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The worldwide transport industry is currently facing a driver shortage. In Europe the situation is equally bad. Driver shortage has increased. There is no previous research regarding Employee Experience (EX) in the Charter Coach industry. The aim of this study was to produce new knowledge on how EX could be improved in the Finnish Charter Coach industry. The purpose of the study was to respond to the underlying issues in the coach industry, using Employee experience as a method to solve the staff shortage in the industry. The research questions were: 1. What are the main EX-factors, and how do they manifest in the Finnish Charter Coach industry, according to the drivers? 2. What EX factors should be focused on to improve the EX in Finnish Charter Coach companies, based on the drivers’ experiences? 3. How could driver shortage be addressed according to the driver in Charter Coach Companies? and 4. How could EX be implemented in Finnish Charter Coach companies? This is a collective case study. The study subjects were chosen through purposeful sampling via invitations to the study through an industry association. Study subjects (n=6) were chosen based on the order of response. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews during 9/2022. Data was analysed through deductive content analysis, guided by the theoretical framework of EX and driver shortage. The study found that components regarding EX and driver shortage could be found in all study related categories: strategy and culture, community, physical spaces and environment, technology and tools, activities, driver shortage. The result showed that the Charter Coach industry has a strong EX in the community category. The study further concluded that in all other categories there were room for improvements. The study has produced recommendations for the industry.
The emerging trends in automation and changes in people’s mobility habits have increased interest in using automated buses for public transportation. Integrating automated buses into current public transportation systems is believed to provide many benefits, such as increased safety, flexibility and accessibility. This thesis explores whether cost-effectiveness is another benefit that could be realized by utilizing automated buses. Labor costs currently account for a large share of the total public transportation costs. Automated buses can save on driver costs, provided that each bus does not require a dedicated driver. Labor costs cannot be entirely eliminated as the buses, while mainly driving on their own, still occasionally need human attention. Cost savings are possible if in-vehicle drivers can be replaced by remote operators, who can operate multiple buses at the same time. To assess the magnitude of the potential cost savings, this thesis forms an estimation of the number of buses that can be designated to a single operator. A simulation is used as the method to establish the operator capacity. The input data for the simulation and background information on automated buses are gained by analyzing data from three different robot bus trials that were organized in Finland. A literature review and a small-scale practical remote driving experiment are used to assess the feasibility of remotely operating automated buses over a 5G network. The results of this thesis demonstrate that no insurmountable barriers exist for remotely operating several automated buses at the same time. The number of buses that can still be reasonably supervised by one operator depends on the frequency and duration of human interventions required by the fleet of automated buses. For the current class of automated buses, the operator capacity is estimated to be a maximum of five buses. The capacity is expected to increase once automated buses become more autonomous and less reliant on human operators. Although automated buses have higher purchase prices than conventional buses, their total cost of ownership is already lower when at least two buses are designated to the same operator. This means that once regulations allow vehicles without designated drivers and automated driving technology reaches sufficient reliability, automated buses can provide a compelling and cost-effective option to conventional buses.