Marco Conceptual

5.1

Management of road freight surveys

There are a number of things that characterise surveys of road freight transport, but perhaps the feature which distinguishes such surveys from most other surveys is that road

freight surveys are generally carried out continuously throughout the year. This

necessarily imposes a more rigorous management discipline than would be the case for annual, quarterly or ”one-off” surveys because the various operations involved in carrying out the surveys must be carried out, and completed, according to a strict schedule.

In an annual or ”one-off” survey, a delay of a week or so in sending out the questionnaires generally does not matter very much, unless the delay is the week before the questionnaire should be sent out. If the coding and keying of the questionnaires takes 25 per cent longer than expected, this only means that results from the survey will be available slightly later than planned. In the case of surveys of road freight activity both problems would have much more serious consequences; completed questionnaires must be coded and keyed at the same rate as they are received, otherwise a backlog builds up. There are three sides to survey management, with some interconnection between them, although it is helpful to consider each separately:

• control of the operations leading to the setting up of a new survey in this area or

the introduction of major modifications in an existing survey (project control);

• management of the survey’s operations (for example, sending out the

questionnaires and logging their return);

• transferring information recorded on the questionnaire into a form in which it can be

analysed (including coding and keying the information).

Of course, before starting a survey there is much preparatory work to be done, and the management of each aspect of the survey should be set out in as much detail as possible, with a certain amount of flexibility built in to the survey.

5.1.1 Project control

When starting a new survey or making a major change to an existing survey, it is essential to set up a team to control the many and varied steps that have to be carried out. The first two members of the team should be a project leader, usually acting as chairman, and a project controller, usually the person who will have day-to-day responsibility for the survey. Other members, who will cover specific aspects of the survey, being added to the team as the project develops.

Throughout the project, a detailed note should be kept of all the points considered, the decisions reached and the date this was done. Without these notes, much time may be wasted at later stages of planning in going back to points already covered. This does not mean that you should never change a decision made at an earlier stage. In some cases, very good reasons may emerge to change an earlier decision - resource constraints, higher management decisions, or feed-back from the haulage industry. The keeping of detailed notes will ensure that you have ready access to all the reasons for the earlier decision. The project controller should be given responsibility for keeping the detailed notes and for ensuring that all the various aspects of the project are on target.

The project team, with members covering all aspects of the survey, should consider that every member of the team is responsible for the management of the project. The project controller should not be seen as the only person responsible for ensuring that all the various aspects of the project are running to target.

CHAPTER 5. PREPARATIONS FOR THE SURVEY-MANAGEMENT ASPECTS

To control all the many activities that are necessary in setting up a data collection project, it is helpful to use a management aid, such as critical path analysis:

• a chart showing all the activities;

• who should carry them out;

• the ideal start dates, with also the earliest and latest such dates;

• the actual start dates;

• some indication of progress on the task - the percentage of task completed;

• the latest date for completion;

• the actual date of completion;

• the number of person-weeks the task should take;

• the number of person-weeks the task has taken.

The chart should be maintained by the project controller and kept up to date. It is useful if a copy of the chart is displayed in a prominent position in the project controller's office.

Examples of two possible charts that can be created as spreadsheets are shown on the following pages. The first chart covers the many tasks that have to be done before the first questionnaires are sent out. The second chart covers the tasks that have to be done each week when the survey starts. In fact these weekly tasks have to be carried out for every week of the survey. If a computer system is used to assist the management of the survey, the system can, eventually, take the place of the second control chart. The second chart has a very useful role to play when a survey is being set up for the first time, by visually displaying the many tasks that have to be carried out in the same week.

On the charts the light grey coloured squares indicate the period when the activity should commence and the black squares the latest time (or the actual time) when the activity should be completed.

MANAGEMENT CHART FOR SURVEY OF GOODS ROAD TRANSPORT