Browsing by Author "Lin, Erwin T. J."

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Assessing the on-road route efficiency for an air-express courier
(2010-10-01)
Lin, Erwin T. J.
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Lan, Lawrence W.
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Hsu, Cathy S. T.
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管理學院
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College of Management
This paper proposes an EXO-CAT data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to evaluate the efficiency of on-road activities (pickup and delivery) for an air-express courier on a route-by-route basis. The proposed model combines the constraints of exogenously fixed inputs DEA and categorical DEA to account for the continuous and discrete external environmental factors affecting the courier route efficiency. We select labor, route length (a proxy of fuel consumption), and vehicle capacity as the inputs; number of documents delivered, number of boxes delivered, number of documents picked-up, and number of boxes picked-up as the outputs. A case study with 248 on-road routes currently operated by an air-express courier in Taiwan is undertaken. It is found that stop density, travel speed, and service area type have significant influences on the couriers' route efficiency. Based on the detailed DEA results, the managers do not need to perform check-rides for all routes; instead, they need only to focus on the most inefficient ones. Such DEA results can also be applied to develop new projects or make judgments on investing any new on-road routes. Copyright C 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Measuring railway performance with adjustment of environmental effects, data noise and slacks
(2005)
Lan, Lawrence W.
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Lin, Erwin T. J.
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運輸與物流管理系註：原交通所+運管所
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Department of Transportation and Logistics Management
Conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) approaches (e.g., CCR model, 1978; BCC model, 1984) do not adjust the environmental effects, data noise and slacks while comparing the relative efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs). Consequently, the comparison can be seriously biased because the heterogeneous DMUs are not adjusted to a common platform of operating environment and a common state of nature. Although Fried et al. (2002, Journal of Productivity Analysis, 17, 157-174) attempted to overcome this problem by proposing a three-stage DEA approach, they did not account for the slack effects and thus also led to biased comparison. In measuring the productivity growth, Fare et al. (1994, American Economic Review, 84, 66-83) proposed a method to calculate the input or output distance functions. Similarly, they did not take environmental effects, statistical noise and slacks into account and thus also resulted in biased results. To correct these shortcomings, this paper proposes a four-stage DEA approach to measure the railway transport technical efficiency and service effectiveness, and a four-stage method to measure the productivity and sales capability growths, both incorporated with environmental effects, data noise and slacks adjustment. In the empirical study, a total of 308 data points, composed of 44 worldwide railways over seven years (1995-2001), are used as the tested DMUs. The empirical results have shown strong evidence that efficiency and effectiveness scores are overestimated, and productivity and sales capability growths are also overstated, provided that the environmental effects, data noise and slacks are not adjusted. Based on our empirical findings, important policy implications are addressed and amelioration strategies for operating railways are proposed.
Measuring transport efficiency with adjustment of accidents: case of Taipei bus transit
(2010)
Lin, Erwin T. J.
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Lan, Lawrence W.
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Chiu, Agnes K. Y.
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運輸與物流管理系註：原交通所+運管所
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Department of Transportation and Logistics Management
While producing the desirable outputs (transport services), a bus transit occasionally also produces accidents, which may lead to fatalities, serious injuries, slight injuries and/or property losses. As such, without explicitly taking into account the negative effects of accidents on the outputs when measuring efficiency for bus transit, the interpretation of results could be misleading. To be more rational, this article proposes a stochastic production frontier model that incorporates the effects of accidents into the measurement. A case study with 10 Taipei bus transit carriers over 2001-2006 is carried out. The results show that the ranking of technical efficiency with consideration of accidents has significantly differed from that without accounting for accidents. The managerial implications suggest that bus carriers can level up their productive efficiency not only by means of decreasing the inputs and/or increasing the desirable outputs, but also by way of ameliorating their safety records.
Performance measurement for railway transport: Stochastic distance functions with inefficiency and ineffectiveness effects
(2006-09-01)
Lan, Lawrence W.
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Lin, Erwin T. J.
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運輸與物流管理系註：原交通所+運管所
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Department of Transportation and Logistics Management
To scrutinise the plausible sources of poor performance for non-storable transport services, it is necessary to distinguish technical inefficiency from service ineffectiveness. This paper attempts to measure the performance of railways that produce passenger and freight services by two stochastic distance function approaches. A stochastic input distance function with an inefficiency effect is defined to evaluate technical efficiency; whereas a stochastic consumption distance function with an ineffectiveness effect is introduced to assess service effectiveness. The empirical analysis examines 39 worldwide railway systems over eight years (1995-2002) where inputs contain number of passenger cars, number of freight cars, and number of employees, while outputs contain passenger train-kilometres and freight train-kilometres, and consumptions contain passenger-kilometres and tonkilometres. The findings show that railways' technical inefficiency and service ineffectiveness are negatively influenced by gross national income per capita, percentage of electrified lines, and line density. Overall, the railways in West Europe perform more efficiently and effectively than those in East Europe and Non-European regions. Strategies for ameliorating the operation of less-efficient and/or less-effective railways are proposed.
Performance measurement for railway transport: Stochastic distance functions with inefficiency and ineffectiveness effects
(2006-09-01)
Lan, Lawrence W.
;
Lin, Erwin T. J.
;
運輸與物流管理系註：原交通所+運管所
;
Department of Transportation and Logistics Management
To scrutinise the plausible sources of poor performance for non-storable transport services, it is necessary to distinguish technical inefficiency from service ineffectiveness. This paper attempts to measure the performance of railways that produce passenger and freight services by two stochastic distance function approaches. A stochastic input distance function with an inefficiency effect is defined to evaluate technical efficiency; whereas a stochastic consumption distance function with an ineffectiveness effect is introduced to assess service effectiveness. The empirical analysis examines 39 worldwide railway systems over eight years (1995-2002) where inputs contain number of passenger cars, number of freight cars, and number of employees, while outputs contain passenger train-kilometres and freight train-kilometres, and consumptions contain passenger-kilometres and tonkilometres. The findings show that railways' technical inefficiency and service ineffectiveness are negatively influenced by gross national income per capita, percentage of electrified lines, and line density. Overall, the railways in West Europe perform more efficiently and effectively than those in East Europe and Non-European regions. Strategies for ameliorating the operation of less-efficient and/or less-effective railways are proposed.