Exercise onBroadcast Search

and Pyramiding

Sofia Beatrice Tellini 1317817Antonio Portaluri 1353432Elisa Garau 1342062Marco Solfato 1610534Simone Santamaria 1332931

1. Definition of Problem

The problem is the high number of people not paying the ticket on public means of transportation here in Milan. Can we find a way to solve this problem and increase service quality?

2. Broadcast Problem

In order to get access to possible answers we addressed this question to websites (like yahoo answers) and communities of fruitors of the public transport (for example milanotrasporti.org). We chose to target this kind of users because in their everyday life they face issues related to this problem and they are likely to have solutions to it.

3. Attract Solution(s)

The question turned out to be a very intersting topic for our respondents.

We, of course, did not have the chance to promote a contest with a high level of incentives.

We tried to pose the question in a way that could incentivate the proposition of solutions: we insisted on the fact that finding the right solution could imply an improvement of the service and reductions in the cost of tickets and subscriptions.

4. Select Solution(s)

The solutions most appreciated by respondents are:

• improvement in ticket collection activity (either assuming more collectors or increasing their presence on the main lines and during the most crowded hours)

• incentives for ticket collectors (i.e. a percentage on the fine delivered)

• more expensive fines

4. Select Solution(s) II

• Ad hoc turnstiles at each entrance (still comfortable both for disables, older people and strollers) before which tickets/subscription have to be validated

• Entrance just from the driver’s door (as in U.S.), so that the driver is in charge of both ticket controlling and ticket selling

• Ticket vending machines installed on each tram/bus

5. Our SolutionLooking also at the respondents’ proposals we have defined what we think can be the most effective strategy to approach the problem:

• facilitate the tickets’ purchase by developing an application for smartphones that makes customers able to buy tickets in every moment

• Turnstiles at each entrance before which tickets have to be validated.

In this way people can purchase tickets in a simple way also the very moment before taking the bus/tram , and everybody should be obliged to convalidate it thanks to the turnstiles.

The costs of implementation of our strategy would be recovered by the fact that the number of tickets sold will increase uncorrect behaviours will be drastically reduced

Pyramiding: Process• Screening of our contacts for an expert or for

someone that could indicate us one

• We started from the bottom:

We asked:

family

friends

specialized forums

Climbing up the pyramid

A friend directed us to another friend whose father works for a public transportation company in Sardinia

This person in turn lead us to our expert: his boss

OUR EXPERT

Our expert is the director of a branch of ARST s.p.a., a company in charge of public transportation in Sardinia.

an analogous market ( city transports vs regional transports)

phone interview

we asked him about the solutions they currently implement to reduce

the number of people not paying the ticket

OUR EXPERT: HIS SOLUTIONS

AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS: the more people pay the ticket the better the quality of the service

BUS DRIVERS TAKE RESPONSABILITY: they check whether passengers have the ticket or not. Who has not the ticket is invited to buy the ticket at the next stop

OUR EXPERT: HIS SOLUTIONS

• TARGETED CONTROLS IN SPECIFIC LINES AT A SPECIFIC TIME (on the basis of data collected through the reports of ticket controllers)

If the same person repeatedly gets a fine in a certain line and time

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THIS?

• Discourage illecit conduct

• Avoid emulation of this conduct by people currently paying tickets

CAN WE APPLY THIS IN MILAN?

The field of application is different even if analogies permain (local transport vs regional transport)

• Awareness campaigns could be promoted also in Milan

they turned out to be very useful for ARST (decreasing number of fines committed and infractions)

• Tram / bus drivers could be given more responsability (Check ticket validation) in Milan constraints related to congestion but this problem is not present during the whole day

• ARST sells ticket also on board with a surcharg

this could be applicable also in Milan and reduce the number of people not finding the ticket at certain hours or bus stops

coul be really effective in combination with tram/bus drivers responsability

PROS AND CONSBROADCASTING:

Pros:

• many solutions from people that are really “inside” the problem: really innovative and some of them with high probability of implementation

• Finding a solution to the problem is often self-rewarding, meaning that people do not need other incentives (for example monetary ones)

Cons:

• We have found that some solutions lack of technical feasibility

• Sometimes in the field of public services the average user lacks of an overall view of the different stakeholders interest to be balanced. many of them propose to give the service for free and finance public transport to proportional income taxation fairness problem

PROS AND CONS

PYRAMIDING

Pros

• Insightful comments from an expert able to solve this problem

• The experts are able to adapt their solutions to analogous markets

Cons

• The solutions do not seem really innovative and not very technologic

• The search of the expert in the early phases influences how you arrive to the top possibility of overlooking/not knowing contacts that could lead to a better expert