GIS Business Pilgrims Perception Towards Small Bus Services In

GIS Business ISSN: 1430-3663 Vol-15-Issue-1-January-2020

Pilgrims Perception Towards Small Bus Services In Chennai City

*DR.K.R.RAJANDIRAN Asst. Professor of Commerce, Arignar Anna Govt.Arts College, Villupuram

ABSTRACT

With the introduction of the Bus Rapid Transport system in India, existing public transport organizations, particularly minibus will have to adapt to the changes or else they will inevitably fail. In general, public transport organizations are being forced to move from a traditionally operations-driven orientation to a more market- driven orientation, which means that they need to improve their service quality. In light of the aforementioned, this paper explores the theory of service quality with special emphasis on the dimensions of transport service quality, namely, reliability assurance, tangibles, empathy, and responsiveness.

Key words: Service Quality, Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, and Responsiveness.

INTRODUCTION

An attempt to identify the important Pilgrims Perception towards Small Bus Services in

Chennai City is made in this paper. The perception varies from passenger to passenger. While one passenger is concerned about the safety of his travel another is interested in travelling fast.

Some are interested in the cleanliness of the buses, others expect polite treatment from the crew, entertainment by music system, while some consider music system a nuisance. Thee differences in perception depends on the variables such as gender marital status, age, educational status, occupation, income, purpose of travel, family size and the frequency of travel. Hence, the relation between these variables and the identified factors of perception is studied.

Tamil Nadu has launched „small bus‟ service to connect suburbs with railway stations

and bus stands in the city. Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa flagged off the service with a fleet of 50

small buses. Passengers will find the 27-seater small bus or mini bus an alternative to share autos

and vans. To begin with the services will cover places such as Chromepet, Guindy, Vadapalani

and Moolakadai.

SMALL BUS OPERATEED IN CHENNAI CITY

ROUTE DESTINATION

S09 Medawakkam to Radhanagar gate via Medawakkam good road, Nemmilicherri

S10 Chrompet to Jothi nagar via Nehru nagar, Rajakeelpakkam, Madampakkam

S18 Velacherry to Nanganallur via Velacherry Railway station, Puluthivakkam

S19 Hasthinapuram to Keelkattalai via Ponniyamman kovil street, Eachankadu

S20 Ramapuram to Ashok pillar via Tiruvallur road, Nesapakkam

S26 Ashok Pillar to Valasaravakkam via Jafferkhanpet, Ramapuram Alamaram

S31 Vadapalani to Koyembedu via Virugambakam, Chinmaya Nagar

S36 Nungampakkam to DMS via Loyola, Haddows road, Gemini

S46 Thirummulaivayil to Ayappakkam via Pachaiamman kovil, Ramasamy school

S48 Avadi BS to Chiranjeevi Nagar via Anna nagar, Senthamizh nagar, Balaji Nagar

S49 Tirunindravur Prakashnagar to Avadi via Balaji Nagar, Lakshmi nagar, Nagathamman

Nagar

S50 Avadi to Poonamalle via Ramarathna, Arunachala Nagar, Parivakkam

S51 JJ Nagar west to Koyambedu Market via Vijaya Bank, Collector Nagar, Padikuppam

S52 Naduvankarai to Keelpakkam Medical college via Moovendhar Nagar, Peria Koodal,

D.P.Chanthiram,

S53 JJ Nagar west to Maduravayol Erikarai via Nolambur, Iswarya Nagar, Vanagaram.

S54 Ayapakkam to JJ Nagar east via ICF, Akathipattu, JJ Nagar West

S55 Ayanawaram to Amainthakarai(Aminjikarai) – Water Tank, PuthuAvadi, Chinthamani

S56 Shanmugapuram to Retteri via Mettur, Sooraputtu, Senthil Nagar

S57 Korattur North to Perambur via Mohan Garden, T.K.Brothers

S58 Sungasavadi(Toll gate) to Vallalar Nagar via GA Road, Stanley underground path

S67 Brindhavanam nagar to Moolakadai via Sivaprakasham Nagar, Velammal College

S68 Moolakadai to Akaram via Thanikachalam Nagar, Kumaran Nagar

S80 Chrompet to Pammal Kamarajarpuram via New colony 6th Street, Lakshmipuram

S81 Chrompet to Pozhichalur via Venkateswara Nagar, Nehru Nagar.

