Transportation is defined as the movement of people and goods by the means used for this purpose.
For many, passenger transport is the most important, especially in urban areas; But the transport of goods, that is, the transport of cargo, is perhaps of greater importance for the proper and economic functioning of our society. Both should be considered essential.
Transport plays an essential role in modern life.
A future society can hardly be conceived in which they do not continue to be of prime importance. The efficiency of a transport system is an index of the economic development of a country.
Normally, transportation is considered as the movement of people or goods in space using special means, or as a complex economic activity that directly intervenes in the development of the country, facilitating mobility, or a way of providing accessibility to the territory, etc.
It is true that they are functions carried out by transport, but in them clearly differentiated elements are mixed that overlap each other and that should be distinguished. For this reason, it is preferable to consider transport as a system, or, if we want to specify even more, as a subsystem within a territorial or even economic system, made up of three fundamental elements that interact with each other: the infrastructure, the vehicle and the company. or service that constitutes the activity itself.
The scope of our work in this edition shelters the third element in its context and as a factor in the execution of the activity, and constituent of the efficiency of the use of the other two, infrastructure and vehicles. Automotive transportation in Colombia has the largest share of cargo movement, moving more than 79.9% of the nearly 150 million tons per year; and in the case of passenger transport, according to the Ministry of Transportation, more than 96.9 million passengers are mobilized by both urban and rural roads per year, in a total of 499,380 vehicles, with an average age of 16.75 years. See Table.
Table 1. Public service vehicle fleet.
Vehicle type quantity average age
Automobile 243 395 17.5 years
Minivan 23 145 16.04 years
Bus 56 799 21.48 years
Trucks 59 239 22.82 years
Tractor trucks 11 117 21.16 years
Others 105 685
TOTAL VEHICLES 499 380 16.75 years
Source: Ministry of Transport and National Road Prevention Fund 2003.
The fact that transport is a service and that, consequently, its activity at all times depends on the economic context in which it is developed and is subject to how activities evolve in the other sectors of the country, makes the main indicators used to analyze the importance of transport in the economy remain fairly stable over time, so that only the introduction of new technologies could produce important changes in them.
Quality of service factors
The service level indicates the amount of transportation required to meet a certain demand. The quality of service reflects the way in which that quantity is available, including aspects such as safety and reliability, flexibility, speed, door-to-door travel time, convenience, energy savings, effects on the community and effects on the environment..
Safety and reliability are closely related; the carrier assumes the implicit obligation that the people and goods entrusted to it reach their destination without any damage, in the state in which they start the journey. There is another obligation: to see that the journey is carried out with reasonable speed and reliability.
Reliability refers to the safe and timely transportation and delivery of goods and passengers, without delays and free from damage caused along the way. It is one of the most important features a conveyor can offer. Transportation has to start with the vehicle operator or driver, who is a decision maker. The speed, the distance between vehicles, the choice of the route and the observance of the regulations and laws that are under your control. Operators differ markedly in training, expertise, care, and experience.
Regardless of skill, experience or training, operators are human beings exposed to natural weaknesses and limitations.The best training and longest experience can be invalidated when the operator is feeling ill, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, suffers from fatigue or is emotionally upset, or when you lack a sense of responsibility. Operators must make other decisions. They determine your speed, whether to catch up and pass another vehicle, whether to change course, and how close you can get to another vehicle or a fixed object. They are responsible for the people they move and the goods they transport, their proper selection, training and development being of great importance.
Flexibility is characterized in passenger transport by its requirements for volume, speed, time and comfort, while freight, by volume and speed. Speed is a factor of both the level and the quality of the service.
The speed of the route is a factor both in the level and in the quality of the service. Speed, insofar as it affects the level of capacity and service of the road and provides risks of accidents, when the limits of the road design are exceeded; but also in how it affects door-to-door time.
Although travel comfort begins with a smooth road, the specifications and condition of the vehicles provide for a comfortable ride, sometimes accompanied by additional services for long distances and preferential luxury services. Temperature control, ventilation, acoustic insulation of machine and traffic noises, excellent driving and careful attention from travelers, accompanied by pleasant sound and duly selected video programs, considerably improve the quality of service..
