Thesis (M.Sc.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title from title screen (viewed on Feb. 27, 2006) "Submitted to Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in tnterprise technology and management" Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis deals with an axle design for an autonomous minibus. The theoretical part is about axles then the next one goes over the given parameters. Following with a selection of suitable parts for use and designs of parts for production. This chapter is also about geometry and driving characteristics analyzation. The next chapters are devoted to the calculations of the loads on the lower arm, its design and static analysis. The last chapter combines all the parts together into a conceptual design.

The minibus taxi industry in South Africa is the most popular form of public transportation and is used by the majority of commuters. At least 65 percent of the country’s commuters make use of this mode of public transport while the rest travel by busses or trains. Although minibus taxis are the most convenient form of transportation the industry is however associated with various complaints from commuters, the media and society at large. Most of the complaints are about “violence or taxi wars”, “unsafe taxis” resulting in high accident rates and the manner in which minibus taxi drivers appear to drive, behave, over speed and overload taxis etc. All these complaints are directly related to minibus taxi drivers. The purpose of my research is to investigate whether or not all minibus taxi drivers are indeed behaving in these similar ways and whether it can hence be argued that they are all “children born from the same mother?” In the field, it was important to go beyond the stereotypes of South African minibus taxi drivers. My study focussed specifically on minibus taxi drivers in the Johannesburg – Randfontein route, which is about a forty five minute drive each way.

The theoretical part of the master thesis is devoted to electric vehicles from their history through sources of electric energy and a swapping battery system to electric buses and autonomous driving. In the practical part the concept of autonomous electric minibus with the calculation of battery capacity are described. Furthermore, the attachment of battery to chassis and the idea of automatic swap are designed. In the last chapter the design of chassis itself can be found together with the FEM analysis.

I chose car design, because I like to discover modern car accidence. I find developmnet in this part of design fascinating. I’d probably have most freedom while designing a sport car, but since its very popular theme among students, I went with car for traveling. At first I wanted to create a futuristic concept. So I mostly did just idea sketching, while focusing on dynamic shape. Later I started to add more functional aspects to the design. I wanted to create automobile, that would bypass private cars and minibuses. I tryed to make my car flexible for traveling even longer distances, also sideseeing and city transport, therefor big part of exteriour is covered by windows, which leads to weaker cabine. Thats why I made firmer side posts to support the roof. While designing I was influenced by recent concepts and latest technologies, that were presented by leading automobile companies, such as electric glas and glas shaping. I believe one of the most interesting parts on my car is the headlights, that are situated under the front window surface. The headlights and also partialy the engine is visible from above through the frontal glass hood.

Thesis ( MPAM.) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / This study focuses on the role of the minibus taxi industry in promoting the development of small businesses at Mankweng taxi ranks. This area of study has not been thoroughly researched; therefore, existing literature on the role of the taxi industry in promoting the development of small (especially informal) businesses is limited. This lack thereof does not help in casting a clear sense of how the taxi industry benefits small businesses around their operation centres. Therefore, this study specifically investigated the role of the minibus taxi industry in promoting the development of small businesses at Mankweng Taxi Ranks. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed, with the use of structured questionnaire and focus group interviews as techniques to collect data from Mankweng Taxi Ranks. The study had a target population of 300. Stratified random sampling was chosen for small businesses while random sampling was employed for taxi operators, and purposive sampling was applied for employees at Mankweng main taxi offices. This study had a sample size of 300, sampled differently with 180 participants forming part of stratified random sampling and 110 participants forming part of random sampling. Two different questionnaires were prepared for both small businesses and taxi operators. Questionnaires were randomly distributed to small businesses (30 hawkers, 15 filling stations, 69 street produce sellers, 15 car washers, 15 restaurants, and 36 caterers) and 110 taxi operators at different taxi ranks such as Mankweng, Boyne, Ga-Mothapo, Solomondale and Dikgale. Additionally, the focus group interviews were purposively conducted with 10 employees working at Boyne, as it is the main office of the Mankweng Taxi Association, and they hold more administrative information relating to the taxi business. The findings of the study show that, the taxi industry play a significant role in promoting the development of small businesses. The study further reveals that, poor business plans, inadequate working conditions, taxi violence, reckless driving, and a lack of funding affected the investigated businesses, as well as lack of exposure to new products, confronted the Mankweng Taxi Association. There seems to be a huge gap, both in research and government policy, that, seeks to promote the development of small businesses depending on the environment, and infrastructure, in which these businesses operate. Additionally, this study reveals the nature of the taxi industry and its crucial role in benefiting small businesses. All stakeholders in the taxi industry need to create an environment that, encourages the spirit of harmony, active cooperation and development dedicated to the betterment of the taxi industry.

