Sales, Abipiel Regina I.

IE 003 – IE41S1 – Operations Research 1

Module 3 Assignment – Prelim

Cite a company that uses or applies the queuing model to manage their business. Your discussion

must include but not be limited to the following:

1. The nature of business of the company, business problem related to the queuing model

2. Application of the queuing model

3. Benefit of applying the model

The Port of New York Authority

The Port Authority of New York facilities include Americas busiest airport system, the

Port of New York, the PATH rail transit system, six tunnels and bridges connecting New York

and New Jersey, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.

The Port Authority also owns and manages the 16-acre World Trade Center site, home to

the iconic One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. Each of

these facilities plays a key role in supporting the regions transportation infrastructure and

economic livelihood.

The Port Authority of New York builds, operates, and maintains many of the most

important transportation and infrastructure assets in the country. The agency's network of

aviation, rail, surface transportation, and seaport facilities moves hundreds of millions of people

and goods throughout the region.

Sales, Abipiel Regina I.
IE 003 – IE41S1 – Operations Research 1
Module 3 Assignment – Prelim

When The Port Authority was established in 1921 by the two states, it was charged with

the responsibility of promoting and protecting the commerce of the port. In order to carry out its

responsibilities the two states empowered it with the right to acquire, build, and operate

transportation facilities and terminals. It was not empowered to levy taxes or assessments and

from the beginning was placed 'on its own,' with no power whatsoever to pledge the credit of

either State.

Initially, the business earns its revenue from toll collections, but it has been found in a

study cited by Edie, L. C. [ CITATION Edi57 \l 13321 ] that the results from the toll-collection

operation were not altogether satisfactory. The service varied widely, and there were complaints

from toll collectors that they had to work long periods without proper reliefs.

The management of The Port of New York Authority was not fully aware of these

deficiencies. It felt that the toll-collection operation was giving as good a service and the

working conditions were as good as those of any other agency in the area, and this was quite

true.

The queuing theory was first applied when researchers asked what the toll-collection

service was in quantitative terms of average delay or maximum delay, and within what limits the

service could vary and still be acceptable. With the inability to answer such questions came a

realization by management that it did not know as much about the toll-collection operation as it

should. After this, a study was first done.

The study took hundreds of man-hours of observation, and hundreds of hours of analysis

before a satisfactory model can be constructed to explain the behavior of traffic at the toll booth.
Sales, Abipiel Regina I.
IE 003 – IE41S1 – Operations Research 1
Module 3 Assignment – Prelim

The first payoff came in September of 1952, when the company had made a trial of a manning

system based on the results of their queuing investigation.

The trial was made at the Lincoln Tunnel, and in it we had to predict for an entire week

the number of toll booths required each hour of the day, and schedule completely the assignment,

reporting time, relief time, and so on, of the toll collectors. Each toll collector was given a slip of

paper telling him exactly what to do on his tour and, fortunately, the system worked. There was

no hitch except when one toll collector lost the key to his cash drawer. There was some back-up

at that time, but this can event can be expected to occur in any system.

Before the trial, it was a practice for the officer directing traffic into the westbound tunnel

in New York to notify the toll sergeant who was located in New Jersey whenever the traffic in

New York broke-that is, when the back-up was dissipated. The purpose of this report was to cue

the toll sergeant that he could, at this time, start making his meal reliefs. Thus, the system proved

itself to be quite practical.

Incidentally, a predetermined schedule had been attempted before by the management of

the Lincoln Tunnel. The schedule provided for the assignment of toll collectors ahead of time to

keep a given number of booths open each hour throughout the day. But this attempt had failed

pretty badly, because of the queuing problem that had not been solved first.

The new system of manning by predetermined schedules based on queuing effects has

been in use ever since its adoption.

Sales, Abipiel Regina I.
IE 003 – IE41S1 – Operations Research 1
Module 3 Assignment – Prelim

In present, the Port Authority of New York is credited with one of the more remarkable

applications of queuing theory when it stopped forcing motorists using the George Washington

Bridge to pay tolls in both directions [ CITATION Kro15 \l 13321 ]. By charging a toll, albeit a larger

one, in only one direction the authority cut down on the backups and kept revenue up.

References
1. The Port of New York Authority, New York, New York. Edie, Leslie C. 1, s.l. : Information for Operations
Research and the Management Sciences, February 1957, Operations Research in a Public Corporation,
Vol. 5, pp. 111-122.

2. Krouse, Peter. COMPANIES USE QUEUING THEORY TO HELP CREATE FASTER, MORE EFFICIENT LINES.
Greensboro. [Online] Greensboro, January 24, 2015. [Cited: April 9, 2021.] https://greensboro.com/im-
waaaaiiiiting-companies-use-queuing-theory-to-help-create-faster-more-efficient-
lines/article_6739b58b-3dd9-5a9d-aa34-e54fa84d30ee.html.