Service quality assessment of public transport and the implication role of demographic characteristics

Abstract

This paper first proposes scales to evaluate customers’ perceived service quality in public transport then identify the demographic characteristics factors that may influence customer perceived service quality and as well as to identify any customers’ perceptions differences between the subcategories. Design/methodology/approach Manager interview and random sampling method were used to survey 288 consumers of buses public transport. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to confirm the scale validity. Thereafter, Structural Equation Modeling, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to asses the causal paths and the service quality perceptions differences among the subgroups. Findings The three dimensions of functional, convenience and physical environment quality were confirmed as underlying factors to assess customer perceived quality in public transport setting. Age and owning a driving license are factors that directly and positively affect service quality whereas education was negatively related to perceived quality. In contrast, the relationships between being a car user, gender and perceived quality were not supported. The results also showed that younger commuter appears to have lower perceptions of service quality as compared to adults. However, the current study does suggest that people with university education and above may be a better audience for advertising appeals focusing on one of these three significant dimensions of service quality. Originality/ value This study adds theoretical knowledge on how to assess opinions accurately of customers’ perception of service quality in public transport services as well as to provide good insight on the direct role of demographic characteristics on customers´ perceived service quality.