**MCDM as an Approach in Selecting the Best Bus Transportation Services**
**Azmi bin Abu Seman1*\**, Nasuha binti Alias2, Norfiza binti Ibrahim3**
*1,2,3 Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences*
*Universiti Teknologi MARA, Perlis Branch, Perlis, Malaysia*
*Corresponding author:* *\*azmi384@uitm.edu.my*
**ABSTRACT**
*Public transportation using express bus services are widely used by the public nowadays and many bus companies offer services to major cities as well as providing additional features and facilities to attract passengers. However, the passengers often face a problem in selecting and choosing the bus companies that give the best services for them according to their preferences. The purpose of this study is to identify the best bus transportation services based on MCDM approach using TOPSIS method. The web application development follows the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology that contains four phases which are planning, designing, testing and implementing using PHP and MySQL database as tools for development. It enable users who already used the bus services to give the rating and the users who want to use the bus services give their priority for each criteria that they choose either low, high or very high. The web application will generate the result, which is the best bus companies according to TOPSIS rules. The presence of this web application can help the society to choose the best bus services that follow their preferences.*
***Keywords:** MCDM, TOPSIS method, bus transportation services*
**INTRODUCTION**
Bus transportation services are widely used by people especially a person who likes to travel and also for students to go back to their school, college or university. However, they cannot choose the best bus transportation service based on their preferences because there is no guide to help them. Thus, this study developed a web based application system that can help passengers to choose the best bus transportation service based on criteria that they choose. The system can generate a result and display the bus companies that follows the criteria choosing by them.
In this study, MCDM (Multi Criteria Decision Making) approach has been used to evaluate and choose the best bus transportation service. MCDM is a tool for evaluating problems and has the capability to review different alternatives such as choice, strategy, policy and scenario on numerous criteria for the best or the right alternative. Actually, in MCDM approach, there are several methods such as Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, is Elimination and Choice Translating Reality (ELECTRE) method, Technique for Order Preference by Similarly to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method, Weighted Sum Model (WSM) method, and Weighted Product Model (WPM) method. However, in this study the TOPSIS method has been choose to select the service that follows the criteria given by the passengers.
**RESEARCH BACKGROUND**
**Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM)**
MCDM is an acronym for Multiple Criteria Decision Making. MCDM refers to an organized technique aimed at integrating multiple criteria into the steps include estimating, linking and grading dissimilar options [Li, 2013](#_ENREF_6)(). According to [Purjavad and Shirouyehzad (2011)](#_ENREF_7), MCDM is a process in making a decision with the existence of multiple purposes or goals. Moreover, the MCDM can be defined as relatedto structure, planning and solving a multiple criteria problem. The method will analyse a scope of dissimilar criteria, weight the criteria and choose the ideal one by using different methods of the MCDM [Aruldoss, Lakshmi, & Venkatesan, 2013](#_ENREF_1)().
Furthermore, the MCDM is a procedure to incorporate multiple indexes into one important index thus a ranking and the comparing are workable. A common problem that is ranked by the MCDM involves a number of alternatives that have to be evaluated and a number of criteria that have to evaluate the alternatives. The MCDM method has developed rapidly and is widely used in a research for complex decision problem that has to deal with multiple criteria [Lertprapai, 2013](#_ENREF_5)().
The TOPSIS method is selected for this study because it is easy to use compared to other methods and because this method has become popular. Other advantages apart from the ease of use are this method has a simple process and also is easy to programme. Other than that the TOPSIS method is easy to understand and has the capability to remain the same quantity of the steps although there is a problem about size [Velasquez & Hester, 2013](#_ENREF_8)(). The TOPSIS method is used in application area that relates to supply chain management, engineering, manufacturing systems, business and marketing, environmental, human resources and water resources management [Velasquez & Hester, 2013](#_ENREF_8)().
**Bus Transportation Services**
Commonly, passengers choose the bus services according to their preferences or criteria. According to [Eboli and Mazzulla (2011)](#_ENREF_3) who developed the Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSS), passengers are more comfortable to express their opinions about several attributes to describe the services through pre-defined measure of estimation. This judgement can also measure checking, estimating, and executing enhancements in transportation services.
Besides that, it is crucial to understand passengers’ behavioural intentions after experiencing the public transport services and their related important factors. The service attributes such as vehicle safety, facility cleanliness, and complaint offering have great influences on passengers to use the service[Lai & Chen, 2011](#_ENREF_4)().
Moreover, there are two main objectives in identifying the passengers’ preferences when choosing the transportation services. Firstly, to define which criteria that have greater influence on passengers and secondly is to gather all the important data that have been found from objective one and to study the variables in order to know which variables the passengers are most concerned of [dell’Olio, Ibeas, & Cecín, 2010](#_ENREF_2)().
