Road Transport Management Systems on Customers’ Satisfaction in Rwanda

Abstract

The present publication has as objectives to assess the ways in which passenger road transport management systems affect the passengers ‘satisfaction in public transport and to find out the extent to which road transport passengers are satisfied with the services provided by the public transport companies in Rwanda. To achieve the results, respondents were asked about the commonly used management systems, how the management systems affect passengers’ satisfaction and the extent to which they are satisfied with the services provided by the road transport companies. Using SPSS, qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted to understand the patterns of responses and the relationships between the dependent and independent variables. The findings revealed that the different management systems have differently affected customers’ satisfaction in the passenger road transport companies majorly through enhancing passenger comfort, timely departures and arrivals, facilitating passengers to appropriately plan for the journeys, and enhancing safety of passengers. Majority of the respondents were satisfied with the services provided by the road transport companies, with only a relatively smaller number indicating that they are not satisfied with the services of the companies. Pearson’s chi-square test of significance was conducted across the different socio-demographic variables and the results showed that passenger satisfaction does not significantly differ among the different demographic variables especially age, occupation, education levels and marital status (P>0.05). The management systems were found to affect passenger satisfaction through enhancing time management, service reliability, passenger comfort and safety. Satisfied passengers are an asset to the organization because they will ensure an improved image of an organization. Nevertheless, passenger satisfaction can only be achieved through heavy investment in assets and human resources of the companies and this call for adequate funds and trained personnel.