S82 Alandur Metro station to Madipakkam Bus stand via Adampakkam police station,

Ullakaram.

S83 Tambaram west to Perngalathur Railadi via Irumpuliyur, Church road, Peekankaaranai

S84 Tambaram west to Tiruneermalai via Mudichur road, Kannadapalayam

S85 Analandhur Metro station to Velacherry via Thillai Ganga Nagar, Vaanuvampettai

S86 T.Nagar to Nesapakkam via Madley road, Ashok Pillar, K.K Nagar.

S87 K.K Nagar to CMBT Metro station via Anna Main road, Sathiram

S88 Medawakkam good road to Pallikaranai via Kovilapakam, Viduthala Nagar

S89 Perungalathur to Mannivakkam good road via Vandalur bridge, Ramnagar

Source: MTC Hand Book

In the beginning when small bus services were introduced they were used by many people and these buses became very popular. It is now said that share autos have been used by many people for their last mile connectivity and MTC is now slowly reducing the number of small buses and in some places these small bus services no longer exist. It is important to note that initially MTC had a fleet of 100 small buses and it increased to 200 due to their demand from the interior places in Chennai city.

SEATING CAPACITY OF MINIBUS

The minimum number of seats is 6 and maximum of seats limits to 25 only excluding driver and conductor.

USERS OF MINIBUS TRANSPORT SERVICES

In the transport generating organisations or even in other service generating organization, it is pertinent that the users are given due weightage. The different categories of passengers use the service with different motives. The users like safe, time honored and economic service and the like.

General Users

In this group, we include all users rural or urban availing the service of transport organisations for travelling or other purposes. An individual prefers to have fast, safe and economic services. Sophistication is not an essential consideration for the rural users. On the other hand, the urban users prefer to avail quality service containing sophistication and offering to them more comforts and conveniences.

Industrial Users

The industrial users avail the service of transport organisations with the motives of safe, economic and time honored transportation of their goods to the destination. With the development of primary and secondary sectors, we find a significant increase in the requirements of industrial users. The perishable and other agriculture produces are transported from one place to another.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Main aim of small buses is to render services to people effectively and efficiently.

Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu, attracts many visitors either as tourists or a part of its large workforce. The vast majority claim Chennai is one of the best cities in India. Twenty nine important temples in and around Chennai and Marina Beach, Semmozhi Poonga, The

Huddleston Grandens of Theosophical Society, Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Pulicat Lake,

Breezy Beach, National Art Gallery, Connemara Public Library, Little Mount Shrine, is the most popular places in Chennai.

The Metropolitan Transportation commission is providing small bus facilities in all over

Chennai. So, there are a large number of passengers who visit the areas. In fact, small buses are connecting all places in Chennai city. The services of the small buses are commendable. But pilgrim also have some grievances with the operation of small buses. Hence, authors aim to bring out the extent to which buses are fulfilling necessity of the people.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The paper attempts to achieve the below mentioned objective;

 To find out the level of Passengers‟ Pilgrims Perception towards Small Bus Services in

Chennai City

METHODOLOGEY

This study involves collection of primary and secondary data. The primary data has been collected through a well-designed interview schedule formulated for the purpose of this study.

The secondary data were collected from published records such as performance statistics of

STUs published by Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT), Pune, Government reports and published books and journals to review the performance of STUs in India.

Sampling Design

Sampling design is a definite plan for obtaining sampling for giving population.

Methods of Sampling

In this article, the researcher has chosen a method of design namely „probability sampling” under this type, no specific principle bias is followed with selecting sampling element.

I have chosen the sample size (277) under lottery techniques methods of sampling.

Collection of Data

There are several ways of collecting the appropriate data depends on cost, time and resources normally data is called be classified as.

Statistical tools used for data analysis

For data processing and data analysis the researcher adopted simple percentage calculation.

