Measurement of service quality of “Trotro” as public transportation in Ghana: A case study of the city of Kumasi

Abstract

Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 8-11 July 2013 "Transport and Sustainable Infrastructure", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.

An efficient urban transportation system is essential for providing adequate mobility to satisfy various socio-economic needs. In developed countries, the majority of public transportation is usually provided by the state. Contrary, in developing countries, public transportation services .mostly provided by privately-owned operators resulting in greater diversity in service provision. These private transport operators often provide services on a large part of the transport system under highly competitive but poorly regulated conditions. The trend of relying on the private sector to provide public transport services has resulted in a large number of individual operators focuses more on maximize profit instead of safety and quality of service. Their operations are characterized by no time schedules, delays, longer turn-around time as well as unilateral decision. The number and frequency of service on any given route can change daily thereby undermining the quality of service provided to the public. This paper assesses customers’ satisfaction of the services provided by the minibuses (“trotro”) in the City of Kumasi, Ghana regarding the expected and perceived quality of service. The service quality (SERVQUAL) model was used to analyze results of the study. It was found from statistical analyses that there are gaps between passengers and operators perception in terms of quality of service provided by the ‘trotro’ as public transport. Based on this finding, it is recommended that the trotro industry should therefore implement programmes aimed at improving customer satisfaction. The improvement must target better security services at the terminals through lighting and provision of personnel for 24 hours and information through the use of public address system and maps. Additionally, cleanliness must be improved upon both at the stations and inside the buses and the grounds should be paved and sanitation taken up by efficient cleaning service operators.