Design And Implementation Of Online Bus Ticket Reservation System

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

The government of Malaysia has successfully capitalized its country’s topography to construct a road system, especially the national highway to its public to commute within the Peninsular Malaysia.

The North South highway with a total distance of 847.7 km was officially open on September 8 1994, which stretches from Bukit Kayu Hitam, Kedah to Johor Bahru (The North South Expressway, 2006). It has made possible for a person to travel from north to south of Peninsular Malaysia within 9 hours compared to longer hours prior to its existence.

Kompleks Perhentian Puduraya is the most significant public transport (bus) terminal in Malaysia (Wikipedia, 2006). Every year, the number of public using its services has been increasing as the government constantly urges commuters to use public transport instead of private vehicles (Ng Cheng Yee, 2006). So much so during the weekend or any given public holidays, the number of commuters’ increases by doubles. The main activity that is taking place in Puduraya Bus Terminal is over the counter bus ticket sales.
Since the highway has encouraged the public to commute easily, the development of public transport system (express bus) has grown rapidly since then. In 1976, there were only 26 bus operators operating in Puduraya, but in year 2003, there are 67 bus operators that are in operation and offering services to almost all destinations throughout the country. On the average, about 1,500 buses go in and out of Puduraya weekly picking and leaving passengers for their various destinations. The number of buses increases on public holidays and school holidays (UDA Holdings, 2006a). To meet the demand of increasing customers during this peak period, illegal bus operators will rise to the occasion to provide illegal bus services. These illegal bus operators are usually school and factory busses operating without permits or express busses with expired permits. There is a need to curb this phenomenon because, if any mishap would occur during the journey, the customers will not be subjected to any insurance coverage (The Star, 2006b). In short, by displaying all legitimate bus operators (either big or small) in the system, the customers will have wider range of choices of legal bus operators therefore reducing or eliminating the illegal ones out.
With the increasing number of human traffic in Puduraya, purchasing a bus ticket has been an uphill task if a passenger has planned their detailed traveling itinerary. As the result of the survey conducted, due to the intense number of human traffic in Puduraya, purchasing a bus ticket is not merely a ten or twenty minute’s task, but in fact, it can even take up to an hour or two especially during the peak season.

Looking at this unpleasant scenario, Park May Berhad, an express bus operator has introduced an online e-ticketing system in the year 2001 (W.W. Tan et al. 2004). This
online e-ticketing system will not only assist the passengers but also the bus operator’s position as an efficient service provider, gaining competitive advantages and also lead to superior control over the reservation process and operation, compared to conventional manual processing. The main feature in this online e-ticketing system is to cater destinations between inter cities within Peninsular Malaysia. With this system, the passenger can perform an online bus booking at his or her own free time and will consecutively reduce the human traffic in Puduraya.

Till to date there are six individual bus e-ticketing systems available in Malaysia, with only one website offering services collaborating only four bus operators. This service is limited to the public as there are 67 bus operators in the country (UDA Holdings, 2006a).

The main purpose of introducing these e-ticketing system operated by individual operators are to ease the process of purchasing a bus ticket, ease the traffic condition in Puduraya and to keep up with Information Technology era. Unfortunately, looking at the scenario, the objectives have failed.

It is believed the main reason for the failure of the existing e- ticketing systems is because there are only four express bus operators providing these services compared to the total of
67 bus operators (UDA Holdings, 2006a) currently in operation. This makes the destination choices and the number of seat offered very limited. Thus, a development of a portal collaborates all available inter-city bus operators, the problem faced in purchasing a bus ticket over the counter will ultimately be solved.
Besides the above given reason of curbing the traffic flow and reducing the human and negative environment congestion in Puduraya Bus Terminal, the element of providing options to a customer on which bus operator to use is very important and should be implemented in the Online Bus Ticketing System web portal. This element is relatively important based on the number of unsatisfactory experiences by customers and accidents occurred due to the negligence of the bus operators (Audrey Edwards, 2006). Therefore a customer has a choice to which bus operator to use based on a bus operator’s classification or standard or rank given to a bus operator. The criteria that can be used to rank a bus operator could be based on the internal factor (i.e. company’s performance) and external factor (i.e. public polling and governing bodies).
To achieve this element the usage of a Decision Support System (DSS) and Management Information System (MIS) as a tool to develop a system that will finally benefits the user to maximize their rights to make decision based on merit and also the bus operators to meet their organization financial objective.

