FAMS - Flexible Agency for collective demand-responsive Mobility Services
Overview
Background & policy context:
Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services are a flexible approach to the issues regarding the provision of public transport services. They provide various forms of intermediate services which lie on a continuum between taxis and the conventional bus services. They usually operate small size buses on flexible routes and schedules, basing their route choice on the users’ requests.
Given their flexibility, DRT services are suitable to serve niche market customers such as those travelling in off-peak hours, low demand zones and making airport connections; users with mobility impairments (elderly, disabled); and in areas not accessible by conventional bus services. These factors contribute to giving a social role to these kinds of services.
The flexibility in the organisation of DRT services can vary considerably, according to the needs of users and of the service provider.
So far, DRT services have been applied mostly as a single element of a larger intermodal transport chain. Most often the DRT schemes have been - or are - operated as single mode, by a single operator, with little or no integration with the other transport schemes. However, there are large opportunities for improvement of service provision modalities and of the service model itself by strengthening the coordination of different Intermediate Services and their integration within the overall transport service chain.
Objectives:
The objective of the FAMS (Flexible Agency for Collective Demand Responsive Mobility Services) Trial Project was to scale up technology, services and business models currently adopted in DRT and to support the evolution from single DRT applications towards the concept of a Flexible Agency for Collective Demand Responsive Mobility Services.
FAMS aimed to improve DRT by addressing fundamental organisational and technical issues at the heart of this kind of transport model by improving communication, integration and co-operation amongst all the actors involved in the DRT domain, e.g. transport service planners, transport providers and end-users.
By capitalising on the results, experience and practices gained in previous DRT projects on demand responsive transport - both by DRT service providers and IT providers participating to the FAMS consortium - FAMS therefore sought to:
- implement and trial the Flexible Agency concept,
- evaluate the viability and impacts in real business cases,
- gather knowledge and best practice to ensure dissemination and subsequent adoption at the European level.
Methodology:
The FAMS approach was based in terms of the functions, services and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) underlying the innovation in ICT tools and the FAMS Agency concept.
The main vision was that all actors of the DRT service chain, both the different transport operators and the different users groups, constitute a Virtual Community. Through an appropriate e-Business infrastructure, the member of the community can obtain several benefits including: knowledge sharing, improved access to information and services, improved travel service offer, enhanced management of the workflow between the customer and the transport service providers.
The project's methodology therefore consisted of 6 steps:
- Adapting and scaling-up previously demonstrated DRT technologies and methods, and e-Business/e-Work collaboration and team-working tools and methods. These enabled to support operation and co-ordination of a set of Demand Responsive services by a Flexible Mobility Agency.
- Deploying the Flexible Agency concept in two EU sites and transferring to them the technological, operational and organisational experience gained about application of ITS in DRT.
- Implementing trials in the sites, including trial and test of the impacts of GPRS technology in supporting DRT operations within the Flexible Agency.
- Conducting comparative assessment of technologies, organisational models and implementation contexts, based on a common Measurements and Evaluation Plan.
- Providing assistance to the Users and Suppliers in decision-making, as regards further deployment and use of trialled IT solutions and product consolidation and market penetration strategies.
- Collecting knowledge and best practice on Flexible Agency implementation and operation and dissemination of these through a "Handbook and Best Practice Guide".
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