 Chi squire test

 Correlations

DESCRIPTIVE AND CORRELATION ANALYSIS

TABLE-1

DISTRIBUTION OF SATISFACTION RESPONDENT

Q.NO SD D NA/D A SA

OVER ALL N 33 113 87 44 -

PERCEPTION % 11.9 40.6 31.3 15.8 -

N 24 115 80 58 - Q1 Frequency % 8.6 41.4 28.8 20.9 -

N 49 124 57 42 2 Q2 Travel Time % 17.6 44.6 20.5 15.1 0.7

N 39 139 62 35 - Q3 Punctuality % 14 50 22.3 12.6 -

N 14 72 94 93 3 Q4 Price % 5 25.9 33.8 33.5 1.1

N 44 113 75 41 - Q5 Information % 15.8 40.6 27 14.7 -

N 56 138 55 27 - Q6 Cleanliness % 20.1 49.6 19.8 9.7 -

Staff N 54 118 82 22 - Q7 Behaviour % 19.4 42.4 29.5 7.9 -

N 55 126 73 23 - Q8 Bus Comfort % 19.8 45.3 26.3 8.3 -

Seat N 30 113 83 49 1 Q9 availability % 10.8 40.6 29.9 17.6 0.4

Bus stop N 30 93 102 51 - Q10 security % 10.8 33.5 36.7 18.3 -

Safe from N 27 95 97 58 - Q11 accident % 9.7 34.2 34.9 20.9 -

On board N 32 131 83 30 - Q12 security % 11.5 47.1 29.9 10.8 -

Bus stop N 31 127 76 38 2 Q13 condition % 11.2 45.7 27.3 13.7 0.7

Information N 37 110 82 47 1 Q14 in bus stop % 13.3 39.6 29.5 16.9 0.4

SD = Strongly Disagree, D = Disagree, NA/D = neither agree or disagree, A = Agree, SA =

Strongly Agree

As shown in Table 2, the associated means all service quality attributes demonstrated that costumers were dissatisfied with service quality in Small bus transport (M < 3.0). Only a few customers responded that they were very satisfied. Table 2 summarizes the distribution of responses. The mean of overall satisfaction also indicate that customers are not satisfied with

Small bus transport (M=2.51, SD=0.90). From 278 respondents, only 44 customers claimed that they were satisfied with the service. No responded that they were very satisfied with the service.

Table 2 shows that all specific service quality attributes have a significant positive

relation with overall satisfaction (p<.001). This means that when satisfaction with a specific

service quality attributes increases, overall satisfaction increase too. Frequency of departures (r

= .50, p = .001), satisfaction with bus comfort (r = .49, p = .001), satisfaction with security on

board buses (r = .48, p = .001) and travel time (r =.45, p = .001) has the highest relation to

overall satisfaction. Thus, these attributes have a strong and high relationship with overall

customer satisfaction. Furthermore, as shown in Table 1, satisfaction with the price of the service

(r = .27, p = .001) and seat availability (r = .27, p = .001) has the lowest correlation to overall

satisfaction.

TABLE 2

CORRELATIONS BETWEEN SPECIFIC QUALITIES ATTRIBUTES

Overall Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 CORRELATIONS Sat

Overall 1 Satisfaction

Frequency Q1 0.5 1

Travel Time Q2 0.45 0.38 1

Punctuality Q3 0.42 0.4 0.47 1

Price Q4 0.27 0.34 0.21 0.27 1

Information Q5 0.32 0.28 0.31 0.44 0.23 1

Cleanliness Q6 0.42 0.3 0.36 0.43 0.29 0.43 1

Staff Behaviour Q7 0.37 0.18 0.36 0.39 0.3 0.45 0.67 1

Bus Comfort Q8 0.49 0.27 0.39 0.49 0.27 0.5 0.68 0.72 1

Seat Availability Q9 0.27 0.33 0.28 0.35 0.24 0.35 0.48 0.38 0.5 1

Bus Stop Security Q10 0.32 0.33 0.37 0.47 0.34 0.42 0.46 0.47 0.53 0.42 1

Safe From Q11 0.36 0.24 0.32 0.31 0.2 0.3 0.37 0.47 0.56 0.37 0.52 1 Accident

On Board Security Q12 0.48 0.21 0.35 0.39 0.25 0.37 0.5 0.58 0.68 0.38 0.59 0.64 1

Bus Stop Q13 0.4 0.18 0.24 0.34 0.17 0.35 0.35 0.36 0.44 0.3 0.41 0.42 0.54 1

Condition

Info Bus Stop Q14 0.4 0.27 0.32 0.51 0.2 0.55 0.48 0.5 0.56 0.44 0.54 0.47 0.5 0.54 1

Mean 2.51 2.62 2.36 2.34 3 2.41 2.19 2.26 2.23 2.56 2.63 2.67 2.4 2.46

SD 0.9 0.91 0.97 0.87 0.92 0.93 0.87 0.86 0.86 0.92 0.91 0.92 0.83 0.89 0.94

SUGGESTION

Rash driving should be avoided and introduction of electronic ticketing in buses like,

MTC should be appreciated.

