What is public transport oversight?
It is checking whether the public bus service was provided as the contract requires. The city, or its mobility agency, starts from the contracted schedule, with lines, timetables, routes and fleet, and checks the recorded execution of each trip. The differences, such as trips not run, route deviations, delays beyond tolerance and kilometres below schedule, feed the quality indicators, the penalties and, where there is a subsidy, the remuneration for the period.
Atricon, the association of members of Brazil's courts of accounts, recommends that oversight look at least at trip compliance and late or early trips, crowding, accidents, interruptions due to mechanical failure and user satisfaction.
How do you know whether the concessionaire runs the scheduled trips?
The most common indicator in contracts is the trip compliance index (ICV): trips run over trips scheduled, in a period. The details change from contract to contract:
| Contract point | What to define |
|---|---|
| Source of the trip run | GPS, ticketing, the operator's system or a combination |
| Period and time band | month, working day, peak and off-peak |
| Weight of each band | whether the peak counts more than the rest of the day |
| Tolerance | how much delay or earliness still counts as a trip run |
| Equipment | the obligation to have GPS on the fleet and the consequence when it fails |
In the Guarulhos (SP) regulation, for example, the reports used to measure departures are generated by the oversight team from GPS, and GPS downtime or malfunction falls under the penalty rules.
With Merus Tracker, the contract schedule sits next to the recorded execution of each trip: times, route, kilometres and fleet. Trips with no record, deviations and delays beyond tolerance appear with the position, time and source of each piece of data, for the oversight team to analyse and record the decision.
How do you measure the kilometres actually driven?
The kilometres reported by the operator need an independent reference. In an audit of school transport contracts in the Federal District, the Court of Accounts recorded that kilometres were controlled only through route schedules and that payments were made based on estimates.
The way forward is to calculate kilometres from the recorded trips, with trackers, telematics and the operators' systems, and place them next to the scheduled kilometres, with validation criteria defined in the contract. In Merus Tracker, each difference keeps its origin and history. If the fleet already has GPS, Merus has native integrations with the main telematics hardware; where equipment is missing, Merus sells and installs the telematics.
How do you calculate and check the subsidy per kilometre?
There is no national formula. Each municipality defines remuneration in law, contract or its own methodology, and the most common logic starts from the cost per kilometre:
- In Porto Alegre, the methodology starts from the cost per kilometre driven (CKM), multiplied by the fleet's kilometres; the city covers the difference between that cost and fare revenue.
- In Rio de Janeiro, the 2022 settlement provided for certifying the kilometres driven by GPS, and lines below the required minimum kilometres would not receive the subsidy.
In any model, three questions need a documented answer: which rule was applied, on which measured data and who approved it. In Merus Tracker, the contract can be attached as it is. The Merus AI finds parameters such as remuneration, fleet, tolerances, penalties and targets, always next to the source clause, and the manager confirms or corrects each parameter before it enters the calculation. From then on, measured kilometres, trips and delays go through the approved rules, and the amount for the period comes out with a checking statement, trip by trip. The payment decision remains with the public body.
How do you document the calculation for the court of accounts?
What supports an answer to external audit is the complete trail of each amount:
- the rule applied and its origin in the contract;
- the execution data and the source of each item;
- the validations performed and the differences found;
- the decisions, with date and owner.
The same Atricon note recommends that the courts check whether the granting authority has access to operating, revenue and remuneration information, to reduce the information gap between those who operate and those who pay. Merus Tracker keeps this history for each calculation. It supports internal control and responses to oversight bodies; analysis and formal responses remain with the public body.
What the technology does not do
- It does not interpret the contract in place of the legal department or guarantee legal compliance.
- It does not apply penalties or deductions without a decision by someone responsible.
- It does not operate buses: the concessionaire remains responsible for running the service.
How to get started
Implementation starts with an assessment: jurisdiction, contractual instrument, lots, operators, decisions that need evidence and available sources. Then come sources and equipment, configuration and loading of lines, timetables and fleet, validation with the oversight team and internal control, and support until the system is 100% working. See how Merus serves the public sector or talk to the team.
