The accident-adjusted dynamic efficiency of public bus operators in metropolitan cities of India

PurposeThe study evaluates the accident-adjusted dynamic efficiency of public bus operators providing bus transportation services in eight major metropolitan cities of India.Design/methodology/approachThe slack-based measure (SBM)–undesirable window analysis approach is used to gauge the dynamic efficiency levels and identify the sources of inefficiency in bus transportation services. This innovative approach integrates the SBM model developed by Tone (2001, 2004) and the window analysis approach of Charnes et al. (1985). The main advantage of this approach is that one can explicitly incorporate the number of accidents in the production technology specification as an undesirable (bad) output and potently handle the issue of the “curse of dimensionality” in a small sample like ours.FindingsThe key empirical findings suggest wide variations in average efficiency levels across sample bus operators in metropolitan cities. The Chennai Transport Corporation is observed as the most efficient and consistent bus operator due to its most stable efficiency performance. The results additionally unveil that the role of managerial inefficiency was diminutive, and the scale-related issues were the real cause of sub-optimal or supra-optimal behaviour of sample bus operators in the resource-utilisation process.Practical implicationsThere is an urgent requirement for effective policy intercessions to mitigate the sizeable observed inefficiency in the production process and resolve scale-related issues of public bus operators offering transit services in major metropolitan cities of India.Originality/valueThis paper is maybe the first to assess the dynamic efficiency of public bus transit systems in India's major metropolitan cities after treating accidents.