Commuters’ Satisfaction on the Services of Bus Companies in the Province of Batangas

Abstract

The research study was conducted to determine the level of satisfaction of the respondents on the service quality provided by the Bus Companies in the Province of Batangas. The framework used to best describe the service quality of the mentioned subject is the SERVQUAL model with five aspects/dimensions namely: tangibility, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and reliability. More so, the respondents of the study were the 2,394 passengers/public commuters of bus transportation in the mentioned Province which represented the gathered population of study that were congregated through multistage cluster sampling procedure in the two weeks conduct of the survey on the hours with bulky number of passengers from 5am-8am and 3pm -6pm (based on the survey conducted with bus drivers, conductors, dispatcher and observation on the first day of the survey) of July 21- August 3, 2016 in eight (8) bus terminals in the Province of Batangas. The mentioned parameters were set by the researcher with the approval of his statistician and adviser as the gathering of the population followed probability procedure. The surveys in eight (8) bus terminals were done through the hired field interviewers of which research survey followed the same parameter. Memorandum of agreement stipulating guidelines, terms and conditions were signed by the researcher and field interviewer.  The study arrived at 342 sample size that was computed using 5% margin of error.  Furthermore, descriptive method was used to gather primary data to passengers regarding service quality provided by the bus companies operating and plying within and outside the Province of Batangas. The main instrument used to gather primary data was the self-surveyed questionnaire that was face and content validated by superb academician and industry experts. Also, dry run was conducted to pre-test the questionnaire which resulted to cronbach alpha value of .947. Lastly, frequency and percentage, mean, ANOVA: t-test and f-test were used to statistically measure the study based on the statement of the problem.

 The study revealed that the respondents were satisfied with the service quality of Bus Companies in the Province of Batangas. Also, the study revealed significant difference on the level of satisfaction of the respondents on the service quality by responsiveness aspect when they are grouped according to civil status and types of bus service frequently availed of. In addition, there was significant difference on the level of satisfaction of the respondents on the service quality by responsiveness aspect when they are grouped according to age, civil status and highest educational attainment. More so, the study also revealed significant differences on the level of satisfaction of the respondents on the service quality by assurance when they are grouped according to civil status and highest educational attainment. Furthermore, there are significant differences on the level of satisfaction of the respondents on the service quality by empathy aspect when they are grouped according to civil status and highest educational attainment. Lastly, the study revealed significant differences on the level of satisfaction of the respondents on the service quality by reliability aspect when they are grouped according to civil status and highest educational attainment. The results of suggested analyses show that service quality is an ongoing factor of measuring customer satisfaction and differentiation strategy.