Are the turnaround strategies efficiency neutral? Case of a public road transport organization in India

Abstract

Public Bus Transport plays a very important role in the mobility of people across different the regions. In India, State Road Transport Undertakings (STUs) were promoted in each state. APSRTC operates its services through twenty three depots (Operational Units) and there is a considerable difference in the efficiency of these operational units. Turnaround strategies implemented by APSRTC in 2006 have improved the performance of the Corporation. But, the question that needs to be answered is whether these strategies implemented by the Corporation are “efficiency neutral”. This study attempts to answer this question by applying Data Envelopment Analysis to the Operational Units of the corporation. I ti found that, the differences in relative efficiencies between operational units remained even after significant improvement in the performance of the corporation, suggesting that the turnaround strategies are efficiency neutral.