The biggest barrier for expansion and adoption in the field of sharing economy is risk and fear regarding safety. This new company form has resulted in higher competition in the service industry, resulting in increased focus on high quality. Since sharing economy is a new phenomenon a comparison with traditional companies has been made in order to see how the different forms of companies work with quality management. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how sharing economy companies within ridesharing and on demand rides, compared to traditional taxi companies, work with quality management. The thesis answers three subordinate questions: 1) How do companies work with quality assurance during the recruitment process? 2) How do companies work with continuous quality control and evaluation? 3) Is there a difference between the investigated industries within sharing economy and traditional taxi companies? Based on theories from management control and service quality management a theoretical framework was designed which provides guidance as to how researchers and managers can work with quality management in the service industry. A qualitative study was further performed through semi-structured interviews, where the gathered empirical material was presented through the theoretical framework. One conclusion that can be made in this thesis is that sharing economy companies have automated their services, as well as big parts of their quality management. Traditional companies seem to move more towards automating their services, as well as some parts of their quality control, but many parts are still handled manually. Another conclusion is that both types of companies have differences that lie in the nature of being a traditional company versus being a sharing economy company, and at the same time they have some fundamental similarities.

The minibus taxi industry serves approximately 68% of the South Africans using public transport. It is credited with supporting black South African communities by providing a more accessible alternative to the public transportation. It has also been a primary activity for black entrepreneurship since the early 1970s up to the present. It also provides a strong example of enterprise serving as a platform for creating employment and for fighting poverty. However, its growth and prosperity is hindered by a number of challenges, some of which emanated from the past apartheid laws that restricted black economic policies. Some are related to the industry, such as continuing problems of persistent violence, at times resulting in death and safety concerns. In an effort to address these challenges, the National Department of Transport published a Taxi Recapitalisation Strategy (TRS). The TRS is not only about the replacement of old vehicles with new and safe vehicles, but presents the government with an opportunity to transform, empower and regulate the industry. The key pillars of the TRS are the scrapping of old taxi vehicles, the introduction of new and safe vehicles, effective regulations, empowerment of the taxi industry and law enforcement. This study measures the impact of the TRS on poverty levels and expenditure patterns of the taxi-mode commuters of the Vaal, situated south of Gauteng. It focuses mainly on the few townships identified; where the taxis are the most frequently used mode of transport. It has been shown that regulation of the taxi industry through the implementation of the TRS would lead to a rise in taxi fares and other consequences for the owners and users (passengers). Subsequently, this would result in increased levels of poverty and a change in expenditure patterns of most of the Vaal households. Although the levels of poverty have decreased in the townships of the Vaal as compared to 2003, the severity of poverty still remains in some households. Using the Household Subsistence Level (HSL) as the household's respective poverty line, 45.4% of the households have an income that is less than 50% of their HSL amount, indicating severe poverty. The headcount index was determined at 0.59 in 2006, indicating that 59% of households live below their poverty lines. The poverty gap index was determined at 0.45, reflecting that households lack on average 45% of income to attain a level equal to their poverty line. The impact of increases in taxi fares would then directly have a negative effect on the average standard of living of the Vaal households. To measure the impact of the TRS on expenditure patterns, affordability levels of the households of the Vaal were considered. The three scenarios used (taxi fares increase by 10%, 15%, and 20%) showed that the average monthly transport costs would rise by 9.9%, 10.3% and 10.6% respectively, following the implementation of the TRS. If user-targeted subsidies could be offered that would result in the taxi fare reduction, it could have an impact on expenditure patterns and poverty levels of the Vaal households. Applying the impact assessment model to households living below their poverty lines in the Vaal, increased government subsidy would supplement the existing incomes of these households. For instance, if a subsidy of 20% on taxi fares is offered, that is to make the taxi fare lower than the current fare, the poverty gap would decrease from 0.45 to 0.31 and the headcount index would be reduced from 0.59 to 0.48. This would reflect that households lacking income to attain a level equal to their poverty line is reduced by 14%.This suggests that the recapitalisation of the taxi fleet which is supported by a taxi fare subsidy is critical to ensure the provision of safe, affordable and efficient minibus taxis. In the case of even higher government subsidies, reduction in the cost of transport through government subsidies may supplement the existing income of households to such an extent that the headcount indexes for the population decreases even more. The study therefore concludes that poverty alleviation and improved standards of living among the Vaal households can only be achieved if appropriate subsidies which may lead to the reduction in the taxi fares can be provided. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Economics))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

