From Data to Practice: Understanding Digital Services in Bus Operations

Sammanfattning

Digital services are increasingly becoming part of everyday bus operations, offering newpossibilities for operational follow-up, driver feedback, eco-driving, safety, and performanceimprovement. However, the value of these services does not arise automatically fromtechnological availability. Instead, it depends on how digital services are introduced,interpreted, trusted, and used in practice. This thesis explores how digital services areembedded in everyday bus operations, how their value is created, mediated, and constrainedthrough use, and how monitoring and feedback functions shape perceptions of trust, fairness,legitimacy, and control.This study adopts an abductive approach and is based on a qualitative, single embedded casestudy design. The empirical material was collected through semi-structured interviews withbus drivers, operator-side actors, and representatives from a commercial vehicle manufacturerin Europe. In cases where interviews were not feasible, written responses were also collectedfrom participants within the same participant groups. The material was analyzed throughthematic analysis, allowing patterns to be developed across different organizational levels andoperational contexts.The findings show that digital services are enacted within a fragmented digital ecosystem,where multiple systems, actors, and operational requirements shape everyday use.Implementation is therefore not merely a matter of technical introduction, but a process oftranslation, communication, training, and local adaptation. The study further shows that valueis created when data and system outputs are transformed into actionable insights, learning,and behavioral change. At the same time, monitoring and feedback functions may beperceived both as support and as control, depending on transparency, contextual sensitivity,data reliability, and how feedback is communicated. The thesis contributes to research ondigital servitization and technology-in-use by showing that digital service value is notembedded in the technology itself, but emerges through the interaction between technology,users, and organizational practice.