Hohe Verwaltungskosten durch manuelle Bearbeitung von Barrierefreiheitsanfragen

Definition

Australian public transport providers must offer accessible services to people with disability and respond to requests for assistance and adjustments on an individual basis.[4][9] Major operators like Greyhound Australia explicitly require customers with mobility aids or hidden disabilities to advise their needs at booking so they can be accommodated, including configuring Easy Access coaches and staff support.[3] Where operators rely on fragmented, manual processes (phone calls, emails, paper forms), staff must repeatedly gather travel details, confirm equipment compatibility, check DSAPT requirements, and communicate with depots and drivers. Each change or clarification creates rework. For a conservative estimate, assume each complex accommodation request (e.g. wheelchair lift use, extra time at remote stops, assistance for cognitive disabilities) consumes 20–40 minutes of staff time across customer service and operations coordination. With 50–150 such requests per month for a medium-sized interurban and rural network, this equates to 17–100 staff hours per month. At an average fully loaded administration labour cost of AUD 40–50 per hour, this represents roughly AUD 8,000–60,000 per year in avoidable cost if processes were streamlined and partially automated (logic-based calculation). Additional indirect losses arise when miscommunication causes last-minute changes, leading to overtime or extra dispatch effort.

Why This Matters

The Pitch: Interurban and rural bus operators in Australia 🇦🇺 waste hundreds of staff hours each year manually coordinating disability-related travel arrangements. Automating capture, routing and confirmation of accommodation requests can save tens of thousands of AUD in avoidable administration costs.

Affected Stakeholders

Customer service representatives, Scheduling / dispatch staff, Depot supervisors, Accessibility / inclusion officers, IT and systems managers

Related Business Risks