Over the years, the industry has seen many approaches to the use of operational performance measurements. The inconsistency between approaches is further complicated by the incorrect practice of including general contract requirements (i.e. report deliveries, meetings, equipment appearance, etc.) into the list of performance measurements.  Simply, operational performance measurements should be performance based outcomes that directly impact the motorist. The “how” to achieve these performance requirements may be further described within the contract requirements but not necessary a performance measurement. For example, the Safety Service Patrol performance measurement of “90% of all incidents cleared within less than 30 minutes” is a reasonable measurement.  Specifying the number of vehicles on route, cleanliness and equipment type would be considered contract requirements.

In an effort to capture all relevant performance measurements that impact the motorist, we should look to the Incident Management Timeline. Each phase of this timeline consists of many unique processes and actions that should be documented and measured. If we are to increase our operational efficiency, our focus must be the reduction of time for each phase on the timeline. These phases include Detect, Response, Roadway Clearance, Incident Clearance and Time to Return to Normal Flow with an additional phase Prevent, resulting for today’s predictive analytics.

In operations, the outcomes can be driven exclusively by one party or involve multiple responding agencies. In situations where a contractor is solely responsible for the outcome, Service Level Agreements (SLA) is appropriate and these performance measurements can be tied to payment incentives or disincentives. Where multiple parties are involved, Key Performance Indicators (KPI) is appropriate where performance is tracked and improvements sought yet there are normally no financial penalties involved.

If we create performance measurements on the foundation of the Incident Management Timeline and properly track and manage improvements, the result is the reduction of crashes and congestion – the goal of Operations.