Internship program report

Saudi Arabia Public Transport Company (SAPTCO) is the largest company that provides transport services in Saudi Arabia both within and beyond the kingdom. I had an opportunity to do internship in this company in which I learnt a lot of things. This paper is a brief summary of the activities that I undertook during my internship and the that things I learnt. Introduction Saudi Arabia Public Transport Company began operating in 1979, in order to offer public transportation all over Saudi Arabia. The company offers transport service 24 hours a day in major cities of the Saudi Arabia kingdom.

It has an enormous fleet of over 2,700 buses operating all over the country, linking different cities. The company also operates international routes to countries like Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait and other countries. SAPTCO also transports people to holy sites during religious festivals like Haji. SAPTCO is the largest bus company in the Arab world both in terms of the number of routes it covers and the number of passengers it transports. For example, in 2005 the bus company transported over 30 million passengers to various destinations.

Clients choose to travel long distances using SAPTCO buses due to the low costs, the wide variety of routes offered and the good service among other reasons. SAPTCO also has luxury buses that offer meals en route journeys. The food is served on round tables and the seats are made of leather. There are refrigerators inside the buses, air conditioning, kitchens and other facilities that guarantee comfort to all the passengers. This service is popular with expatriates as well as families of locals. According to the SAPTCO chairman, their safety record and time keeping is what attracts clients to them.

The safety record can partly be attributed to the modern fleet as only 10% of SAPTCO buses are more than four years old. He further adds that the company values safety so much that it invested in satellite technology to track the whole fleet of buses. Each bus also has a black box which is handy in case of an accident. SAPTCO was run by American firms for the first five years and then it began restructuring in a bid to grow. The company is looking for an international company to partner with and grow together. The company is also thinking of full privatisation since 15% is government owned.

It has a new strategy and it wants to look for clients as opposed to clients looking for them. The SAPTCO chairman has a vision of the company running routes from Saudi Arabia to Europe either through a partnership or by itself. Sale of tickets There are six major bus stations that SAPTCO operates which have more than two hundred agents. The company’s strategy of selling tickets is the most advanced in the Middle East. Clients are able to access the tickets through three ways. One way is the clients obtaining the tickets from the bus stations. They do this by purchasing the tickets from the vendors.

A nother way is the clients obtaining the tickets from the authorised dealers and the third way is the clients obtaining the tickets from the Internet. In the eastern region, the station that was closest was Dammam station. This is the station that I did my internship. Dammam is a large station that operates more than a hundred flights everyday. About four thousand five hundred tickets are printed for use every single day. These tickets are used for both domestic flights and international flights. Dammam station operates twenty four hours a day.

This ensures that passengers can get access to the tickets anytime they want, day or night. There are fifteen windows where the tickets are sold from where the client can access the tickets. Internship goal The goal that I had in mind when beginning the internship was pursuit of the relevant experience that would help me improve my resume, set my career goal and also help me create professional relationships, that would assist me in pursuing my career objectives, including contacts and references. Internship program and steps in accounting department The fund has a responsibility of regulating the activities of vendors.

Each employee has an employee ID that the fund has in its records so that the employees can be responsible for their actions. The people who sell the tickets receive tickets which are well numbered. The ticket numbers and the employee ID are recorded so that it can be easy to tell the tickets sold by a particular vendor. This recording enables the employees to be accountable since their activities are being monitored. After the tickets have been sold and the shift of the employee is over, the accounts department updates the corresponding accounts and records the sales amounts.

A report is further prepared showing the number of tickets sold, the type, the amount raised from the sale and the employee who sold the tickets. In the eastern region, the office of the accounts department imposes daily charges to the windows where the tickets are being sold. The office of the accounts department also reports the number and types of tickets sold to the company statute through electronic means. Financial operations They are a broad set of operations that are applied to a business or company to enable it to make profits and remain stable in the long run through financial support.

These operations are standard in all businesses and only vary in the approach they are used for the different types of businesses. They include record keeping, planning, budgeting, inventory control and others. Financial operations are used to assess the following aspects of a business; the first aspect that is assessed is profitability and this can be defined as the ability of a business to grow and make profit. The second is aspect that is analysed is solvency and is the ease with which a business can meet its debt obligations.

The third aspect that is analysed is liquidity, which is the ability of the business to have cash flow. The last aspect of the business that is analysed using financial operations is stability, which is the ability of the business to run and maintain its operations in the long run. During the internship, I facilitated record keeping since I linked the accounting department to the marketing department. This made it possible for the records to be shared between the two departments. Specifically, since it was the records of ticket sales that was being dealt with, I helped in the calculation of the profitability of the company.