Main rules of automotive transport
The legal framework of transport in Colombia is found in Law 105 of 1993, defining public transport in its article 3 as an industry aimed at guaranteeing the mobilization of people or things, by means of appropriate vehicles, in conditions of freedom of access, quality and safety of users, subject to an economic consideration, which is governed by a series of principles, such as allowing the user to be transported through the medium and the way they choose in good conditions of access, comfort, quality and safety. Table 1 summarizes the main rules of public motor transport.
Table 1. Rules for motor vehicle land transport.
Standard date subject
Law 105 Dec. 1993 By which basic provisions on transportation are issued, powers and resources are redistributed between the nation and territorial entities, the planning of the transportation sector is regulated and other provisions are issued.
Law 336 Dec. 1996 By which the National Transportation Statute is adopted.
Decree 3366 2003 By which the sanctions regime for infractions to the rules of Automotive Land Public Transport is established and procedures are determined.
Decree 170 Feb. 2001 By which the public service of metropolitan collective automotive land transport is regulated.
Decrees 112 to 115 2002 By which the restructuring of the Urban Collective transport of Bogotá is regulated, of these, Decree 114, deals with business restructuring
Decree 3109 1997 By which the empowerment, the provision of the mass passenger transportation public service and the use of the nation's resources are regulated.
Decree 171 of 2001 By which the public service of automotive land transport of passengers by road is regulated.
Decrees 172 of 2001 By which the individual passenger transport service by taxi vehicle is regulated.
Decree 174 of 2001 By which the Special automotive land transport is regulated, which is national in nature.
Decree 173 of 2001 By which the road freight transport service is regulated
Commercial Code Art. 981 to 1035 Establishing the obligations and responsibilities of both passenger and freight transporters within the national territory.
Public transport accident
Framed within the context of accidents on urban roads and streets, which includes accidents in public passenger, urban and inter-municipal transport and the transport of goods, as well as the economic impact on the development of the activity itself, of transport organizations and the owners of the vehicles themselves, who directly assume the risks of accidents and their implicit and collateral effects.
The companies have constituted millionaire funds to correct the costs generated by the civil and judicial implications of traffic and transport accidents in which drivers, vehicles and other road users are involved; Likewise, the disbursement to insurance companies of excessive premiums for the payment of civil, contractual and extra-contractual liability policies, given the number and severity of accidents, without leaving aside the large figures that the latter pay for the claims incurred..
The absence of prevention programs by the transport companies and the intervention of the traffic authority in prevention matters, generate a negative impact on the quality of life of the inhabitants, since an accident not only implies loss of life of drivers or pedestrians, but also impacts other factors such as material losses in vehicles, unproductive times of the same, onerous expenses in the payment of policies by insurers and professional risk managers, payment of fines and alteration of psychosocial status of the relatives and victims, deterioration of roads, unemployment, and above all loss of credibility of the transport system and therefore its profitability as an economic activity.
The cost of the accident
The total cost of road accidents in Colombia exceeded $ 1.7 trillion in the year 2000, with the occurrence of 231,974 accidents, which the country lost due to road accidents, according to a study by the National University on Road Accidents in Bogotá. However, the losses presented need to be added those of the costs generated by other events caused by the work within the organizations.
Table 2. Cost of accidents in Colombia
Type of accident cost per accident number of accidents total cost per type of accident
Accident without victims $ 2,745,788 231,974 $ 636,951,000,000
Accident with injuries $ 12,411,666 51,548 $ 638,679,000,000
Accident with deaths $ 70,784,071 6,551 $ 463,706,000,000
TOTAL YEAR 2000 $ 1,739,339,000,000
Source: FASECOLDA.
Public transport has a high share of accidents nationwide, with 44.7% of accidents, for a total of 84,900 accidents in 2002, causing 26% of deaths and 29% of injuries in traffic accidents. The main accidents are crashes in 83.91%; run over by 11.03%; rollover by 1.26% and others by 3.8%.
In direct proportion, it could be said that the cost of accidents in public transport was close to $ 770,000,000,000 ($ 0.77 billion) for the year 2000, whose item was not considered in the cost structure of any of the service modalities, becoming an expense that directly impacts the return on investment indicators.
