Impact of a New Concept of Universal Service Obligations on Revenue Increase in the Post of Serbia

The European postal directives and Serbian legislation as well define the quality standards for universal service obligations at the aggregate level, i.e. for all postal items transferred by the postal operator. This paper proposes a new concept where the transit time is defined by the customer and specified for each shipment. The paper considers three different models of this new concept. However, the one where a customer could choose between two alternatives: D+1 and D+3 transfer, is analysed in details. By using the attitudes of examined customers, forecasting methods and analysis of revenues from the past, it is assessed at what price the new postal service should be offered to achieve the highest revenue. The proposed methodology was tested and verified in the case of the Post of Serbia. The results indicate that the best would be to offer the service D+1 at the 40% increased price compared to the existing prices.</p

The risks associated with using a mobile phone by young drivers

A substantial body of research has shown that mobile phone usage could lead to the impairment of driving performance and increase the likelihood of driving accidents. The use of mobile phone while driving is a major problem for inexperienced drivers. The reason for this lies in the fact that they have not developed abilities to process different types of information simultaneously. Mobile phone use may result in reduced attention allocation to the various tasks during driving. The research of young drivers’ habits related to mobile phone usage while driving is presented in this paper. A series of questions were administered, including along with demographic measures, self-reported number of traffic accidents and several kinds of driving behaviour such as alcohol consumption. The results have shown that 68% of young drivers used mobile phone while driving. Additionally, a relationship was found between frequency of mobile phones usage and the number of traffic accidents, consequences of traffic accidents, as well as, driving under the influence of alcohol. The general conclusion could be drawn that young drivers choose their preferred driving style, safe or unsafe. If they are unsafe drivers, they combine various types of unsafe behaviour, the same stands for a safe driving style as well

Difference in psychomotor skills while working on tablets PC and smartphones

This paper analyzes the differences in psychomotor abilities of users while working on tablet PC and smartphone. The first set of input data for analysis includes lap times that were obtained through an experiment in which subjects were tested using the tablet PC and smartphone for playing games Labyrinth 3D Maze, based on the Android platform. The second group of input data was obtained through the same answers of the respondents to the questionnaire on spatial abilities - "Santa Barbara". Analysis of obtained results indicates that the performance achieved are better when using a smartphone compared to the tablet PC, which means that it is more accurate and faster to control a device of smaller dimensions. In addition, the results of Spearman's correlation show the link between achievement on the maze test, conducted on a tablet PC with a touch screen, and results of the questionnaire Santa Barbara. Specifically, respondents who had lower scores on the test maze have a lower ability to navigate in space

A NEW CRITERIA IMPORTANCE ASSESSMENT (CIMAS) METHOD IN MULTI-CRITERIA GROUP DECISION-MAKING: CRITERIA EVALUATION FOR SUPPLIER SELECTION

Decision-making is a challenging task for logistics managers when solving the supplier selection problem. It is usually affected by numerous conflicting criteria that are not equally important to all decision-makers. Criteria evaluation is one of the crucial parts here. The primary purpose of this paper is to propose a novel integrated criteria importance assessment method based on objective judgment and group decision-making. The developed method is applied to the criteria importance evaluation for supplier selection. First, we proposed the criteria importance assessment (CIMAS) method based on the expert’s opinion, where the years of experts’ experience were given in the form of an expert’s weight. Second, the obtained criteria weights are further integrated within the well-known CRITIC method, and the hybrid criteria weights are determined. The input data matrix is based on the experts’ criteria evaluation on the one-to-ten-point scale. The data were further analyzed by the novel CIMAS method and were utilized within the CRITIC (objective) method. The paper's main contribution is the proposal of the novel CIMAS method. Another contribution is coupling the subjective (CIMAS) and the objective (CRITIC) methods. The results reveal that the most important criterion for supplier selection is on-time distribution, followed by distribution cost, external image and appearance in public, social responsibility rate, and air pollution, respectively. The sensitivity and comparative analysis were also performed, and the technique confirmed a high level of stability

Increasing organizational performance by human resource management

Upravljanje ljudskim resursima u praksi (HRM prakse) je bitan organizacijski mehanizam za generiranje, jačanje i podržavanje akcijskih planova u svakoj organizaciji. Kapacitet akcijskog plana ovisi o radnom profilu pojedinaca i timova. Ovaj članak predlaže model HRM prakse, s ciljem povećanja učinkovitosti organizacije kroz razvoj i održavanje tijekom vremena radnog profila pojedinaca i timova. Ovaj rad pokazuje da klasificiranjem aktivnosti modela u dva bloka, rad i učinkovitost pojedinaca i timova mogu se povećati, čime se potom povećava i održava organizacijska uspješnost tijekom vremena.Human Resource Management practices (HRM practices) are essential organizational mechanisms to generate, reinforce and sustain the action plan in every organization. The capacity of an action plan depends on the work profile of individuals and teams. This paper proposes a model of HRM practices, with the aim of increasing organizational performance through the development and maintenance over time of the work profile of individuals and teams. This paper shows that by classifying the activities of the model into two blocks, the work performance of the individuals and teams can increase, which subsequently increases and sustains the organizational performance over time

SUSTAINABILITY TRENDS IN THE POSTAL SYSTEMS OF LAST-MILE DELIVERY

Postal systems are characterized by strong infrastructure and appropriate human, technical, and technological resources. The activities of these systems are economically demanding and impact the environment, which represents some of the most delicate problems of sustainable development. This paper presents the basic principles and proposals for the improvement of sustainable development capabilities in the postal systems. A review of modern means of transport is offered. Some of these means are still in the trial phase; however, their implementation is expected in the near future based on both, economic and environmental reasons.&nbsp

