Quantification of the impacts of eco-driving training and real-time feedback on urban buses driver's behaviour

The transportation sector is one of the main contributors to enhance quality of life, by providing accessibility to people, places and goods. On the other hand, it also contributes to the degradation of the environment, presenting high levels of energy consumption and pollutants emissions. Solutions to overcome this increasing trend have focused on the development of alternative vehicle technologies and fuels, innovative transport systems, and information and communication technologies. Users' behavior plays an essential role regarding the impacts of these solutions on reducing energy consumption and emissions. Over the years, rising attention has been given to behavior, both for light-duty and heavy-duty drivers, in particular to the effects of education, training, and feedback regarding driving performance on vehicle purchase, mobility patterns, and driving behavior. This paper aims at assessing the impacts of on-board devices that provide real-time feedback and eco driving training on bus drivers' behavior. Rodoviaria de Lisboa S.A., a Portuguese bus passenger-transport company, uses since 2008 a data logger and a managing software platform, GISFROT, developed by the company, to collect real-time operation data and to identify undesirable driving behaviors. These devices indicate to the driver undesirable driving behavior events through a sound signal. Drivers also participate in annual in class training sessions on eco-driving techniques. The device is currently installed in 100 buses and approximately 600 drivers use these vehicles under regular daily operation, while driving in the Lisbon metropolitan area. An analysis of data collected from 2010 to 2013 was performed to characterize driving behavior of the sample of drivers. Two monitoring periods, a first one with sound feedback followed by a period without sound feedback, were considered. A comparison between periods was performed regarding the percentage of times drivers were in undesirable driving events such as hard brakes and hard accelerations, among others. This analysis also considered drivers characteristics (age and time working at company) and vehicle characteristics (bus age and type). The comparison between monitoring periods indicates that without sound feedback, inexperienced drivers and senior drivers tend to increase percentage of time in undesirable events, particularly when driving mini buses and articulated buses. These increases are mainly observable in extreme brakes and accelerations and hard stops, with rises between 8% and 291%. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.