1.2 Problem Statements
Malaysia is served by an excellent transport system. Once you are in the country, there is always transport available to you even to remote areas. Traveling by road in Peninsular Malaysia is the most popular mode of transport as it has well- developed road network system.
The express bus operators have benefited from this well developed road network system. This industry has grown from its modest operation to providing e-ticketing system by few bus operators operating individually.
In line to support the government towards realization of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and Vision 2020, every company should upgrade itself with the latest technology available towards the Information Technology (IT) era.
Due to dependency of Malaysians on the services provided by the bus operators, there has been a tremendous increase of number of bus operators in Malaysia. For instance, in Puduraya, in the year 1976 there were only 26 bus operators, but in year 2003, there are 67 bus operators (UDA Holdings, 2006a). Such increase has made Puduraya Terminal as the main place to purchase a bus ticket for a certain destination. Purchasing a ticket can either be done over the counter or via e-ticketing offered by a few major bus operators.

Between the two choices of purchasing a ticket, the option of over the counter purchase is the preferred choice. This is because the current e-ticketing system operated by individual bus operators, does not provide enough choices to a passenger such as different destinations and the availability of tickets are limited. The development of an Online Bus Ticketing System web portal will also reduce or eliminate the activities of unauthorized bus operators who are operating without legitimate permits during the high demand period. This vital information should be conveyed to the customers because these illegal touts’ busses are school and factory busses and might not be worthy enough to be used as express busses.
The bus transport operators should use IT as a tool to draw up a master plan in order to enhance the level of service provided to the users. Capitalizing on the rapid growth of e- commerce application users, there must be a portal that combines all these bus operators into a consortium providing services to the passengers. The objective of this Online Bus Ticketing System web portal in Malaysia has been conceptualized to achieve:

Faster bus ticketing booking and a choice of purchasing from different express bus operators, support services which are more responsive to users needs, greater customer appreciation (through a Decision Support System), elimination of illegal bus operators and also to provide greater benefits to bus operators to enhance their business processes (through Management Information System).
Faster bus ticketing booking will mean better response time from the bus services. A choice of booking from different express bus operators will allow users to have a choice of services to use based on standard rating derived from consumer’s feedback, governing bodies, and individual bus operator’s performance. Decision Support System will create standard rating to rank each bus operator and thus will allow a user to make decision on which bus operator’s to use based on these ratings. With support services, which is more responsive to users’ needs, will create greater customer appreciation and thus will benefit the bus operators. Online bus ticketing booking will contribute to the successful development of the Online Bus Ticketing System by attracting users within Malaysia as well as tourists.

This research survey will result in greater customer appreciation, whereby, customers are able to search for bus services, deciding which service to use through bus operators ranking and obtain e-tickets right after purchase by printing them online. When a ticket is purchased, the customer does not have to worry about a scheduled trip. It will also give benefits to the bus operators, whereby it should expose bus services to a large customer base, real-time online information on sold tickets and tickets availability, it should also allow administrators to insert, remove and edit available tickets online anytime and anywhere. Bus operators will also be able to gather valuable information such as sales reports and various reports for management decision making.
The main problem is a collaborated (incorporating all available bus operators into a single system) Online Bus Ticketing System web portal is not available in Malaysia. A portal which is reliable in incorporating all express bus operators and allowing a user the flexibility of choosing a particular bus operator from a list of operators and allowing the user to specify the date and time of booking. It will also allow user to pay for the tickets and offer a secured transaction.

Online Bus Ticketing System web portal is a total Internet Ticketing Operations offering the benefit of total in-house management of bus schedules, ticket bookings, ticket sales, report generation, and other business functions associated with ticket sales. It also offers the power of decision making to customers to make a ticket booking through bus operators’ popularity, performance and ranking. This powerful Internet based ticket booking system that allows a full control of not only on the ticketing inventory, but also the site’s content.

Some basic components of an Online Bus Ticketing System web portal that provides enhanced service to the bus operators and customers consist of:
• Capture of customer information such as name, address, phone number and e-mail address
• Price list
• Bus operators ranking
• Seating chart
• Loyalty Points/Redemption
• Search engine
• Payment information/credit card authorization
• Organization’s advertisement/slogan, phone number, fax number, and address
• Forum
• Comments and suggestions section / option
• Reports

The overall research has identified the above-mentioned problems by conducting a survey and has proposed a framework on the development of an Online Bus Ticketing System web portal. A fully workable prototype system is developed based on the findings to support the following objectives.

1.3 Objectives

The objectives of this research are as follows:

(i) To investigate and analyze the problems on the existing e-ticketing systems provided by individual bus operators.

