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Incorporation of customer satisfaction in public transport contracts – A preliminary analysis

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  • Mokonyama, Mathetha
  • Venter, Christoffel

Abstract

The design of public transport contracts provides an opportunity to define service quality standards to which an operator can be held accountable. While the specification of service quality standards is a common practice, the relationships between the specifications and customer satisfaction are often methodologically unclear. Based on a South African case study, the paper uses data collected from a group of passengers who have personal cars but choose to use public transport, and a control group of passengers who only use their cars, in the same corridor as the user group, to estimate a service quality conjoint model. The model is used to evaluate the effect of different public transport service packages, defined in terms of different combinations of service attributes, on passenger satisfaction. The paper confirms the need to classify service attributes in terms of their relative impact on passenger satisfaction, at the service design stages, where performance in respect of some attributes has a disproportionate impact on satisfaction, especially where public transport is competing directly with private transport. Practical applications and limitations of the methodology are also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Mokonyama, Mathetha & Venter, Christoffel, 2013. "Incorporation of customer satisfaction in public transport contracts – A preliminary analysis," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 58-66.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:retrec:v:39:y:2013:i:1:p:58-66
    DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2012.05.024
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Evangelos Grigoroudis & Yannis Siskos, 2010. "Customer Satisfaction Evaluation," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-1-4419-1640-2, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sofia Elena COLESCA & Mihaela PACESILA & Stefan Gabriel BURCEA & Carmen Nadia CIOCOIU & Mihai BUGHEANU, 2017. "Analysis of Passenger’s Satisfaction with the Quality of the Public Transportation Mode Choices in Bucharest: A Fuzzy Approach," ECONOMIC COMPUTATION AND ECONOMIC CYBERNETICS STUDIES AND RESEARCH, Faculty of Economic Cybernetics, Statistics and Informatics, vol. 51(4), pages 109-125.
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    4. Thao, Vu Thi & Wegelin, Philipp & von Arx, Widar, 2017. "Are statutory passenger watchdogs effective in representing passenger interests in public transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-9.
    5. Paula Vicente & Elizabeth Reis, 2016. "Profiling public transport users through perceptions about public transport providers and satisfaction with the public transport service," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 387-403, December.
    6. Mokonyama, Mathetha & Venter, Christo, 2018. "How worthwhile is it to maximise customer satisfaction in public transport service contracts with a large captive user base? The case of South Africa," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 180-186.
    7. Paula Vicente & Abdul Suleman & Elizabeth Reis, 2020. "Index of Satisfaction with Public Transport: A Fuzzy Clustering Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-19, November.
    8. Hosang Jung & Chi-Guhn Lee & Chelsea White, 2015. "Socially responsible service operations management: an overview," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 230(1), pages 1-16, July.
    9. Ardvin Kester S. Ong & Yogi Tri Prasetyo & Andrei Estefanio & Ayen Sienna Tan & Jedrek Charles Videña & Renz Albert Villanueva & Thanatorn Chuenyindee & Kriengkrai Thana & Satria Fadil Persada & Reny , 2023. "Determining Factors Affecting Passenger Satisfaction of “Jeepney” in the Philippine Urban Areas: The Role of Service Quality in Sustainable Urban Transportation System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-18, January.
    10. Jie Yang & Nirajan Shiwakoti & Richard Tay, 2023. "Passengers’ Perception of Satisfaction and Its Relationship with Travel Experience Attributes: Results from an Australian Survey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-18, April.
    11. Ahmad Alkharabsheh & Sarbast Moslem & Laila Oubahman & Szabolcs Duleba, 2021. "An Integrated Approach of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making and Grey Theory for Evaluating Urban Public Transportation Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-15, March.
    12. Iván Manuel Mendoza-Arango & Eneko Echaniz & Luigi dell’Olio & Eduardo Gutiérrez-González, 2020. "Weighted Variables Using Best-Worst Scaling in Ordered Logit Models for Public Transit Satisfaction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-20, July.
    13. de Oña, Juan & de Oña, Rocío & Eboli, Laura & Mazzulla, Gabriella, 2016. "Index numbers for monitoring transit service quality," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 18-30.

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