M. Tech. (Department of Accountancy, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The minibus taxi industry in South Africa is one of the biggest, fastest growing, and riskiest industries in the world. The minibus taxi industry contributes to the economy by creating over 600,000 jobs, providing fast and cheap transport and fighting poverty and unemployment. However, the recent COVID 19 pandemia restrictions has caused a sudden and movement of economic growth and competition has forced the minibus taxi industry to be competitive in all aspects. This has resulted in intense competition for minibus taxi owners. Minibus taxi owners are constantly in rivalry amongst themselves and with other public road transport providers. In early 1988, the minibus taxi industry started seeing an influx in the number of new minibus taxis and minibus owners. This influx created problems of competition within the industry and among minibus taxi owners. Due to the importance of this industry, this research study investigated whether minibus taxi owners in the Emfuleni Local Municipality apply selected management accounting principles in the management of their minibus taxi businesses. Selected management accounting principles in this study refers to cost volume profit analysis, cost structure, and budgeting. This research study followed a quantitative research design and a questionnaire was used to collect primary data from a census of 500 minibus taxi owners from the following five associations: Get Ahead Taxi Association (GATA), Vaal National Taxi Association (VNTA), Vanderbijlpark Taxi Association (VTA), Sharpeville to Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark Taxi Association (SVVTA) and Civic Centre Taxi Association (CCTA) operating in the Emfuleni Local Municipality. Using descriptive statistical analysis to present the findings, the study used Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 27. Findings obtained using an online questionnaire and printed questionnaire distributed revealed a lack of management accounting principles application among these minibus taxi owners. Furthermore, the minibus taxi owners do not apply cost volume profit analysis and most do not use budgets. However, it was found that some minibus taxi owners apply very basic cash budgeting through a pen-on-paper approach. It was also found that minibus taxi owners understand the application of cost structures. This research study recommends that minibus taxi owners should be offered training by skills sectors to apply the selected management accounting principles. The limitations of this research study included that the census was geogracial restrictions, level of education, and corona virus restrictions. Despite these limitations, the research study was able to fulfil its main objective by determining that majority of minibus taxi owners do not apply the selected management accounting principles.