This is because the sales figure will be used in the creation of the profit and loss account which determine the profitability of SAPTCO. Financial statement This is a summary of the financial information about a business or organisation, for example profit and loss and balance sheet statements. This information is useful to many people. It can be used by the person who owns a company to know the profitability of the company. It can also be used by investors since they have to know how well the business is doing before they can commit their funds as investment.

The government can also use financial statements in calculating the amount of tax due from businesses. Another user of the information is creditors since they too have to know how well a business is doing before they provide credit facilities to the business. These statements can range from the profit and loss account, which shows the profitability of the business, to the balance sheet which will tell the total assets that a company has. In the transport industry and specifically SAPTCO, the financial statements help the management to tell the profitability of the different branches of their transport company.

This is done through calculation of the total amount of money raised from the sale of the tickets and other sources, less the amount of money spent on expenses. From the financial statements, the management is also able to tell the areas where SAPTCO spends a lot of money on and try to reduce the recurring expenditure in order to maximise profits. Domestic transportation analysis SAPTCO transports about four million people every year on an average of over five hundred trips each day. The company has routes in all major cities in Saudi Arabia as well as neighbouring countries.

The buses used by SAPTCO are well equipped with safety features like satellite technology for tracking its fleet in case of an emergency. All the buses also have black boxes for recording crucial information in case of accidents. The company aims at improving quality of services as it strives to increase growth of domestic transport in Saudi Arabia. It strives to improve quality of service by increasing the frequency of trips to holy places, improving facilities at passenger stations and tailoring their services according to the diverse needs of their customers. The company further goes on to give tips to clients when they are travelling.

Such tips are; to book tickets in advance during the busy periods and to give allowance for enough time to purchase the ticket. Another is to arrive half an hour before time when travelling. Others are that only Muslims travel to Holy Makkah and so on. Such tips are useful to people who have not used the service before. Domestic transportation reviews. According to Shams (2004), Saudi Arabia has increased investment in its tourism sector. He says that this is done to attract tourists who not only visit the country during religious festivals but also visit for leisure.

One of these initiatives was the review of visa controls around Saudi Arabia from 2006. He says that this has direct impact on the domestic transport due to increase in tourists who visit the Kingdom. The Kingdom, according to Shams, is trying to convince tourists that people can go to Saudi Arabia for holiday and not just religious festivals. This is a good approach since most people regard Saudi Arabia as a religious center. Few people regard it as a tourist destination. This approach will help domestic transport grow due to the increase in passengers and thus companies like SAPTCO can benefit from the same.

SAPTCO has a good reputation and it will obviously benefit from any increase in tourists who visit Saudi Arabia. Mackey (2002) views transport within Saudi Arabia as fairly easy since all modes of transport are connected. He views air travel as the most comfortable means of travel in Saudi Arabia. He says that it is also the most convenient mode of transport since all the major cities have an elaborate air travel link. Mackey also cites train travel in Saudi Arabia as being comfortable and having air conditioning. He says that the rail system is managed by the rail corporation.

He regards road transport as the most satisfying, though. He further adds that one can hire a car and view the kingdom since it has an elaborate road network. Mackey cautions people keen on using such a service to ensure that they have a valid license and to drive carefully. Mackey analyses all the forms of transport that are available in Saudi Arabia. It becomes clear that Saudi Arabia has an elaborate transport system. All the means of transport are fairly comfortable and anyone willing to visit or travel within the kingdom should have no problem at all, provided they exercise due care when travelling.

According to Sabri (2001), the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is keen on reducing the number of automobiles and focusing the growth of transport towards rail and air modes of transportation. He sees it as ironical that Saudi Arabia is the largest consumer of automobiles in the region but does not have a car assembly line. Sabri blames the increase in use of automobiles to traffic congestion. He also sees it as strain to the infrastructure. He further says that developing the railway system will lead to less demand of automobiles. Already there are feasibility studies that are being conducted to check on the viability for the project.

He also explains that there are other prospects being considered that include the construction of a high speed rail network in future which will ensure that a large number of people travel and goods are transported within Saudi Arabia at high speeds. Sanri is accurate in the proposal of diversifying the transport sector from road transport to rail. The movement from extensive use of the road network will also create new jobs and reduce pollution of the environment. However, accurate feasibility studies should be carried out before each project is implemented to ensure that the project does not stall midway.

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