Roads

Innovation and better management of your roads network is achieved through the sharing of knowledge and information. Roads managers developed Yardstick for the industry as a benchmarking tool to collect, share and compare vital information to measure current performance and drive future improvements.

Yardstick provides tools to collect and compare management inputs. The Benchmarks questionnaire collects a wide range of information to identify roads asset provision, costs, service delivery and asset management best practice.

Benchmarks

  • Identify, plan and improve your strategic goals and direction
  • Undertake financial performance reviews and cost estimating
  • Inform service delivery reviews
  • Prepare feasibility studies using real, up to date figures from comparable organisations
  • Lobby for additional resources

  • Drive asset management implementation and improvements
  • Compare locally, nationally and internationally
  • Prioritise areas for improvement
  • A network of roads managers learning and improving from shared information and common experience.

How it works

Key Benefits

  • time

    Timely and meaningful insights for planning and budgeting

  • binoculars

    Identifies opportunities from topline to specific action areas

  • runner

    Creates a healthy competitive environment within the organisation

  • tapemeasure

    On-going consistent performance measurement tool

  • meeting

    Common tool for general managers and middle management

  • barchart

    Relevant and meaningful benchmarks for decision making

  • “In today’s environment with pressing demands for resources, and the need to gear thinking around long term financial planning and delivering defined, sustainable service levels, benchmarking is a crucial tool for identifying just how well an organisation is performing, and where they need to improve. Yardstick delivers need to know analysis of your business to inform your decision making and improve your service delivery.”

    — Chris Campion, Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia

  • “Yardstick lets us compare our current performance and investments with similar organisations to see how we perform and identify areas where reviews against industry best practice may be required. The Yardstick benchmarking tool is an important guide to highlight areas of investigation for Council’s long term asset management planning.”

    — Graeme Hawes, Mackay Regional Council, Australia

  • “Yardstick highlights what you know, and more importantly, what you don’t know about your portfolio. It encourages good communication between the leading areas of your organisation, and provides a solid platform on which to shape operational and managerial synergies vital to realizing your community’s aspirations.”

    — Shaun Goodenough, Lismore City Council

On-line Tools

Benchmarks online questionnaire

  • Secure questionnaire available online for self completion
  • Add access for unlimited number of additional staff
  • Display previous years answers and notes at the click of a button
  • On site review by Yardstick auditors to ensure accuracy of information provided and credibility in the reported results
  • Information collected identifies: Road network and asset provision; expenditure - matched with asset information to provide calculation of performance metrics; asset management, service delivery, and environmental best practice
  • Organisation information to enable peer grouping to benchmark against similar organisation.s

Question guidelines

  • Detailed guidelines defining how each question should be answered, linked to each specific question
  • View online against each question
  • Download pdf and print copy

Online reporting

  • All results available online
  • Detailed menus to quickly find the information you need
  • Select your own peer group for more accurate comparison

The Roads Yardstick program is currently operating in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.