Der Nahverkehr in N’Djamena wird von der Präsenz unzähliger privater Minibus-Anbieter dominiert. Diese bieten jedoch keinen qualitativ hochwertigen Service an. Es existiert in der Stadt keine geeignete Planung für die Haltestellen auf den Verkehrswegen. Die Fahrzeiten sind nicht reguliert. Ebenso gibt es keinen Standardtarif. Der Preis wird verhandelt. Die Mehrheit der Fahrer sind wenig qualifiziert; sie haben keine oder nur für kurze Zeit eine Fahrschule besucht. Außerhalb gelegene Stadtviertel sind verkehrsmäßig wenig erschlossen, was vor allem an der schlechten Qualität der Straßen-Infrastruktur liegt. Diese Situation zeigt, dass der Nahverkehr in N’Djamena nicht zuverlässig ist. In den 1990er Jahren kamen die ersten Motorradtaxis als Antwort auf Mobilitätsprobleme auf. Obwohl sie eine Alternative darstellen, nehmen die Probleme in Verbindung mit der Sicherheit, dem Komfort, dem Preis und der Erreichbarkeit immer wieder zu. In diesem Kontext stellen wir uns folgende Frage: Wie kann man, unter Einbeziehung der verschiedenen beteiligten Akteure, in diesen Sektor eingreifen mit dem Ziel, die Qualität der Transport-Dienstleistungen zu verbessern? In die Organisation des städtischen Verkehrs sind derzeit zahlreiche Akteure involviert, die zueinander direkte und indirekte Beziehungen haben. Sie haben ein mehr oder weniger belastbares Netzwerk geschaffen, welches ihnen ein Verhandeln und einen Austausch untereinander ermöglicht sowie das Fällen von Entscheidungen ermöglicht, um gewisse Probleme zu lösen, vor die ihre Organisation gestellt ist. Mit Hilfe von Interviews, die mit Akteuren vor Ort durchgeführt wurden, soll in dieser Arbeit die Funktionsweise des Transportsystems der Motorradtaxis und Minibusse in N’Djamena analysiert werden. Schwerpunkt der Untersuchung sind dabei das Akteurssystem sowie die Konflikte, die sich aus diesem ableiten lassen. Schlüsselwörter : städtischer Verkehr, Minibusse und Motorradtaxis, Akteurssysteme, N’Djamena (Tschad) / The supply of public transportation in N’Djamena is dominated by the innumerable privates’ enterprises of mini-buses. As a result, they do not offer quality services. The stations, routes and schedules are not fixed. In addition, there is no fixed price in other words, it is bargained. The drivers have more or less undergone no training. Consequently, these mini-buses cannot meet the demand of transport, particularly to the zones of the outskirt quarters. As a result, public transportation in N’Djamena is not reliable. Taxi motorbikes emerged around the end of 1990 as an alternative to transportation solution. Even though taxi motorbikes offer their services to cater for public transportation, some problems such as: lack of safety and comfort, derisory price, the absence of reliability or poor accessibility to some quarters increase. In the light of this, we ask ourselves the following question: how can we help the current actors to improve the quality of public transportation services in N’Djamena? Several actors are currently implicated in the organization of public transportation in N’Djamena. They have direct or indirect contacts with one another. There is a more or less strong network that will enable them negotiate and share ideas so as to make important decisions that would enable them resolve certain problems that are obstacles to their organization. Through interviews conducted and researches carried out on the field of the actors this thesis is meant to analyze the working system of some public transportation actors in N’Djamena. Keynoted: public transport, mini-buses and taxi motorbikes, system of actors, N’Djamena (Chad).

The diploma thesis is focused on drawing up a strategic development plan of the small family business operating in minibus transport services. The theoretical part deals with definitions and assumptions about a possible development and growth of companies, specific features of a family business including descriptions of selected analytical and research methods used in these issues. The second, analytical part of the thesis contains practical application of selected methods of a business environmental analysis with the aim to identify key factors influencing the company. Subsequently, the choice of an appropriate alternative to the strategic development of the company is based on the results of the analyses and research. In the third part, the selected option is elaborating into a strategic plan that will lead to consolidate company’s position on the marketplace and to increase its sales. The proposals also include a risk analysis and an evaluation of benefits of the proposed changes.

Improving the climate system of cars is important since it is the largest auxiliary load in a standard vehicle with an increase of fuel consumption by up to 20%. In Electric Vehicles (EV) the range of the car is more limited than in a fossil fueled car; furthermore there is a limited waste heat available from the EV, approximately 2-3kW at 40oC for heating and defogging in winter. The goals of this report have been part of an existing European project (ICE) where the climate system of an electric minibus is being investigated. The specific objectives of this project were to develop a radiation model and integrate it in the existing thermal model of the cabin, validating the new model with existing experimental data, including the thermal model in the overall model of the complete vehicle and to use the existing AC-model to optimize the control with the aim of decreasing the energy consumption maintaining thermal comfort inside the cabin. The radiation model uses total radiation on a horizontal surface in order to calculate the radiation hitting the different parts of the car body and windows, finally the total radiative power entering the minibus is calculated. After including these calculations into the thermal model it could be seen that the results from the model in terms of cabin temperatures fit the experimental values surprisingly well. The control of the AC-system was optimized for a hot and sunny summer day in Italy which resulted in the AC-system working very hard following that the best control strategy was to reduce only the speed of the compressor in order to save energy. Calculations show that in the Normal European Driving Cycle (NEDC) the potential energy savings of following this control strategy can result in an energy saving of the AC-system by up to 27% compared to an unregulated case, with a maintained thermal comfort resulting in 4,2% increase in autonomy.