. Later, during the informal Asia-Pacific economic cooperation of 2003, the government hosted a number of activities fashioned to introduce the Bangkok fashion city project to the world (The government public relations department 2003; Vuchic 2005). As a result, Thailand was able to attract more inflow of traffic into the country, which fostered businesses at different levels and groups within the area. The commonly affected include flight companies, hotels, transportation companies and other SMEs operating within the country. This shows that the effect of this planning are often not short-lived, but likely to foster the development of Thailand both in the short and in the long-run (Wickham 2006). In the recent past, other variables like route gradient, calorie consumption, carbon foot print and costs of transportation have been offered due consideration. The effect of taking such considerations into account favors those transport planning and service provider players who offer services that check these areas of priority. For instance, the recent years have been of great movement towards the realization of a reduction in carbon footprint, which is basically, the choice of transport service providers – of the routes and modes of transport that lead to the release of the least level of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, towards the realization of a reduction in the levels of global warming. Fast movers in this area include airlines, which have adopted flexiroutes, and increased flight carriage to reduce the level of emissions per unit flight for a given number of travelers. An example here is the Emirates airlines company. Others are taxi and transport service provider companies, which have adjusted to the use of hybrid cars, which produce less emission, thus environment friendly. An example of such taxi companies is Flexicab. Hotels among other economic players have also adjusted to these strategies, adopting modes of production, power production, and procurements models that cause fewer emissions. An example of a hotel player that has taken these strategies is the Hilton group. From the incorporation of these considerations, transport route planning offers priority to the economic players in support of, and compliant with these eco-stability strategies, As a result, those players that are not ready or willing to comply with these eco-strategies are left out; given last opportunity, therefore will result to the uptake of the eco-friendly model, which affects the globe positively, through the increase in the level uptake in carbon emission reduction. This effect is further cyclical, as the adoption of these strategies presents less pressure on the scarce economic resources of countries and the planet, which results in increased and more efficient growth across the different sectors (The government public relations department 2003). 3.2. The cause effect in transport route planning in Thailand Transport route planning also channels business into the margin of local recreational companies, for example the businesses offering cycling services as a model of recreational transportation. The effect is that there is an increased economic flow into these businesses and the users of these services are made aware of the locations and economic players providing such services. As a result, often neglected routes or business areas are fostered, resulting in increased economic stability and productivity at these marginalized economic centers, thus increased economic diversification and stability. Further, there is a resultant effect in the creation of employment at these areas, which creates more economic stability among those employment sectors, which fosters general development positively (The government public relations department 2003). During the year 2004, on March 27th during his weekly address over Radio Thailand, the Prime minister of Thailand said that the construction of the Suvarnabhumi airport would be completed as per scheduled. These reports went through to transport route planning service provision centers, where information on the open-skies policy was also noted. As a result, the government saw an increased level of inflow of investors and tourists. According to the prime minister, the set goal was registering 20 million visitors each year. Later in 2005, the prime minister revised the construction plan of the airport, to one that could accommodate 45 million tourists, higher from the previously set number of 30 million. This evidently shows that the Thailand government has harvested this growth from the promotion of transport route planning efforts, which had caused the increased level of growth for the air transport sector. From such increment in visitor inflow, more business for local investor’s large and small scale was realized. Those greatly affected by the development being those operating intra-national transport and the hotel and accommodation businesses, which would adjust to serve the increasing number of visitors. Therefore, this shows that one cause is not restricted to one effect, rather to a scale and array of effects, which foster the economic development of Thailand in the short and long-term levels of stability (Thompson 1977). LITERATURE REVIEW 3.3 Consider barriers and challenges to implementation Transport route planning has become greatly complex and a difficult task, which is made even more difficult by the integration of different modes of transport are captured within the system, these including underground, train, air, water, bus, and walk. Further, route planning analysis is executed from a user’s perspective, which may not be reflected by the political delimitation of research and inquiries