Impact of Operations Management In Transportation Industry A Study Of  Uber

Chapter One/Introduction

Background to the study

Uber is a privately held company that was founded back in the year 2009, that is exactly 8 years before from present time and the company is headquartered in San Francisco which is in California located in US (Uber.com, 2018). There are more than 633 cities around the world that are served by the company and the main services that it provides to the customers are transportation services as well as the food delivery services. There are more than 12000 employees that work under the company and as of 2016 last quarter; there total revenue amounted to US$ 6.5 billion. There are different prices at which the customers of the company can take a ride in Uber and there are four kind of pricing strategies that have been adopted by Uber which goes in the name of pool rides, that is the lowest pricing when an individual hires a cab and the person who hires this ride has to share his cab with another 2-3 persons. The second one is premium rides which are the highest in the category while the economy pricing is not much high and also not as low as pool rides (Ahluwalia, 2017). There is another pricing strategy that is followed by Uber and that is accessibility ride which is for the disabled people and they can communicate with the driver using sign languages.

 

There are a variety of departments at Uber which helps the organization to reach its objective and fulfill the expectations of the customers. The customers always looks forward to get the lowest price in the market for the rides they take and with the help of following a variety of approaches, the operations department of the organization helps in achievement of the objective and tries to provide the lowest price to the customers. The operations department always strives to reduce the price of rides with the help of reducing the cost of the organization and me being an employee of the operations department, it is also my duty to contribute towards making the organization operate in a price effective way. Uber is one of the fastest growing companies in the world and it is the aim of the operations department of Uber to contribute towards the rapid growth of the organization with the help of the operational activities (Dudley et al., 2017). The logistics and the operations roles of Uber are interconnected and the most significant task that is performed by the operations department is ensuring the supply in the market for their service is constant so that the satisfaction of the customers can be gained and the most important function that is to be performed by the operations department is analytics which will help them to use the data about the drivers in order to understand the driver behaviors with the passengers and design strategy how the communication between the driver and the passengers can be improved. Moreover, the operations department also designs the incentive plans for the drivers and also develop as well as optimizes the process. There are several other functions that the operations managers of the company perform which will unfold itself with the progress of the assignment.

 

 

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An assessment of problems facing FRSC corps in the enforcement of traffic laws on highways

Introduction

Although transportation has liberated man and makes him more mobile, his increasing reliance on vehicular movement has conferred great facilities on him and his activities. The greatest culprit of all the modes of transport is road of which traffic accident is the most disturbing repercussion of its use. Road traffic accident is therefore an issue of great international concern as it has emerged as the single greatest source of death all over the world. In the developing countries where the number of motor vehicles relating to population is generally much lower than in the developed countries, fatalities from automobile crashes are higher. It has been shown, for instance, that accidents in developing countries cost almost one percent of these countries Annual Gross National Product utilizing scarce financial resources they can ill-afford to lose (Akpoghomeh, 1998).

Nigeria, with a total land area of 910,771 square kilometres and human population of about 167 million, is the most populous country in Africa, and the 7th most populous nation in the world. Its large land mass and burgeoning population correlate with its high level of vehicular population estimated at over 7.6 million with a total road length of about 194,000 kilometres (comprising 34, 120 km federal, 30,500 Km, State and 129,580 km of local roads). Nigeria ranked as the country with the second largest road network in Africa in 2011. Its population density which varies in rural and urban areas (approximately 51.7% and 48.3% respectively) translates to a population- road ratio of 860 persons per square kilometres indicating intense traffic pressure on the available road network. This pressure contributes to the high road traffic accidents in the country (FRSC, 2012).

The Nigeria situation has reached such an alarming proportion even to the point of sheer frustration and near helplessness. Nigeria continues to feature in the bottom half of World Health Organisation country rankings of road traffic accidents. The country’s 149th ranking in 2009 out of 178 member states indicates the hazards associated with road transportation in a country that is largely dependent on its road network for economic, social and physical activities

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ANALYSIS OF CARGO PILFERAGE IN NIGERIAN SEAPORTS: PRE AND POST CONCESSION ERAS

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.0  Background Information

The seaports are very important to the Nigerian trade as practically all imports and exports move through the ports. The importance of the seaports is attested to by the fact that approximately 99% by volume of Nigeria total imports and exports are seaborne; Nigeria ports control 60% of import into West and Central Africa. The ports have served as a major determinant of how economic activities are distributed. The volume of cargo-throughout at the ports is an important measure of the level of economic development of a country (Chioma, 2011).

The volume and value of cargo received by ports pay a vital role in ports revenue earnings as such cargoes must be handled seriously. Cargoes safety is a very important function of any port system that drives the ports economy and the nation’s economy concomitantly. Therefore, it becomes necessary that cargo pilferage or theft which happens to be an age-long disease affecting ports especially ports of developing countries be tackled to ensure a more efficient port in terms of cargo friendliness.

 

It was in view of this problem mentioned above and other related issues that precipitated the move to concession the Nigeria Seaports so as to allow for efficiency in ports operation viz-a-viz cargo safety during her stay in the ports.