Trade union activity in transport
According to the Study on Business Guilds in Colombia, edited by the Javeriana University in 2000, the transport trade union action is developed through more than 30 trade unions, whose strategic objectives are, among others:
those of having a spokesperson for the companies in the sector (37%);
For the services provided by the union to its members (28%);
For sharing problems with other companies in the sector (13%);
To influence the decisions of the union entity (11%);
By public relations (11%);
To be informed of the activities of the union (4%) and
For other reasons (2%);
The union management is reactive and prevails as transversality in the objectives, the preservation of the prevailing status quo in the sector.
There are 12 business associations affiliated to the National Intermodal Transportation Council, 14 business associations affiliated to the Higher Transportation Council, and the remaining business associations are not affiliated to any dome union.
Among the trade union services that the companies accept to have received are:
Information on legal, regulatory and similar news.
Alerts companies about bills, decree or regulations that are being prepared.
Publications on topics of interest to members.
Defense before the competent authorities of the points of view of the businessmen of the sector.
Conferences, seminars, useful courses for business leaders.
Studies on the current situation and / or future prospects of the economic sector in which the companies are located.
The unions themselves recognize a series of weaknesses within the union organizations, the following standing out:
Financial weakness (19%)
Weak support from associates (12 %) Low
number of associates (10%)
Deficient technical or professional infrastructure (10%)
Dissimilar interests of associates (8%)
Negative image of the union (5%)
Economic weakness of the sector or country (4%)
Deficiencies of union managers (3%)
Poor services to associates (3%)
Failure to communicate with associates (3%)
Competition from other unions (2%)
Others (21%)
Among the best qualifications of the union services provided to companies is the defense before the competent authorities of the points of view of the sector, followed by the alerts on bills, decrees or regulations that are being prepared; Conference services, courses and seminars on business development are also well rated.
Transport organizations
General
A transport company is an economic unit for the movement of goods or people. As an economic unit, it has the elements of organization and administration that allow it to develop its activity within performance and efficiency margins that are favorable to transporters and users.
The organization system is very similar in the different modes of automotive land transport; These are affiliate organizations, equipment managers, and organizations with full control of the transportation fleet.
Affiliate organizations
This type of company acts as an intermediary between the user and the transporter. They are the most common in Colombia and make up about 95% of companies, whose mission is to link vehicles through an affiliation contract signed between the owners of the vehicle fleet and the company; here you can find all the urban collective transport organizations, and about 90% of the inter-municipal road transport companies; more than 98% of the companies of special services and of tourism and all of the companies of individual transport in taxis. The estimated total of authorized motor transport companies, including road freight transport is close to 3,900, although neither the Ministry of Transport,Neither the Traffic Agencies nor the Superintendency dare to officially provide the real statistics on the subject in question.
Automotive passenger transport
The companies with greater regulation and protection through the figure of routes, schedules and rates established by the state through the municipalities in the case of Collective transport and the Ministry of Transport for other modalities of passenger transport services, receive their income the affiliation of the vehicles to the respective company, the payment of periodic rolling fees and the sale of dispatches or cardboard to carry out the operation of the service on the routes authorized for each company. The quota market is a business of opportunity and an extra concept for linking vehicles, resulting from the award of new routes and transportation capacity to the company. To the extent that the company has a greater authorized transport capacity, it also has better income.
The true concept of service as part of a transport contract between transporter and user, is carried out with the driver of the vehicle, who turns out to be the effective transporter and where the quality of the service is defined. The risks of the transport activity are shared between the transport company, the owner of the vehicle and the driver.
This type of organization, which in essence is not a transporter, maintains links of low commitment with the transport user because it does not directly execute the service, as well as the commitment with the investor of the vehicle fleet, who assumes the risk on their own account. financial business, maintenance operations in general, operating costs and administration of the motor vehicle you own.
This organizational system suffers from many inefficiencies, both in the provision of transport services and in the rationalization of operating costs, making the activity quite simplistic and riskier; Let's see some of them:
Non-optimized programming of the transport fleet.
Dispatches do not obey the characteristics and statistics of demand.
Disperse and individual maintenance of the transport fleet, generating inefficiencies due to purchases and corrective maintenance.
Absence of preventive maintenance programs for the fleet.
Lack of transport statistics that allow effective programming of the fleet.
Deficiency in the quality of the transport service.