into their exposure. Therefore, modeling transport rote planning has greatly become an increasingly difficult task, when it is affected from pedestrians’ behavioral perspective. The pedestrian, or user of such services is the person who is supposed to move from one origin point to a given destination location. These problems, contexts and strategy areas have been explored by Florian (1986) who surveyed non-linear cost modeling for the transport system, DeCorlasouza and Jensen-Fisher (1994) who explored the economic efficiency of best choices, and Adler (2001) who incorporated future mobility into the study. From the exploration of these sources, there is a gap between the theoretical formulation and methodologies with reference to the practice of public service information delivery from a pedestrian’s behavioral perspective. These sources point out that there is a characteristic barrier of highly expensive implementation costs, as the method chosen to analyze the and expose the behavioral preference of users must incorporate graph theories, route planning models and techniques, and updated network models for transportation within the urban and marginal areas alike. There is a barrier of implementation, in that, it is very difficult to select the most effective route from the high number of rotes – from the perspective of the individual as explained by Shriver (1997, p. 64) as he cites that user activity is executed as a function of behavioral and physical characteristics, all influencing the travel needs and decisions of the user. These entail strategies to reduce travel by private modes by substituting this mode with public transport, for example rail (Garling et al. 2000; Marshall and Banister 2000). So far, little has been achieved in realizing a cross-disciplinary, holistic approach – which is capable of dealing with the wide range of transport priorities and criteria for different target groups. The model should also be adjustable to the addition of infrastructure, service models, and route planning criteria, which has become an area of great challenge. For instance, many route planning services will not offer information on roads that are recently blocked for renovation or after accidents, which may limit the travel experience of travelers or an entire transport services provider. The methods developed have also been limited in the area of being fashioned in a way that allows for the use of the information for other areas of development or transport development subjects. An example here is the contribution of such a model into the policy making of the Thai government towards planning for infrastructural development among other changes. Another barrier to implementation is ensuring that the planning models are uncomplicated, back-traceable, and transparent – which has not been realized, due to little stakeholder involvement, as such shifts would require the input of different player groups. There is also the challenge of ensuring that the implemented models remain user-friendly, cost-effective and time friendly, which will require at the moment checking of the routes – for constraints like traffic jam, bad weather and accidents, which has not been realized at large. 4. CUSTOMER SERVICE 4.1. Definition of customer service Customer service is the delivery of services to the consumer before, at the time of, and after reaching a business deal. According to Tuban (2002), customer service is the series of actions, undertaken or offered to enhance the satisfaction of the consumer from the deal creation process; that is, causing the customer to feel that the given service or product has met their level of expectation (Selden 1998). By large, many transport route planning agents or platforms are customer service agents, as they offer information on the availability of public transport modes and services. Basic to their functionality is offering information on the shortest routes, and most reliable modes of transport, such as rapid transit metro and buses. Other planners offer door to door planning, while other focus on stop to stop transport networks like bus tops and airports. From their scale of service, it is clear that planners are by large customer care centers, as most planners will only benefit from ticket sales and the purchases of bookings, and not from the services of planning (Dall and Bailine 2004; Micah 2010). 4.2 The cause on the effect on customer service The cause and effect on customer service include the constraining of transport service users, due to a lack of considering the need from the perspective of the user. This happens, most times, as a result of the constraints of arrival and departure times, as well as planner routing preferences, which may not necessarily reflect the needs of the user (Guzolek and Koch 1989). As a result, many users will not be served to satisfaction by the planning services offered by these planners, which may force them into searching for the information from other information centers. Most planner do not take into account future mobility needs of the consumers, for example, the information offered during the hosting of the yearly events at Thailand may be of little or no use after these events are over (Laurini and Thompson 1992). This is the case, because, travelers are interested in traveling to other sites of interest, therefore may end up misled by the guides. Many times, especially with the recent financial crisis, travelers have become more and more cost conscious (Lee 1989). As a result, a fully satisfying service package will take into account the cost consideration of the customer, as this is a major area in the making of travel choices. 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