Modelování sklonu řidiče k dopravním nehodám: srovnání vícenásobné regresní analýzy a fuzzy přístupu

This research proposes an assessment and decision support model to use when a driver should be examined about their propensity for traffic accidents, based on an estimation of the driver&apos;s psychological traits. The proposed model was tested on a sample of 305 drivers. Each participant completed four psychological tests: the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), the Aggressive Driving Behaviour Questionnaire (ADBQ), the Manchester Driver Attitude Questionnaire (DAQ) and the Questionnaire for Self-assessment of Driving Ability. In addition, participants completed an extensive demographic and driving survey. Various fuzzy inference systems were tested and each was defined using the well-known Wang-Mendel method for rule-base definition based on empirical data. For this purpose, a programming code was designed and utilized. Based on the obtained results, it was determined which combination of the considered psychological tests provides the best prediction of a driver&apos;s propensity for traffic accidents. The best of the considered fuzzy inference systems might be used as a decision support tool in various situations, such as in recruitment procedures for professional drivers. The validity of the proposed fuzzy approach was confirmed as its implementation provided better results than from statistics, in this case multiple regression analysis.Tento výzkum navrhuje model hodnocení a podpory rozhodování, který by se měl použít, když by měl být řidič vyšetřen ohledně jejich náchylnosti k dopravním nehodám, na základě odhadu psychologických vlastností řidiče. Navržený model byl testován na vzorku 305 ovladačů. Každý účastník absolvoval čtyři psychologické testy: stupnice Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), Dotazník agresivního chování při řízení (ADBQ), Dotazník chování řidiče v Manchesteru (DAQ) a Dotazník pro sebehodnocení schopnosti řídit. Kromě toho účastníci absolvovali rozsáhlý demografický a řidičský průzkum. Byly testovány různé fuzzy inferenční systémy a každý byl definován pomocí známé Wang-Mendelovy metody pro definici pravidla na základě empirických dat. Za tímto účelem byl navržen a využit programovací kód. Na základě získaných výsledků bylo určeno, která kombinace uvažovaných psychologických testů poskytuje nejlepší predikci sklonu řidiče k dopravním nehodám. To nejlepší z uvažovaných fuzzy inferenčních systémů by mohlo být použito jako nástroj pro podporu rozhodování v různých situacích, například při postupech náboru profesionálních řidičů. Platnost navrženého fuzzy přístupu byla potvrzena, protože jeho implementace poskytla lepší výsledky než ze statistik, v tomto případě vícenásobné regresní analýzy

Podpůrný rozhodovací model k vyhodnocování chování řidičů pro dopravní společnosti

The entire society, and particularly the transportation companies, has an interest to improve traffic safety. Besides more than 3000 lost lives on the roads every day, there are significant financial consequences of road traffic accidents (RTAs). The purpose of this article is to design an efficient model for providing information about driver propensity for RTAs based on assessing their personality traits. This is achieved by creating a fuzzy inference system (FIS) where inputs are the scores from the implemented psychological instruments and output is the number of RTAs experienced by a driver. To adjust the functioning of FIS to the empirical data, a bee colony optimization (BCO) metaheuristic is applied. In this optimization procedure, we test three approaches for defining the variables of initial FIS and compare their performance. Simulation results show the differences between the considered approaches and, generally, very promising achievements of the proposed algorithm. The best-found FIS reached a 36% improvement of the objective function compared to the starting FIS. This FIS can be used, inter alia, as a decision-making tool in recruitment procedures for professional drivers to assess their propensity for RTAs, by that saving the lives of people and reducing the costs of the companies.Společnost a i jednotlivé dopravní společnosti mají zájem na zvyšování bezpečnosti dopravy. Vedle více než 3000 denně ztracených lidských životů jsou zde významné finanční důsledky uskutečněných dopravních nehod. Cílem článku je navrhnout efektivní model pro získání informace o inklinaci řidiče k účasti na dopravní nehodě na základě ocenění jeho osobnostních rysů. To lze dosáhnout vytvořením fuzzy inferenčního systému (FIS) jehož vstupy vstupem body získané v rámci implementovaných psychologických instrumentů a výstupy budou počty dopravních nehod, kterých se řidiči zúčastnili. K uzpůsobení FIS k získaným empirickým datům je aplikována metaheuristika optimalizace pomocí mravenčích kolonií (BCO). V této optimalizační proceduře se testují tři přístupy k definování proměnných vstupního FIS a vzájemně se porovnávají jejich výsledky. Výsledky simulace ukazují rozdíly mezi uvažovanými přístupy a obecně velmi slibné výsledky navrhovaného algoritmu. Nejlepší FIS dosahuje 36% zlepšení objektivní funkce ve srovnání s počátečním FIS. Tento FIS může být použit mimo jiné jako rozhodovací nástroj v procesu přijímání profesionálních řidičů pro ohodnocení jejich sklonu k účasti na dopravní nehodě a tím k ušetření lidských životů a redukci nákladů dopravních společností

Trends in sustainable development in the postal sector

The each major postal system is characterized by a strong infrastructure and appropriate human, technical and technological resources. The activities of these systems are economically demanding and have a negative impact on the environment, which represents some of the most delicate problems of sustainable development. This paper presents the basic principles and proposals for the improvement of sustainable development capabilities in the postal systems