(ii) To assist the authority to curb illegal bus operators by the collaboration of all legal bus operators in the system that will reduce or eliminate illegal bus operations.

(iii) To identify the relevant features of various components and methods needed for the Online Bus Ticketing System web portal. To give power of choice to consumers to choose which bus operator’s services to use based on standard rating derived from consumer polling, traffic summonses obtained, and sales performance. To assist bus operators operations and marketing decision through timely decision making via Management Information System through the deployment of Online Bus Ticketing System web portal and the phasing out of manual ticketing system. Development of the prototype system for an Online Bus Ticketing web portal. The development of this prototype portal will then assist in developing a real Online Bus Ticketing System web portal in future, which can be offered to the public.

The first objective determines the problems encountered with the existing individually operated bus e-ticketing systems in Malaysia. An interview is conducted with the bus operators and customers to gather feedback on the existing services provided by the current e-ticketing systems.

The second objective is to assist the authority to curb illegal bus operators by the collaboration of all legal bus operators in the system that will reduce or eliminate illegal bus operations.

The final objective identifies the improvements needed on the existing e-ticketing systems through interviews and surveys. With the suggested information gathered, the relevant features of various components and methods needed for an Online Bus Ticketing System web portal is designed. It also explains the involvement of Decision Support System that will provide option to a user based on the service level provided by the bus operator and thus gives power to the user to decide and choose which bus operator’s services to use. This objective is very much important due to the high level of dependency that the user is having on the bus operator that could cause fatal if the services is not up to the standards drawn by the governing bodies (Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan and Polis Diraja Malaysia). This objective explains further on the development of an Online Bus Ticketing System web portal. The tools and methodology used, user requirements and other issues on designing the system are discussed.

1.4 Scope of the Research

This research focuses on two parties, i.e. the bus operators and the customers. The bus operators are the system administrator of this system. They are able to add, edit and retrieve information and generate reports to assist them with their daily operations. This back-end activities will help the bus operators to evaluate its current position and to plan its company’s operations on how and what action to be taken in order to stay ahead in this competitive business world.

The back-end activities mentioned above are the sales/business performance, public opinion through online voting and finally the bus operator’s commitment of maintaining good track records according to the policies of governing bodies. These back-end activities will be the pillar for creating the competitive edge to a bus operator to spear- head in providing better service to a customer in this challenging business environment.

The customer will be able to utilize this Online Bus Ticketing System web portal to perform their transaction of purchasing bus tickets at their own hassle free time. The features that are available in this system will mostly reflect from the survey conducted during the data sampling stage.

In this business competitive era, Information Communication Technology (ICT) is placed on a platform by many organizations as their key indicator for success. Online data handling has been a major tool to provide better customer service.

By adapting ICT as a tool to provide the bus operator’s management, it will not only improve operations efficiency, gaining competitive advantages, delivering higher-quality services, but it will also lead an organization to superior control over the booking process which will allow the customers to choose their services from other competitors.
Thus, by developing the Online Bus Ticketing System web portal between inter-cities, the bus operators will have no choice but to join the bandwagon to stay ahead with ICT to improve its services and finally this will cause a reduction of human traffic in Puduraya.

1.5 Significance of the Research
This research survey identifies the need of developing and promoting a comprehensive Online Bus Ticketing System web portal of various bus operators in Peninsular Malaysia.

This study explores views from the bus operators as the service providers and the customers as the system users upon the adoption of this system.

For the bus operators, the survey conducted identifies the responds received from the passengers on the current available system in the market, the cost-effectiveness of developing and maintaining this system and the usage of reports from the system.
On the other hand, the survey conducted on the system users identifies the awareness of the current system and the willingness to transform from practicing the conventional method of over the counter purchase of bus tickets to the modern method of purchasing through a web portal. The survey also introduces and identifies acceptance of the creation of bus operators’ classification or standard via popularity, performance and maintaining satisfactory road traffic law track record, features available in the system and the level of security to perform a financial transaction.