Bus drivers should stop the bus close to the bus stop & not in the middle of the road

causing hindrance to public.

Intelligent Transport/Traffic System has to be designed so as to make more people to use

the Public Transport more efficiently.

Automatic Teller Machines ATMs have to be established in association with the lending

banks of the locality. This will provide the passengers to have easy access to money and or cash.

Suitable space has to be provided from internet café in the bus stations.

By letting out the vacant space in the bus station, small play things have to be provided

for children at a nominal price.

In spite of the efforts put in by RTC authorities, the cleanliness in bus satins is poor.

There should be effective supervision on the sweepers, cleaners to see that they do their job

efficiently.

To involve the passengers in maintaining cleanliness of the bus station, sing boards and

sticks have to be fixed at prominent places. This will improve awareness of the passengers for

the cleanliness drive.

Automated water spilling systems should be fixed in place of manually handled taps at urinals. This will avoid wastage of water when there is supply and supply of water when there is unavailability of water.

The bicycles, scooters of the passengers should be provided adequate space with roof to protect from sun and rain. Proper arrangement to give protection to the vehicles.

CONCLUSION

The introduction of small buses on the routes where city buses do not ply is really a boon to people who cannot afford either a two or three-wheeler. Small bus has helped in sharing the load and reducing the rush during peak hours. Town vendors and petty shop owners have found a convenient transport in minibus for ferrying their goods to the city market. The minibus drivers quite helpfully drop passengers wherever they want to disembark. The minibus is well equipped with tape recorders and FM making the ride enjoyable. The frequency and nominal fares have made minibus the popular mode of transport.

REFERENCES:

1. Abdul Sameem Ansari in this article “Road Users Perceptions on the Traffic Management in Hyderabad” Indian Journal of Transport Management (July-September 2007) Vol No.31, No.3. PP.248-262. 2. Gajendran a. Kaliyaperumal p. (2012) in his article, “A Study on Bus Passenger Perception and Level of Satisfaction - With Special Reference to Bus Transport Industries in Tamil Nadu” Volume: 01, Number: 09, Jan-2012: Research Journal of Social ScienceManagement pp.129-142

3. Ioannis Psarros, et al., “An Empirical Investigation of Passenger Wait Time Perceptions Using Hazard-Based Duration Models”, Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2011, pp109-122 4. Mane Kiran Harishchandra, in his article, “Commuters Satisfaction With Reference To Services Provided By Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation - A Case Study”

International Referred Research Journal ISSN- 0974-2832 VoL. II ISSUE -18, July, (2010).

5. Muhammad Imran Malik, et al., “Examining Stress, Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction in a Transport Company (A Case from Pakistan)”, International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 2 No. 18; October, pp81-85 6. Noorfakhriah Yaakub, and Madzlan Napiah, “Quality of Service and Passenger‟s Perception – A Review on Bus Service in Kota Bharu”, International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol: 11 No: 05, pp1-9 7. Ramamoorthy.K and Ponnuraj.S in this article “Passenger Perception of Omnibus Services – An Analysis” Indian Journal of Transport Management (October- December 2001) Vol No 26, NO-6 PP.555-574. 8. Sezhian M. et al., “Ranking of a Public Sector Passenger Bus Transport Company Using Principal Component Analysis: A Case Study” Management research and practice Volume No. 3 issue 1 (2011): pp 62-71 9. Sik Sumaedi1, et al., “The Empirical Study of Public Transport Passengers‟ Behavioral Intentions: The Roles of Service Quality, Perceived Sacrifice, Perceived Value, And Satisfaction (Case Study: Paratransit Passengers In Jakarta, Indonesia)”, International Journal for Traffic and Transport Engineering, 2012, 2(1), UDC: 656.121.072(594), pp83-97 10. Tri Basuki Joewono Hisashi Kubota in his article, “Safety and Security Improvementin Public Transportation Based on Public Perception in Developing Countries” Iatss Research Vol.30 No.1, 2006.