Services provided by public facilities are essential to people's lives and are closely associated with human mobility. Traditionally, public facility access characteristics, such as accessibility, equity issues and service areas, are investigated mainly based on static data (census data, travel surveys and particular records, such as medical records). Currently, the advent of big data offers an unprecedented opportunity to obtain large-scale human mobility data, which can be used to study the characteristics of public facilities from the spatial interaction perspective. Intuitively, spatial interaction characteristics and service areas of different types and sizes of public facilities are different, but how different remains an open question, so we, in turn, examine this question. Based on spatial interaction, we classify public facilities and explore the differences in facilities. In the research, based on spatial interaction extracted from taxi data, we introduce an unsupervised classification method to classify 78 hospitals in 6 districts of Beijing, and the results better reflect the type of hospital. The findings are of great significance for optimizing the spatial configuration of medical facilities or other types of public facilities, allocating public resources reasonably and relieving traffic pressure.

This master's thesis explores the possibility of including Taxicab metric as a subject matter into instruction at lower secondary level of education and it does so in several ways. Firstly, it looks into a curricular document of state level (Framework Educational Programme) and discusses instances at which the subject matter and the concept of lower secondary education are in agreement. Secondly, this thesis analyses a selected series of textbooks with respect to exercises that can be seen as linked to non-Euclidean metrics. Furthermore an experiment is described and evaluated, whose purpose, as a part of this thesis, was to find out if selected pupils can successfully solve problems in the context of the Taxicab metric and if related instruction influenced pupils' understanding of the concept of line segment and circle in a desired way. The teaching material which constituted an integral part of the experiment is presented as well.

Propone un prototipo para el desarrollo de una aplicación móvil cuyo objetivo es servir como fuente para informar acerca del servicio de taxi al ciudadano, mediante el uso de un teléfono inteligente con disponibilidad de internet para que dicho aplicativo pueda hacer la lectura de la serie de la placa del taxi. Asimismo, aplica la metodología de desarrollo Mobile-D para el desarrollo de la aplicación móvil y elabora un plan de pruebas para verificar que el prototipo cumpla con los requerimientos definidos.

Desenvolve-se, neste trabalho, um modelo de simulação estocástica para o sistema de transporte por táxi com viagens exclusivas. Basicamente, o modelo simula a geração da demanda pelo serviço e as formas alternativas de oferta: ponto privativo, ponto livre e rádio táxi. A validação do modelo é realizada através da comparação entre o sistema de táxi observado na cidade de Bauru (SP) e o sistema simulado através da aplicação do modelo. A comparação é feita para a alternativa de oferta com pontos privativos, a única existente na cidade. Os resultados indicam que o modelo de simulação proposto reproduz bem a demanda e a oferta de viagens por táxi em cidades de porte médio. Apresenta-se, além disso, uma análise comparativa das simulações realizadas para as duas outras alternativas fictícias de operação na cidade de Bauru (SP); os resultados destas, quando comparados aos da situação existente, mostram uma significativa economia nos custos variáveis. Conclui-se que o modelo pode constituir-se num instrumento de análise e avaliação das diferentes políticas de operação de táxi e apontar a mais adequada para uma determinada cidade de porte médio. / In this work, a stochastic simulation model for the exclusive-ride taxi system is developed. The model simulates the demand generation for taxi service and the alternative forms of service supply: private pickup point, free pickup point, and radiotaxi. The model validation is carried out by comparing the taxi system observed in Bauru (SP) with that simulated using data set collected in it. The comparison is concerning to the operation with private pickup point because in Bauru there is only this type of operation. The results indicate that the proposed simulation model reproduces adequately the taxi demand and supply in medium sized cities. It is also presented a comparative analysis between existent system and other operation systems simulated. The analysis shows that a significative cost saving is obtained if the operation system is changed in Bauru. It is concluded that the proposed model may constitute an important tool to analyze and evaluate the different operational policy and indicate the most adequate one for the medium sized cities.

