divider
x
Site Map
divider
Contact Us
divider
Search
Step 1 icon
Quick Reference : Home : Case Studies : Glossary
Evaluate your bus system
Benchmarks and Indicators / Load Factor
evaluate your bus system
Perceived Problems
Benchmarks and Indicators
Reform Objectives
Negotiating a purchase price
interactive tool
choose a reform option
make the transition
site credits

Load Factor
This indicator, calculated by dividing passenger kilometers by place kilometers, shows the average load on a bus route throughout the day. The higher the load factor, the more profitable the operation, provided that fares are set high enough: if they are too low there can be significant loss even on very full buses. The theoretical maximum of 100% is never achieved in urban services; buses are rarely full for an entire journey, and usually there are directional imbalances in demand at different times, resulting in buses operating with heavier loads in one direction than in the other.

The load factor will depend on the nature of the route but in practice should normally be about 30% to 40% for large buses and for very busy midibus routes up to 65%.



Calculation: The easiest way to measure passenger-kilometers is to conduct a sample boarding and alighting survey and to multiply the occupancy between any two stops by the stop distance. For urban services with fairly regular stop spacing it is usually adequate to divide the route length by the number of stops to calculate the average stop distance. Place-kilometers are simple to measure being the kilometers operated by all the buses on a route times the average capacity of the buses on the route.

Certain types of electronic ticket machines, as well as smart cards, may provide data to enable load factors to be calculated.

 

   

© 2006 The World Bank Group and PPIAF. All Rights Reserved. Legal.
Site Version 1.0