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbours where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land. Port locations are selected to optimize access to land and navigable water, for commercial demand, and for shelter from wind and waves. The use of the sea as a means of transfer in Nigeria dates back to the 15th century (1458) when the Portuguese sailed into Lagos with their vessels basically to trade on artifacts in Benin City. From the pre-independence era till date, the nation’s maritime industry is characterized by the domination of foreign vessels and/ or carriers from the developed market economies of Western Europe and  America.  In  order  to  control  this  scenario,  subsequent developments led to the opening of ports at Apapa and Port Harcourt, rolling in the creation of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) by the provision of Ports Act 1954 to load and discharge as well as maintain and develop the ports (Njoku, 2009).

 

From the commencement of operation of the NPA in 1956, Nigeria had operated a service port model. This was fraught with a lot of challenges which informed the idea of switching over to a landlord port model or port concession. The port concession programme was completed in 2006 after an international competitive bidding process. This led to the emergence of 26 terminals which were concessioned to private terminal operators on the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT)model. The reform brought about ceding of cargo handling operations at the port to private terminal operators, leaving NPA as the landlord. The Nigerian ports witnessed a rapid transformation as a result of this reform in which Nigerian ports were concession to the port operators called concessionaires.

Ports always play a strategic role in the development of domestic and international trade of a country whether it is developing or developed country. However in a globalized world where distances are becoming squeezed ports play active roles in sustaining the economic growth of a country. In a modern world of a fast growing technological era, ports are playing the role of an industry, not just passive actor in transportation but also in complete supply chain management(Okeudo, 2013). Ports are more than just a piers, that

 

is they are more than just an infrastructure or a complex infrastructure (Prakash, 2005). Ports are industries and major economic stimulator globally. Ports are not only a chain in transportation for inter-change, but they function as self-sustaining industry that is linked with domestic and international trade.

Cargo safety and security must therefore, be a major concern of ports functions, since the existence of a ports is principally necessitated by the availability of cargoes. The volume and value of cargo that called at ports has been a major determinant of the outlook of such port in terms of competitiveness, efficiency, and performance evaluations. An efficient port will always have cargo security and safety within the port premises as a high point of duty in her operations. Cargoes are the regular callers at ports, no cargo no port adage is an age long altruism, therefore the level of hospitality meted to cargoes at their ports of call must be treated with high level sophistication and approach. A port must be equipped with all it takes to handle cargoes that call at her domain, be it human, electronic and mechanical. These port cargo handling facilities must be efficient, sophisticated and technologically up-to- date (Buxton, et al,1978).

 

In order for Nigerian seaports to attain the level of world-class ports, the Nigerian government in 2006 decided to concession the operations of the ports to several private concerns; this move was partly facilitated by the growing spate of poor cargo handling facilities that will aid in cargo security and safety within the port premises(Ndikom, 2008).

 

• Cargo Pilferage in The Pre-Concession Era of The Nigerian Ports; 1993-2003.

Chioma,( 2005) conducted an extensive temporal – spatial study on cargo pilferage in Nigerian seaports. She said in her findings that the trend in cargo pilfering in Nigerian ports between 1993- 2003 increased steadily. According to her, the volume of cargo pilfered at the ports decreased steadily from 114.9 tons in 1993 to 84tons 1996. This is followed by a steady increase to 159.2tons in 2000 and subsequent decline to 86.3 tons in 2003.the spatial pattern of cargo pilfered according from to her, shows that volume of cargo pilfered was highest at the Apapa port with an average of 50.2 metric tons of cargo pilfered annually. The seaport with the least incidence of pilfered are Onne and Calabar ports with an annual average of 0.5 metric tons each. When compared with the volume of

cargo pilfered, Onne was the most secured port in Nigeria, In terms

 

of cargo security with 1 metric ton of cargo pilfered compared by Calabar and Tin can Island ports. The least secured port was Warri port where 1- metric ton of goods was pilfered in every 43, 382.9 metric tons of Cargo discharged. This is followed by RO/RO and Port Harcourt ports. She went ahead to opine that the reduction in the level of cargo pilfering at the ports may be attributed to the ownership structure of the ports which in turn influence port activities. Whereas Onne port is Landlord port, Port Harcourt port is an operating port. The Operating port system is where the port authority provides the superstructure and carries out the functions of cargo delivery and discharge. A mixed port is a combination of both port systems. She finally suggested that privatization by way of concessioning of the ports which involves a change of the ownership structure from operating to landlord port system could significantly reduce cargo crimes and other security problems in ports.

Berk (2008) also lists insecurity of cargo as one of the ills that bedeviled Nigerian ports before port concession. Chioma(2011) also in her trend analysis of cargo pilferage in Nigerian seaports between the era of pre-concession opines that cargo pilferage was high in the various ports, as such contributed to the ills that bedeviled the

 

ports system.Ndikom (2006) states that many ports premises and quay aprons had fallen to disuse and failed road section inside the ports made movement of goods within ports ground cumbersome and very slow. Following the seaports congestions, complaints of untraceable or missing cargoes were being regularly lodged against the NPA, all to no avail. Security inside Nigerian seaports was compromised by the relentless ingress of multitude of all shades of persons into the seaports. As a result, miscreants called wharf rats easily gained access into the ports and pilferage goods in storage or vehicle parts. In fact security within ports ground was at the mercy of an elusive racket.

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