**IMPLEMENTATION**
**TOPSIS Method**
A set of questionnaires was distributed among thirty respondents in order to know what are the most preferred criteria by the users of bus transportation services. They must choose ten out of twenty criteria listed in the questionnaire and the top ten criteria chose by the respondents are punctuality, ticket price, cleanliness, driver courtesy, appropriate bus schedule, condition of bus, comfort of seat, safety of luggage, seat arrangement and facilities inside the bus. Those criteria were implemented into the bus recommender system. There are several steps of the TOPSIS method has been used in order to calculate and choose the best bus services. According to [Li (2013)](#_ENREF_6), the TOPSIS method is described as follows:
Step 1. Calculate the normalized decision matrix. The normalized value *nij* is calculated as:
Step 2. Calculate the weighted normalized decision matrix.
The weighted normalized value *vij* is calculated as:
Step 3. Define the positive ideal solution (PIS) *A+* and negative ideal solution (NIS) *A-* as:
for cost criterion:
Step 4. Calculate the distances d+ and d- of each alternative from PIS and NIS using the following equations, respectively:
Step 5. Calculate the relative closeness to the ideal solution. The relative closeness *Ri* of the alternative Ai with respect to Aþ is defined as:
According to the relative closeness degree *Ri,* the ranking order of the alternatives can be determined. If any alternative has the highest *Ri* value, then, it is the most desirable alternative.
**Formula Implementation**
A web based application system has been developed to implement the TOPSIS method based on the preferred criteria. The system enable users to give reviews about the bus transportation companies that they experienced before. In this study, four bus companies plying between Kangar to Kota Bharu route are selected. Those companies are Ekspres Mutiara, Ekspes Perdana, Transnasional and Pancaran Matahari. Passengers that has experienced the bus services with those companies can go to the ‘Criteria Review’ page, choose bus company and give a rating for each of the criteria either very poor, poor, medium, good or very good as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Criteria Review
Passengers who wish to choose the best bus services for their next trip can go to the ‘Bus Recommender’ page and choose the importances of each criteria, either not very important, not important, medium, important and very important, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Importances of each Criteria
After that, the system will display a result where the best bus transportation service recommended by the system is shown as in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Result page
**RESULT AND FINDING**
**Usability testing is carried out in order to get feedback from the user when using the system. In order to conduct the usability testing, ten respondents are chosen from the students that have experienced using the bus transportation services. The background of the respondents are from multiple background. Based on observations and feedback of the respondents from usability testing, some of the improvement has been made to the interface of the system.**
**After done the refinement, user acceptance test is conducted in order to know the user acceptance when they using this website. During the user acceptance test, the user was given the questionnaire and they have to answer it based on their perception about the system. The user from different background is involved in this testing. The result from user acceptance test was evaluated and analyzed.**
**According to** Figure 4**, it shown that three respondents (30%) disagree, four respondents (40%) fair and three respondents (30%) agree that the system is according user expectation.**
Figure 4: System According User Expectation
**CONCLUSION**
This paper describes the MCDM and the TOPSIS that were used in this study. Besides that, this paper also describes about the criteria that have been considered when choosing the bus transportation company. The TOPSIS method is used in this study to generate the result and give the suggestion for the best bus transportation service. It can help the users who want to use the bus tranportation but do not know which bus can meet their criteria. In order to use the TOPSIS method in the system, the method was modified so that it can be implemented in PHP language. Future work will involve the control for the users who give the review for the bus transportation services.
**REFERENCES**
> Aruldoss, M., Lakshmi, T. M., & Venkatesan, V. P. (2013). A Survey on Multi Criteria Decision Making Methods and Its Applications. *American Journal of Information Systems, 1*(1), 31-43. Dell’Olio, L., Ibeas, A., & Cecín, P. (2010). Modelling user perception of bus transit quality. *Transport Policy, 17*(6), 388-397. doi: Eboli, L., & Mazzulla, G. (2011). A methodology for evaluating transit service quality based on subjective and objective measures from the passenger’s point of view. *Transport Policy, 18*(1), 172-181. doi: Lai, W.-T., & Chen, C.-F. (2011). Behavioral intentions of public transit passengers—The roles of service quality, perceived value, satisfaction and involvement. *Transport Policy, 18*(2), 318-325. doi: Lertprapai, S. (2013). *Review: Multiple Criteria Decision Making Method with Applications.* Paper presented at the International Mathematical Forum.Li, M. (2013). A multi-criteria group decision making model for knowledge management system selection based on TOPSIS with multiple distances in fuzzy environment. *Kybernetes, 42*(8), 1218-1234. doi: doi:10.1108/K-05-2013-0095Purjavad, E., & Shirouyehzad, H. (2011). A MCDM approach for prioritizing production lines: a case study. *International Journal of Business and Management, 6*(10), p221. Velasquez, M., & Hester, P. T. (2013). An Analysis of Multi-Criteria Decision Making Methods. *International Journal of Operations Research Vol, 10*, 56-66.