Developing geographical indicators of mileage-related costs: a case study exploring travelling public services in English local areas

Hindle, G. A.; Hindle, A.

Abstract

The context of this study is the public sector provision of services involving travelling in local authority areas in England. Such travelling services are costly and the relative levels of these costs across different local areas have raised a number of policy issues, particularly how performance assessments of local authorities and capitation-based funding by central government take into account (or fail to take into account) the differential travel costs faced in geographical areas that differ in population dispersion (sparsity) characteristics. The research presented here is concerned with identifying and evaluating practical indicators of mileage-related costs faced in local areas and a range of indicators have been explored for three services: domiciliary care, refuse collection and home-to-school transport. The findings suggest that currently used population dispersion indicators could be improved and that the current sparsity allowances in England underestimate the relative cost effects by a considerable amount. © 2010 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Hindle, G. A., & Hindle, A. (2010). Developing geographical indicators of mileage-related costs: a case study exploring travelling public services in English local areas. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 61(5), 714-722. https://doi.org/10.1057/jors.2009.21

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 1, 2008
• Online Publication Date: Dec 21, 2017
• Publication Date: May 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Journal: Journal Of The Operational Research Society
• Print ISSN: 0160-5682
• Electronic ISSN: 1476-9360
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 714-722
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jors.2009.21
• Keywords: Marketing; Management Science and Operations Research; Strategy and Management; Management Information Systems
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/468061
• Contract Date: Nov 13, 2014