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Microlesson · 5-min read

Important Tips for Transport Problems

# Important Practical Tips for Transport Costing Problems

These conventions are very commonly used in CA Inter questions — keep them at your fingertips.

## 1. Two-Way Journey Convention

In most bus or truck-based questions, a journey is a two-way journey (going and coming back).

## 2. 'One Trip' Meaning

When a question says the truck or bus makes one trip, it means one round journey (to and fro).

## 3. Occupancy

Occupancy means the percentage of seats that are actually filled.

$$\text{No. of passengers} = \text{Total seats} \times \text{Occupancy \%}$$

## 4. Default Occupancy

If nothing is mentioned about occupancy, assume 100% occupancy.

## 5. Different Occupancy on Inward vs Outward

A question can specify different occupancy rates for the onward (going) and inward (coming) legs. Calculate them separately.

## 6. 'Takings'

Takings means sales revenue (the total amount collected from passengers/customers).

## 7. Buses Down for Repairs

If the question says there are 20 buses and on average 10% are down for repairs, do calculations for the operational buses only, i.e., 18 buses.

$$\text{Operational buses} = \text{Total buses} \times (1 - \text{Down \%})$$

Worked example

### Example 1

Example: Effective fleet

Fleet size = 25 buses. Average 20% down for repairs.

Operational buses = 25 × (1 − 0.20) = 25 × 0.80 = 20 buses.

All cost-per-bus calculations should use 20, not 25.

⚠️ Common exam mistakes

  • Calculating only one-way distance when 'one trip' means a round trip
  • Forgetting to apply occupancy % and using total seats as passengers
  • Using total fleet size instead of operational fleet for cost-per-bus calculations
  • Confusing 'takings' with cost — takings = revenue, not cost
Reference:
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