Cost Allocation Calculator

Introduction

Welcome to the Two-Variable Cost Allocation Calculator resource page. As a requirement of reporting to the National Transit Database (NTD), public transit agencies must be able to provide expense information by different travel modes, jurisdictions, and service types. Transit agencies must also understand the costs of different services for managing federal and state grants as well as pricing and planning for new services. This can be a very complicated, resource draining and time-consuming process especially for transit agencies with multiple modes, service types and serving multiple jurisdictions. The Two-Variable Cost Allocation Calculator can help transit agencies make the process of cost allocation a little less daunting.

The Two-Variable Cost Allocation Calculator, developed by Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) and RLS & Associates, Inc. for National RTAP, is available as an MS Excel or MS Access application. Both versions provide the same level of specificity for data inputs and produce output reports for individual routes/services or groups of routes. We offer two versions to address your preference in software applications. (Note: you do not need Access installed to run the Access version if you first download the Microsoft Access 2016 Runtime or Office 365 Access Runtime extension.)

Get started using the Two-Variable Cost Allocation Calculator by creating a new National RTAP Cloud account or logging into your existing Cloud account. Once logged in you will be able to download the Excel or Access versions of the calculator. Please also review the instruction manual for detailed step-by-step information on using the applications. The instruction manual can be found under Support.

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• Helps accurately allocate costs for NTD reporting


• Calculates transit costs per two variables: time and distance


• Determines the fully allocated cost for providing service by travel mode, jurisdiction, service type, individual route/service, and sponsored services (if applicable)


• Allows for shared-ride demand responsive service costs to be sub-allocated to different trip sponsor


• Automatically assigns expenses to the correct transit functions


• Generates performance measures for each route/service and groups of routes using full allocated costs and operational data


• Eliminates duplicated or misallocated costs 


• Relies on standard transit agency data – no new data collection is necessary


• Scalable to your system and service characteristics


• Requires no special software skills 


• Produces downloadable/printable reports of cost and performance measurement information


• Supported by instruction manual with step-by-step guides, definitions of terminology, picture examples, and discussion of uses for allocated cost information