Lack of management indicators that facilitate the determination of business profitability.
Impossibility of conducting studies of costs and acceptable rates.
The transporter never knows how much he stops earning.
On offer of service and transport capacity.
High rotation of conductors.
High level of accidents.
Lack of portfolio of services.
Low added value in services.
The modalities with less regulation, that is, without control of routes and schedules such as individual transport by taxi and the modality with greater self-regulation such as special transport, differ from those previously described by the form of operation of the service and the requirements of commercial management by drivers.
Once the taxi driver has been awarded the quota that has a high value, authorized by the company and made the payment of rolling and other services such as communications and radio telephone to the affiliate company, he begins the provision of services in his authorized radius of action, in accordance with its commercial criteria and its ability to detect prospects in the city, or failing that, based on the capacity of the company's communications system, keeping up to three different communication systems inside its car for a more efficient operation: more kilometers productive. The management of operating costs is carried out by the owner of the vehicle, with the consequent inefficiencies and over-costs.
In the case of special and tourism transport, the commercial action redounds to the driver and / or the owner of the vehicle, who recognizes its prospects and makes contracts through the Contract Extract, provided by the affiliate company by paying a fee. commission. In some cases, the commercial activity is supported by the management of the company, improving the quality of services and the income of the affiliates. Its main clients are educational institutions, neighborhood communities, parishes, and businesses; tourist transport is interpreted as the simple transfer of tourists to the places where they will enjoy tourism services, in rare cases value is added to the client. Operational and maintenance management is dispersed and falls to each of the fleet owners.The disadvantages of the system are similar to those described in urban public transport.
Automotive freight transport
The company acts as an intermediary between the load generator or user of the service and the owner of the vehicle in obtaining the load, for which, in some cases, it has adequate facilities for receiving it. The carrier or owner of truck pays the company a previously determined commission, equivalent to a percentage of the value of the freight per ton or unit of average.
In the automotive freight transport, more than 90% of the companies maintain this modality of affiliation of the automobile fleet, the type of connection through affiliation contracts is similar to that of the passenger transport companies; quota market, payment of bearing fees. Truck owners can sell their services to other transport companies different from the one where they are linked, through the cargo manifest provided by the contracting company
This type of organization presents, among others, the following flaws and inconveniences for the normal and efficient development of the road cargo transport activity:
There is no effective link between the truck owner and the company. However, the contracting of the freight or rate is carried out by the company according to its convenience.
As the company does not have any form of control of the operation of the vehicles, that is, the record of income, cost of operation, traffic statistics, etc., it is impossible to carry out studies of costs and competitive rates. On the other hand, the company is not interested in the performance of its members since there is no economic link with them.
Utilization of conveyor capacity is generally poor. The company is limited, in most cases, to dispatch the vehicle to the point of destination of the load, without any coordination regarding return or compensation cargo. In these conditions, the trucks often have to wait several days to obtain the respective load.
In the current conditions of oversupply of services, the competitiveness of freight is decisive for the transport user, thus requiring the company and the transporter of very important information to determine competitive freights and obtain benefits from the rational exploitation of its transport fleet.
The user is frequently affected in obtaining transport capacity, as there is no adequate coordination of the movement of vehicles.
Vehicle management organizations
This company directly controls the operation of the vehicles, that is, it schedules their movement and manages the results of the operation; it then controls the utilization of the transport capacity and the costs and revenues that are generated. This type of company constitutes an intermediate point between the affiliate company or commission agent and the company that owns the equipment. It is estimated that between 3 and 7% of the inter-municipal road transport companies maintain this type of organization and close to 5% of the motor cargo transport companies; It has the following advantages over the first:
The distribution of the transport capacity is more orderly and, consequently, the coefficient of use of the vehicles, higher.
Equipment depreciation and renewal plans can be made, with the establishment of appropriate funds and reserves.
The preventive and corrective maintenance plan of the fleet can be established more efficiently and economically.
All the elements of analysis are available for the preparation of the studies of costs and competitive rates.
The company manages the vehicles, but does not incorporate their value in the assets of the organization, reducing fixed costs. It only limits itself to including office facilities and equipment in its assets.
