Evaluation of scenarios about the transport of people in an higher education institution: outsourcing versus use of own vehicles

Abstract

The modernization and expansion of higher education in Brazil required the use of best practices, increased efficiency and effectiveness by the Federal Institutions of Higher Education (IFES). In this sense, the measurement of costs in the management of public higher education is a key factor for the managers of these institutions. Knowing the costs is relevant to measure the efficiency of a management, to control, and to make decisions about resource allocation. Among the costs that IFES have are the costs of intercity collective transportation of people, which is carried out through the use of its own vehicles, or through outsourcing the service. The objective of the article is to develop a computer simulation model to evaluate scenarios about the economic feasibility of outsourcing the intercity passenger transport service in IFES, in order to assist managers in the decision to use their own vehicles or outsource the service. The method used was system dynamics, using computational modeling, and simulation of four scenarios: current scenario, in which 20% of travel demand is outsourced, possible scenario, in which 50% of travel demand is outsourced, test scenario, in which 0% of travel demand is outsourced, and hypothetical scenario, in which 100% of travel demand is outsourced. The results indicate that, over a period of 10 years, in financial terms, the hypothetical scenario represents the best option, while the test scenario represents the worst scenario. The costs accumulated at the end of 10 years in the hypothetical scenario represent a value 9.56% less than the costs accumulated in the test scenario, 7.65% less than the costs accumulated in the current scenario, and 4.78% less than the accumulated costs in the possible scenario. With that, it was identified that the outsourcing of passenger transport is economically viable, allows cost reduction in the short, medium and long term, and has proved to be an alternative to improve the management of public resources.