Abstract
<jats:p>The monograph Improving the Operational Efficiency of Road Transport presents a systematic scientific, methodological, and applied framework for improv- ing the performance of road transport enterprises under contemporary operating conditions. Road transport is treated as an open socio-technical and production- service system whose results depend on the interaction of rolling stock, personnel, infrastructure, demand, maintenance resources, digital information flows, safety requirements, environmental constraints, and economic feasibility. The publication is intended for students, postgraduate students, researchers, lecturers, transport en- gineers, fleet managers, logistics specialists, public transport planners, maintenance managers, and professionals involved in digital fleet management. The relevance of the study is determined by the growing complexity of road transport operations: higher traffic intensity, unstable demand, increasing fuel and energy costs, staff shortages, stricter safety expectations, environmental pressure, and expanding dependence on digital information systems. Under these conditions, management based only on delayed reports and average indicators is insufficient. Operational efficiency is therefore interpreted not merely as cost reduction, but as the ability of the transport system to provide stable, safe, reliable, economically justified, environmentally responsible, and socially useful service. The object of the study is the operational activity of road transport enterprises. The subject of the study is the set of technical, organizational, economic, and information-analytical mechanisms that determine fleet productivity, technical availability, service quality, cost efficiency, safety, and adaptability. The purpose of the monograph is to develop an integrated approach to the assessment and improvement of road transport operational efficiency by combining performance indicators, maintenance models, route and timetable decisions, telematics data, economic evaluation, and implementation monitoring. The monograph systematizes production, technical, economic, service- quality, reliability, safety, environmental, and integrated indicators. Particular attention is paid to vehicle productivity, fleet technical availability, mileage uti- lization, load factor, fuel and energy consumption, downtime, maintenance cost, regularity, punctuality, delivery reliability, environmental performance, and user satisfaction. Each indicator is considered as a management instrument that should have a data source, responsible unit, threshold value, decision rule, and verification procedure. Technical availability and maintenance are analyzed as central prerequisites for efficiency. The study considers preventive maintenance, corrective repair, pre- dictive diagnostics, failure-risk assessment, component life, workshop capacity, spare-parts planning, and maintenance prioritization. The maintenance system is interpreted as a subsystem that must minimize not only direct repair costs, but also downtime, emergency failures, repeated defects, safety risks, service cancellations, and long-term degradation of rolling stock. Organizational reserves are examined through route and timetable planning, rolling-stock utilization, dispatching, driver work organization, operational disci- pline, and coordination with external stakeholders. The monograph shows that many efficiency losses are organizational rather than purely technical: they arise from unbalanced schedules, excessive empty mileage, weak reserve-vehicle management, insufficient terminal or customer coordination, delayed managerial reaction, and lack of standardized procedures. A separate group of issues concerns digital technologies in operational man- agement. Telematics, GPS/AVL monitoring, onboard diagnostics, fuel and energy sensors, driver-behavior recorders, electronic ticketing, maintenance information systems, transport management systems, mobile applications, cloud platforms, dashboards, and digital twins are considered as elements of an integrated digital management environment. The text explains how raw records are transformed into trajectories, trips, indicators, alerts, forecasts, and managerial recommendations, while also emphasizing data quality, interoperability, cybersecurity, backup, and reliability of digital services. The scientific novelty of the monograph lies in the integrated interpretation of road transport efficiency as a balanced result of technical readiness, organiza- tional coordination, economic feasibility, service quality, digital data reliability, and feedback-based management. The practical value lies in the possibility of using the proposed indicators, formulas, tables, models, and management procedures for enterprise efficiency programs, maintenance improvement, telematics implementa- tion, route optimization, investment prioritization, and educational work in road transport specialties. Keywords: road transport; operational efficiency; fleet management; technical availability; predictive maintenance; telematics; transport enterprise; digital fleet management; route optimization; maintenance organization.</jats:p>