1.6 Methodology
To accomplish the research objectives, a systematic process is followed. The procedures involved in accomplishing this research are depicted in Figure 1.1.
The research process begins with the identification of the research topic where studies was carried out to obtain enough information on the topic. A literature review was carried out to study the Online Ticketing applications in Malaysia and in other countries. The literature review further looks into the role of an Online Bus Ticketing System web portal in terms of providing Decision Support System and Management Information System services to both customers and bus operators, security on e-commerce, privacy and payment options.
After completing literature review, a survey using close and open-ended questionnaires was carried out to identify the passenger’s perception on bus e-ticketing services that is currently available. A survey (50 questionnaires were distributed) was carried out on the passengers to find out the awareness, efficiency, and effectiveness of the current bus e- ticketing system on conducting their bus ticket booking. In addition to this, numerous interviews with bus operators were conducted to gather more information on their daily operations and on the methods and features required in the Online Bus Ticketing System web portal.
After gathering feedback from the bus operators and passengers, an analysis was conducted to draw out important information for the development of the portal. This research identifies the importance of adopting a comprehensive Online Bus Ticketing System web portal by inviting all bus operators to utilize the web portal and to provide various options for a customer to purchase bus tickets.
Finally, based on the overall findings, a user-friendly prototype Online Bus Ticketing System web portal is developed. The development of this prototype Online Bus Ticketing System web portal can be used as a guideline for the future implementation of a successful Online Bus Ticketing System web portal in Malaysia.
Figure 1.1 Research Process

1.7 Organization of Thesis
The purpose of this research document is to give an overview of major phases involved throughout the development of the dissertation. Basically, the research document is divided into 7 chapters.

Chapter 1 covers the Introduction of the research. This chapter covers the overview of the research including problem statements, objectives, scope and the development strategy.

Chapter 2 covers literature review. This chapter concentrates on the overall aspect about Online Bus Ticketing System. This chapter begins with the introduction of e-ticketing, understanding the online ticketing applications, understanding the role of e-commerce, the security and privacy issues, and the payment methods of online ticketing. The incorporation of Decision Support System and Management Information System are also highlighted in this chapter for better understanding in the development of the Online Bus Ticketing System web portal. This chapter further discusses on the research methodology that is used in completing the dissertation and the research instrument used to gather data is the questionnaire.

Chapter 3 covers the interview and survey. Bus operators and customers are interviewed to gather more understanding on the current procedure and feedback of purchasing of bus tickets. Questionnaires were distributed to 50 random customers.
Chapter 4 covers the analysis of an Online Bus Ticketing System web portal after obtaining information from the distributed questionnaires. This includes the analysis on the bus passengers awareness on the current services provided to them by the current individual bus e-ticketing systems. The bus operators ranking is explained further in this chapter. This includes the calculation derived for each criterion that will determine the ranking. This chapter also includes a proposed framework on implementation of an Online Bus Ticketing System web portal. Further explanation on the process of implementation of the prototype system is also discussed.

Chapter 5 covers the design and development of the Online Bus Ticketing System web portal. The structure charts, context diagram, entity relationship diagram and data dictionary is also shown in this chapter. This chapter also includes the implementation of the suggested features gathered from the survey and the technical aspects of the development.

Chapter 6 covers the evaluation of the system. A number of user acceptance questionnaires were distributed to bus operators and passengers to test the prototype Online Bus Ticketing System web portal and the feedback is tabulated.

Chapter 7 covers the possible future enhancements for the Online Bus Ticketing System web portal and the conclusion of this research.

The expected research outcomes at the end of this research are listed as follows:
• The introduction to Malaysian public a web portal combining all bus operators which has been rated according to star ranking according to specific criteria that will allow customer to choose based on their preferences.
• Awareness on the existing current individually operated bus e-ticketing system in Malaysia.
• Effectiveness of the available methods and features in the current individually operated bus e-ticketing system in Malaysia.
• A study on current bus e-ticketing systems in other countries.
• The outcome from the survey on the features needed in the development of an Online Bus Ticketing System web portal.
• The proposed framework for implementation of the Online Bus Ticketing System web portal.
• Issues rose during the implementation of Online Bus Ticketing System web portal.

• A web portal to support this research that will be used by both the Customers and Bus Operators.

This chapter covers the overall scope on the need and the implementation of an Online

Bus Ticketing System web portal in Malaysia. The development of this system will benefit both the system administrator and the system user by adopting Decision Support System and Management Information System as a tool to maximize their right to make decision based on merit and meeting its organization financial objective respectively.

By developing an Online Bus Ticketing System web portal between inter-cities in Peninsular Malaysia, it will not only provide better service to the user, but also improve the overall standing of the bus operators in this competitive market. Furthermore, the adoption on ICT will also allow the bus operators to open its business horizon globally and make the entire world as its market place.

Therefore, the Online Bus Ticketing System web portal can bring more advantages if the right solutions are used, systematically deployed and carefully implemented.