Experience of Cost-Reduced Handicap Transports with Maintained Level of Service

Although transports for handicapped and disabled persons are common in Sweden, the organization and coordination of such transports is rather poor. Many Swedish municipalities have left it to the local public transport company or to the taxi organizations to administer and plan the handicap transport at will. Other larger municipalities have attempted to make the most of manual combination of trips, sometimes using smaller computer systems to assist in the planning process. Such efforts mostly seem to have made with rather little considerations of the service level required of the individual transport in each specific situation. The reason for this situation is not difficult to understand: although the transport cost per person has declined over the years, the number of transports has increased to such an extent that the net effect is an increase in costs. The complex task of handling all journeys may therefore not have permitted any in-depth analysis of the various resources required.