The concept of the service quality loop (Figure 1‑3) distinguishes between:

• Customer view, and
• Service provider view.

Where:

• "Service providers" are: Operators, Authorities and also Police and Road (Infrastructure) departments (these can be seen also as the "production" side)
• "Customers" are users and also the community

Figure 1-3: The quality loop (PORTAL 2003)

The service provider view distinguishes between "targeted" service qualities and "delivered" service quality. Targeted service quality is set by authorities. There could be a difference between tendered quality and actually contracted quality; which implies a quality partnership as an agreement.

The service quality definition is a "set of quality criteria and appropriate measures for which the service provider is responsible". Level of quality is the "sum of weighted quality criteria".

The service quality targeted (by the provider) should correspond to the quality sought (by customers). The discrepancies between sought and targeted quality are influenced mostly by budgetary and technical constraints.

This results in a set of targeted quality criteria values, written down "in numbers", which are mostly thresholds.

The customer view differentiates between perceived quality (by users) and expected quality (by community or users associations).

The EFQM self-assessment model: For several years, the EFQM has been developing an efficient model of self-assessment for quality management at the level of a company or of a production system. The EFQM defines self-assessment as “taking a hard look at your organisation and scoring it against an ideal or model (the EFQM model in this case). The results indicate the organisation’s strengths and areas for improvement and provide the basis for future strategy and improvement plans…”. In the public transport sector, self-assessment can certainly lead to an improved knowledge of system and company performances.

The EQUIP model: EQUIP was an EU funded research project under the 4^th Framework Programme which developed a self-assessment method for public transport operators, as a first step in a benchmarking process. The approach is described in a handbook (EQUIP 2000).

The measurement can be used for a large number of criteria, which have an impact on the quality of a public transport system. In some cases an “in conformity” approach is used:

• Service quality (e.g. friendliness of drivers)

• Vehicle quality (e.g. cleanliness)

• Driving quality (additionally, customer feedback can be used for monitoring purposes).
• Punctuality of services: The punctuality of service is “in conformity” if 95% of departures are on time. A departure is judged as “on-time” if the delay is less than three minutes and the departure is not more than one minute early. The measurement method is DPM. Quality control for punctuality can also be monitored by real-time information systems.

• Bus stop quality (e.g. cleanliness, and accuracy of stop information).

• Information tools (e.g. availability): The availability of service is “in conformity” if 99% of phone calls are answered, if 95% of calls are answered within three minutes and if 90% of answers are correct. The measurement method in this case is DPM by Mystery Shoppers.

• Sales facilities (e.g. availability): The quality of ticketing service is “in conformity” if 90% of customers succeed in buying the most appropriate ticket on the ticket vending machine. The measurement method in this case is MSS.

A Benchmark is a standard of excellence or achievement against which other similar production units or organisations are measured or judged. The basic idea of benchmarking is for the organisation to locate ‘competitors’ level of performance in a certain field that is superior to its own, and by doing that some item that is worthy of emulation is identified. Benchmarking is a process which - simply speaking - consists of the organisation:

• Figuring out what to benchmark,

• Finding out what the benchmark is (what is the standard of excellence?),

• Determining how it is achieved (What methods or processes produce those results?),

• Deciding to make changes to its own business practices that will enable it to meet or even to exceed the benchmark.

Best Practice is the means by which this ‘benchmark’ level of performance is achieved. Benchmarking can be described as the systematic comparison of the performance of an organisation against that of:

• Other departments/subsidiaries (internal benchmarking)
  Internal benchmarking is not specific to public transport. Administrative, financial or other general management practices are benchmarked between departments inside many companies using value analysis techniques.

• Other organisations or competitors (external benchmarking)
  External benchmarking between operators is not very common. The main reasons are confidentiality, the lack of efficient tools to identify comparable practices, and a lack of “no blame” cultures, often combined with a reticence to openness.

The main goal of benchmarking is to build on the successful experiences of others instead of "re-inventing the wheel".

Standardisation and certification are part of the quality assurance process. Quality assurance consists of “all the planned and systematic activities implemented within the quality system and demonstrated as needed to provide adequate confidence that an entity will fulfil given requirements for quality”. The standard defines the “systematic activities” and certification; the assurance that the standard will be respected.

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) defines standards as “documented agreements containing technical specifications or other precise criteria to be used consistently as rules, guidelines or definitions of characteristics, to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their purpose”. AFNOR, the French organisation for standardisation, published a French standard (ref. NF X50-805) entitled “Quality within transportation services – Identification of the quality criteria for passenger transport” in April 1997, and has revised and improved it since.

The concept of “quality partnership” is relatively recent in the public transport sector. A quality partnership is a scheme drawn up by a local authority aimed at implementing a local bus strategy, in which both the authority and signatory operators commit to certain Actions. It first appeared in the UK in the beginning of the 1990s as a consequence of the deregulation and privatisation in 1986 of the UK Bus Industry (outside London and Northern Ireland). Prior to deregulation local authorities had had a formal service co-ordination role, although the benefits that this achieved varied between areas. Quality partnerships emerged under deregulation from a recognition that good partnership working was essential to growing the business for bus travel. The concept is generally only applicable to cases where bus services are run commercially outside any contract with a public authority, since in the case of a contracted operation the contracting authority can specify the level, type and quality of service to be delivered.

The urban public transport user has a certain level of expectation and is not concerned with the way the service provider manages production activities in order to reach this level. The user is concerned with the service (Does the service fulfil my expectation?) and one of the main expectations concerns the reliability of the service. Consequently, the question is: How can the urban public transport user “trust” the service?

The concept of the service guarantee has been developed as an answer to this question. An operator or responsible authority may wish to be able to provide the urban public transport user with a guarantee of service level or quality.. Ideally, the guarantee should be applicable at every hour of the day, every season of the year, and anywhere on the network.