CUSTOMERS PERCEPTION OF SERVICE QUALITY DELIVERED BY PRIVATE INTERSTATE ROAD TRANSPORT OPERATORS IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to examine the customers Perception of service quality delivered by private interstate road transport operators in Nigeria .The specific objective of the study are; To determine the perceived quality of service delivery in selected private transport companies in Benin City, To investigate if there is any difference in customer perception of service quality in the selected private transport companies, To ascertain the influence of demographic variables (gender, age and educational qualification) on customer perception of service quality in selected interstate private transport companies, To determine the effect of road transportation management on the Nigerian economy .The population size of this study include users of 3 selected private transport services in Benin city ,Nigeria and a sample size of 105 respondents were chosen during the duration of the fieldwork .The method adopted in this research is descriptive in nature .The data used in this study were obtained from primary sources and the data collected were analyzed with regression analysis techniques .Empirical finding from our finding indicate that there is a negative and non-significant relationship between level of service quality and service delivery. Again ,in our finding it was observed that there is a positive and non-significant relationship between service quality and service delivery .Furthermore, it was observed that there is a positive and non-significant relationship between customer perceptions of service quality and demographic variables .The study therefore recommends that Staff should take time to assure commuters of their services which will lead to customer satisfaction, All categories of staff need to be trained and retained especially the drivers in other to ensure the comfort and safety of commuters, Government should consider more concrete, short and medium range plans (strategic) and consistent policies that have far reaching effect on not just only public transport operations and management but private as well. An effort that can be performed by a private transport operator and manager in order to increase the positive attitude of private transport users is implementing relationship marketing (RM) program. RM may increase private transport brand image and customer emotional attachment.