Quality of Bus Services in Punjab: A Comparative Study of Public and Private Sector

Abstract

Bus transport also appears under the scope of service industry; and survival of any service industry depends on how well it serves and satisfies its passengers. A satisfied passenger is always the biggest asset of any service industry. If there is a gap between the expectations and perceptions of respondents, then, there is a need to improve the quality of services delivered by the organisation. SERVQUAL Model is based on five dimensions, viz. tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. To study the quality of bus services and perceptions’ of passengers a questionnaire is framed out and it covers the five dimensions of service quality i.e., tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The questionnaire designed for this research work is based on a 5-point Likert scale with the assigned weights ranging from 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree). After analysis of different parameters of service quality, it is found that the quality of private sector bus transport is better than the public sector. The gap score in private sector is less as compare to public sector. Further, passengers were not satisfied which the quality of bus services in Punjab, but private sector give tough competition by try to capture the passengers by providing good services to public as compared to public sector.