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Road passenger transport is now recognized as one of the most important means of facilitating movement of people and parcels in the country. Moreover, people are now depending much on road transport due to the poor condition of other inland transport systems notably railways. The important role played by this mode of transport is due to its flexibility, accessibility and affordability to most of the Tanzanian citizens. Under the ERP and IRP reforms, there has been a dominant role played by the private sector in providing passenger road transport services in the country. This was a major shift from past practices whereby government parastatals provided these services.
Improvements in road infrastructure, deregulation of tariffs, removal of restrictions in the importation of motor vehicles and the elimination of entry barriers have provided an incentive for private sector involvement in the transport market. However, this has increased the level of competition to transport operators and hence reduced earnings. But on the other side of the coin, there arise a challenge among them to seek and improve other dimensions pertaining quality of the transport service they are providing in order to win the customers.
The general objective of the study was to assess the influence of service quality on customer satisfaction in transport service industry in Tanzania focusing on passengers’ transport, taking the Dar Express Bus Service as a case study and methods used in collecting required information for the study were questionnaires, interview and observation. The data were analyzed using descriptive, correlation and regression analyses
The findings indicates that passengers are satisfied with the transport services provided with Dar Express Bus Company Limited; Responsiveness, assurance and tangibles dimensions proved to have significant effect on passenger satisfaction. In other words these three dimensions were found to be good predictors of customer satisfaction.
The way company handling passengers’ problems including how they give personal attention to them, Visual appealing facilities and willingness to help passengers are the areas that need to be improved. Moreover, the user – friendly printed materials such as timetables, posters and brochures, electronic media such as company website and email should be established. |
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