De senaste åren har varumärkets värdeskapande förmåga fått en allt större uppmärksamhet.Oavsett om det är produkter eller tjänster som ett företag erbjuder så kräver dagens ökandekonkurrens att man på ett effektivt sätt kan särskilja sig gentemot ens konkurrenter. Detta ärnågot som har lett till att varumärket som konkurrensmedel har fått en allt större roll förföretagen, då allt fler har insett att ett starkt varumärke är en förutsättning för att kunnakonkurrera på lång sikt.När man vill bygga och underhålla ett starkt varumärke bör ett av dem främsta målen vara attförsöka se till att företagets varumärkesidentitet överensstämmer med kundernasvarumärkesimage för att på så sätt minimera ett eventuellt gap mellan dessa två. Vårt syftemed denna uppsats har varit att närmare undersöka detta problemområde.För att åstadkomma vårt syfte har vi genomfört en studie av Taxi Göteborg. Vi har studerathur Taxi Göteborg arbetar med sitt varumärke, vilken varumärkesidentitet man har samt vaddet är man vill förmedla genom sitt varumärke. Sedan har vi jämfört företagets önskadevarumärkesidentitet med kundernas uppfattning av varumärket, så kallad varumärkesimage.Vår uppfattning av Taxi Göteborgs varumärkesidentitet grundar sig på en intervju som vigenomförde med Lena Dahlström som är anställd som försäljnings och kundansvarig påföretaget. Vi fick även tillgång till intern information som berörde företagetsvarumärkesidentitet. Uppfattningen om Taxi Göteborgs varumärkesimage har vi fått genomatt utföra en enkätundersökning med Taxi Göteborgs kunder. Vid analysen har vi sedanjämfört varumärkesidentiteten med varumärkesimagen för att få en bild av hur väl dessastämmer överens med varandra och om det finns eventuella skillnader. Vidare så har vi ävengjort en analys kring varför dessa likheter och skillnader har uppstått.Vår undersökning visar att det finns stora likheter mellan Taxi Göteborgs varumärkesidentitetoch varumärkesimage. Man vill uppfattas som pålitliga, tillgängliga och professionella, vilketäven vår kundundersökning visar att man faktiskt gör. Detta tror vi beror på att budskapetman vill sända ut genom varumärket grundar sig i företagets tre kärnvärden.Vi har även lyckats identifiera vissa skillnader som gör att det skapas ett visst gap mellanidentiteten och imagen. Dessa skillnader tror vi främst beror på att man tidigare inte har haften långsiktig varumärkesstrategi på företaget, vilket har lett till att vissa brister ivarumärkesuppbyggnaden har uppstått.

O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar o perfil da molécula relacionada à inflamação (ICAM-1), citocinas e da atividade das NTPDases como potencial influência sobre a genotoxicicdade em trabalhadores expostos ocupacionalmente a HPA. Este estudo incluiu 45 taxistas e 40 indivíduos com atividades administrativas (não-expostos ocupacionalmente), ambos nãi fumantes. O monitoramento biológico foi realizado pela quantificação do 1-hidroxipireno (1-pireno OH) urinário. A expressão de ICAM-1 (CD54) em neutrófilos foi realizada por citometria de fluxo. O perfil de hidrólise das NTPDases em plaquetas foi determinada pelo método colorimétrico. Além disso, os níveis de malondialdeído no plasma (MDA), citoquinas inflamatórias (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α e IFN-γ) e o dano ao DNA (ensaio cometa e do micronúcleo) foram também avaliados. Os resultados demonstraram que os níveis de 1-OH pireno foram significativamente aumentados nos motoristas de táxi em comparação com o grupo não exposto ocupacionamente (p <0.0001); também foi positivamente correlacionada com neutrófilos ICAM-1, níveis de MDA e biomarcadores de danos no DNA. A expressão de ICAM-1 em neutrófilos foi significativamente elevado em motoristas de táxi (p <0.05), bem como os níveis de MDA (p <0.01), sendo a última positivamente correlacionada com a % de DNA na Cauda e frequência de MN. Aumento da hidrólise de ATP e ADP forma encontrados nos taxistas. Concentrações dos marcadores pró-inflamatórios foram aumentadas e anti-inflamatórias (IL-10) diminuída no grupo exposto. Para o teste de ensaio de micronúcleos e cometa, houve aumento significativo em motoristas de táxi, inclusive depois da adição de enzimas de reparo. Correlações positivas foram encontradas entre IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, IFN-γ e preditores de danos no DNA (% de DNA na cauda e frequência de MN), enquanto que a IL-10 está negativamente correlacionada com os biomarcadores de lesão ao DNA. Em resumo, a exposição ocupacional à poluição do ar pode levar a anormalidade homeostática como potencial contribuição para o processo aterosclerótico. Este estudo mostrou também que a exposição crônica à poluição do ar pode causar danos no DNA relacionado com a peroxidação lipídica e processo inflamatório. / The present study aimed to evaluate the profile of inflammatory molecule (ICAM-1), cytokines and the NTPDases activity as potential influence on genotoxicity process in workers exposed occupationally to PAH. This study included 45 taxi drivers and 40 non-occupationally exposed subjects, both non smorkers. Biological monitoring was performed by quantification of urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OH pyrene). The expression of ICAM-1 (CD54) in neutrophil was performed and the hydrolysis profile of the NTPDases in platelets was determined. Plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, inflammatory cytokines and DNA damage (comet and micronucleus assays) were also evaluated. The results demonstrated that the 1-OH pyrene levels were significantly increased in taxi drivers (p<0.0001); were also positively correlated to neutrophil ICAM-1 expression, MDA levels and biomarkers of DNA damage. ICAM-1 expression in neutrophil was significantly elevated in taxi drivers (p<0.05), as well as MDA levels (p<0.01), being the last positively correlated with % Tail DNA and MN frequency. ATP and ADP hydrolysis was increased in taxi drivers. Pro-inflammatory markers concentrations were increased and anti-inflammatory (IL-10) was decreased in exposed group. For the comet assay and micronucleus test, increase was significant in taxi drivers, inclusive after repair enzymes. Positively correlations were found between IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, IFN-γ and predictors of DNA damage (%Tail DNA and MN frequency), while IL-10 is negatively correlated with the biomarkers of DNA lesion. In summary, occupational exposure to air pollution, especially to PAHs, may be related with homeostatic abnormality as potential contribute to atherosclerosis process. This study showed also that the chronic exposure to outdoor air pollution may cause DNA damage related with lipid peroxidation and inflammatory process.