Organizations that own the vehicles
In the transport of passengers the Operators of the Transmilenio Massive Transportation System are observed; However, in automotive freight transport, at least 2.0% of the 1,200 authorized companies maintain this type of organization, being the most profitable and competitive in the sector.
The owner company is the most evolved and convenient way to operate transport. It presents over the previous ones, the indisputable advantage of the economic unit that allows, through an adequate organization, the most rational operation of the equipment, the establishment of a technically elaborated rate system, the programming of preventive and general maintenance, in addition to the financial support of this type of organization.
Strategic alliances and business collaboration
A form of evolution, although still incipient, of transport, is manifest in cooperative alliances or business collaboration. In passenger transport, this type of collaboration is encouraged between inter-municipal transport service companies and special service companies, especially for high seasons, with the aim of meeting demand at certain times of the year.
In the case of the Capital District of Bogotá, as a response to the entry of the new competitor to the urban public transport scene of the Transmilenio System, and the demands of the restructuring of collective transport, alliances have been formed between transport companies with the aim of synergize routes and transport capacity, through the implementation of new services in modern transport and communications equipment, as well as and charging of tickets with a smart card; Current examples can be: Alianza Sat and Transfer.
In freight transport, the development of strategic alliances is the predominant trend given the demands of the market and the requirements of greater demand for door-to-door services, fully integrated, outsourcing and the figures of international multimodal transport, thanks to the revolution of the containers.
Multimodal Transportation
Multimodal transport is understood to be the carriage by at least two different modes, under a multimodal transport contract, from a place located in a country where the multimodal transport operator takes the goods under his custody to another place destined for your delivery, which is in a different country.
Multimodal transport is:
A way to streamline trade and optimize costs in the distribution chain.
The way to unify responsibility for transport into a single subject of rights and obligations.
Planning support, through the smallest possible selection of modes.
A determinant of the best use of means and infrastructures.
The constitution of multimodal transport operators has been slow to develop, especially due to the following factors, among others: transport insurance and customs aspects and international transit, however, about twenty operators have been established that integrate various modes such as maritime, river and road; air and road, and sea and road.
Logistics operators
The logistics operator is an agent that carries out a series of activities for another entity that have always been present in the scope of the company. However, in recent decades, organizations have understood that these activities, which traditionally have not been given greater importance, can be the source of a competitive advantage.
At present, when production processes are increasingly homogeneous and competitive differences are more difficult to obtain, manufacturing and even commercial companies understand that the improvement process is important in activities such as warehouse management, order preparation., transportation, supplies or internal flows of goods, which in the international logistics field facilitates the Integral Logistics Operator, that is, the same operator can offer services throughout the entire logistics chain.
Logistics revolves around creating value: value for customers and suppliers, and value for the company's shareholders. Value in logistics is primarily expressed in terms of time and place. Products and services have no value unless they are in the possession of customers when and where they want to consume them.
In Colombia there are more than 50 logistics operators that integrate a whole range of services extended to the entire supply chain of a company, which can delegate or outsource its logistics activities to a specialized operator.
Conclusions
The provision of public transport services in Colombia is in a critical stage of competitiveness; On the one hand, the transport infrastructure is more than 50 years behind, with a deficient road network and in poor condition; an automobile fleet with a high level of obsolescence given its average life of almost 17 years; A matter that ends, with the provision of services by inefficient companies that generate high operating costs and very low levels of profitability for the owners of the vehicle fleet.
Added to this is the oversupply of vehicles in almost all types of service, both formal and informal. The low development capacity on the part of the governing body for transportation and the scant control by the Superintendency of Ports and Transportation.
The level of training in transport management is minimal given the low requirement to manage affiliate organizations that constitute more than 95% of the transport companies, whose main characteristics are the dispersion of maintenance management and the exploitation of the fleet of public services.
Another unquantified over-cost in the cost structures of the different modes of motor transport is the accident rate that exceeds $ 0.8 trillion per year, greatly diminishing the return on investment in transport fleets. If to this is added the little rational driving of a large part of the operators of public transport vehicles, a key factor in the service and profitability of the business, we can conclude that we have a lot of work ahead to do jointly and harmoniously with the authorities transit, transportation and all transportation entrepreneurs, beginning with the training of the sector at all levels, which expresses with urgent urgency the priorities to prepare the country in the international agreement of free trade agreements.
