1.1 Introduction
E-Manifest Management System is a computerized system used to store and retrieve information and conduct transactions related to travel. Computer Manifest Information is classified as Passenger Service Systems (PSS) which handles a series of critical functions for the road transportation service. For road transportation, the reservation system is a mission critical system that should use the latest state of the art technology to provide for all trip reservations on a robust platform, which is flexible and can be adapted to any style of airline. Secure and stable systems are vital to the road transport company which is why companies spend many years designing an architecture specifically suited to the nature of the airline industry which often requires tens of thousands of users to access and use the system simultaneously.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
An Electronic manifest, customs manifest or cargo document is a document listing the cargo, passengers, and crew of a ship, aircraft, or vehicle, for the use of customs and other officials. Where such a list is limited to identifying passengers, it is a passenger manifest or passenger list or bag manifest; conversely, a list limited to identifying cargo is a cargo manifest or cargo list. The manifest may be used by people having an interest in the transport to ensure that passengers and cargo listed as having been placed on board the transport at the beginning of its passage continue to be on board when it arrives at its destination.
A transport manifest may carry similar information and the concepts are not always clearly distinguished. In some cases, a single document may serve both purposes. In general, a transport manifest is often more concerned with physical aspects of the transport, such as weight and size. On the other hand, if the transport vehicle contains dangerous goods, there may be a separate dangerous transport manifest. A manifest can be exchanged for commercial purposes, for example the freight manifest exchanged between two liner agents in the departure and the arrival ports. The manifest can also be prepared for regulatory purposes, specifically the customs manifest which needs to be sent to customs when arriving in the first port in a country. The difference in information on the customs manifest and the freight manifest is usually marginal, but the legal status of the two documents is completely different.
Therefore, ABC Transport, Anambra State, a viable investment whose primary objectives are: to spread comfort and hospitality to passengers away from their home, to make profit, will definitely appreciate a system which can automate its manual operations in the area of bus ticket reservation in order to meet customers increasing demand during peak and off peak seasons. The ultimate expectation is to inspire a feasibility study aimed at providing proper guidance and awareness to any future potential investors, particularly those in the bus industry, to consider utilizing the Imo transport, as a gateway to the fertile soil of unlimited opportunities in the south-east Nigeria. (Asogwa S.E, 2008).
Currently, staff at the bus ticket counter is using an internal system to sell tickets at the counter and customers who are unable to buy bus ticket online at this moment would have to go to the counter to a buy bus ticket. Sometimes, customers' needs to queue up a long queue to buy bus ticket and ask for information and this brings a lot of inconveniences to customers. However, multipurpose online transportation E-Manifest management system enables the customer to buy bus ticket, make payment, view generated manifest document and ask for information online easily. Furthermore, staff can sell bus ticket using Bus Ticket Reservation System after checking the bus ticket availability for the customer and print the bus ticket to the customer.
1.3 Statement of Problem
ABC Transport, Anambra State still uses the manual system of transport management. Many flaws have been identified in this system ranging from human errors (e.g. miscalculations in ticket price, mistakes in noting passenger data, etc.), the fluctuation of passengers during certain periods of time that causes a bottleneck in the check-in process because of the inability of the front officer to multitask and the lack of overview or report of the on-going business; making it difficult for the company to judge past/current performance or plan future improvements.
Other problems identified in the current scenario include:
- The travel agent wastes a lot of time recording and booking information when there are more customers than he can handle at a time and this usually results in queuing and standing for a long time when buying tickets.
- The manual manifest system cannot modify passenger's name and refund cash when trip the trip is cancelled.
- Due to stress on the staff, over-booking and generating transport manifest for a limited number of seats is a daily problem.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to design and implement a multipurpose online transportation E-Manifest management system. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to develop an application software that will:
- Provide ability of customers to cancel / remove their name from manifest after reservation has been made.
- Create a multipurpose transportation electronic manifest management system
- Make the system secured by limiting user privileges in updating and canceling payment, route and vehicle records.
- Provide a web-based bus ticket reservation manifest update function where a customer can buy bus ticket through the online system without a need to queue up at the counter to purchase a bus ticket.
1.5 Significance of Study
This research survey identifies the need of developing and promoting a comprehensive multipurpose online transportation E-Manifest management system web portal of various bus operators in Nigeria. This study explores views from the bus ticketing company's as the service providers and the customers as the system users upon the adoption of this system.
The Road Transport Company's, the survey conducted identifies the responds received from the passengers on the current available system in the market, the cost-effectiveness of developing and maintaining this system and the usage of reports from the system.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the design and implementation of a multipurpose online transportation E-Manifest management system using ABC Transport in Anambra State as a case study.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.8 Definition of Terms
- Information: Facts or knowledge provided or learned.
- Travel: To be on a journey, often for pleasure or business, and with luggage; to go from one place to another.
- Rate: To assign or to be assigned a particular rank or level.
- Ticket: A piece paper or card holder that gives right to admission to a place or event or travel on public transport.
- Reservation: The action of reserving/booking or arranging for use of a particular person.
- Cancellation: The act of deciding that (a planned event) will not take place.
- Bus: A large motor vehicle carrying passengers on a fixed route.
- Postponement: An act of arranging for (something) to take place at a time later than that first scheduled.
- System: A complex whole; a set of things working together as a mechanism or interconnecting network.