Desenvolve-se, neste trabalho, um modelo de simulação estocástica para o sistema de transporte por táxi com viagens exclusivas. Basicamente, o modelo simula a geração da demanda pelo serviço e as formas alternativas de oferta: ponto privativo, ponto livre e rádio táxi. A validação do modelo é realizada através da comparação entre o sistema de táxi observado na cidade de Bauru (SP) e o sistema simulado através da aplicação do modelo. A comparação é feita para a alternativa de oferta com pontos privativos, a única existente na cidade. Os resultados indicam que o modelo de simulação proposto reproduz bem a demanda e a oferta de viagens por táxi em cidades de porte médio. Apresenta-se, além disso, uma análise comparativa das simulações realizadas para as duas outras alternativas fictícias de operação na cidade de Bauru (SP); os resultados destas, quando comparados aos da situação existente, mostram uma significativa economia nos custos variáveis. Conclui-se que o modelo pode constituir-se num instrumento de análise e avaliação das diferentes políticas de operação de táxi e apontar a mais adequada para uma determinada cidade de porte médio. / In this work, a stochastic simulation model for the exclusive-ride taxi system is developed. The model simulates the demand generation for taxi service and the alternative forms of service supply: private pickup point, free pickup point, and radiotaxi. The model validation is carried out by comparing the taxi system observed in Bauru (SP) with that simulated using data set collected in it. The comparison is concerning to the operation with private pickup point because in Bauru there is only this type of operation. The results indicate that the proposed simulation model reproduces adequately the taxi demand and supply in medium sized cities. It is also presented a comparative analysis between existent system and other operation systems simulated. The analysis shows that a significative cost saving is obtained if the operation system is changed in Bauru. It is concluded that the proposed model may constitute an important tool to analyze and evaluate the different operational policy and indicate the most adequate one for the medium sized cities.

The inefficient use and knowledge of direct, on-demand air taxi/air charter flights in the United States was the topic of this dissertation. The general problem studied was the inefficient use of air transportation options by business travelers in the United States. The specific problem was how business travelers in the United States learn of and thereby elect to embrace a newer air travel option. Using Rogers's diffusion of innovations theory as the framework, the dissemination of air travel choices made by business travelers using ImagineAir air taxi service in the United States was explored via a qualitative case study research design methodology. Thirty-five semistructured interviews and matching customer database information provided data for the study, Data were later analyzed for emergent themes and codes using MAXQDA software. Key research questions included communication of the innovation, business travelers' perceptions of the innovation, timeframe of innovation adoption, business environment enabling the innovation adoption, and the Rogers self-described adopter type. The results showed that compatibility, relative advantage, risk, and complexity influence the perception of business travelers about air taxi services. Based on the research, the course of action suggests that business travelers will most rapidly embrace air taxi service via internet dissemination of this new option. With continued success in dissemination, positive social change will come in the form of efficiencies as business travelers use more than 5,000 virtually idle airports and over 7,000 on-demand air taxi aircraft as highlighted by U.S. government studies further bolstered by this research.