Determinants of passengers' satisfaction of public bus transport service in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Abstract
recent years, the travel demand of people has been an upward trend in urban and industrial areas. This leads to the traffic congestions as well as problems related to environment and consumption of fuel affecting lives of citizens. Due to its important impact, it is encouraged for people to use public bus transport service for their travelling. However, there are many choices of vehicles for users based on their income, requirements, and expectations. Thus, satisfaction is a contributing factor to foster passengers to use public bus for their travel demand. In reality, satisfaction is regarded as one of the most importantly strategic goal of every industry, including public bus transport service. Specifically, in order to gain profitability and survive in the intensively competitive travel markets nowadays, public bus providers should have a good insight into which passengers need and expect. Additionally, they had better understand passengers’ perceptions and responses in terms of actual performance to propose recommendations which increase their satisfaction as well as involvement with their service. Consequently, this study attempted to explore 7 critical determinants which consisted of reliability, responsiveness, comfort, safety, security, technical quality and fare influencing passengers’ satisfaction of public bus transport service in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Quantitative approach was the main method used, along with application of statistical techniques of SPSS software. The unit of analysis was at individual level with sample size of 250 passengers using public bus transport service. The findings of this research indicated that safety, responsiveness, fare, security, and reliability had a positive impact on passengers’ satisfaction. Furthermore, to achieve high level of satisfaction, public bus agent is suggested to be more interested in drivers and staffs, simultaneously have regular trainings to help them understand and aware of how they should serve their passengers.
Keyword: Satisfaction, public bus transport, reliability, responsiveness, comfort, safety, security, technical quality, fare, Ho Chi Minh City, quantitative method.