Assessment Of Service Quality, Safety and Security Of Ridesharing Services From Passenger's Perspective In Dhaka City

Abstract

The introduction of ride sharing companies has brought a vast impact on the Transportation field since the start of last decade. It is a form of shared mobility that provides on demand vehicles for hire services. In this system passengers can take rides through a cell phone based app. Likewise cities in developed countries, the ride sharing companies are gradually gaining popularity in the cities of developing countries as well , for example, in Dhaka , the capital of Bangladesh . Though these ride-sharing services are offering many benefits to the commuters in Dhaka City, their service quality and safety issues are often criticized and neglected. However, no visible study, if any, is observed which has assessed the service quality as well as safety and security from the passengers’ perspective of ride-sharing services in Dhaka city. Thus, the main objective of this study is to analyze the service quality and security of ridesharing from user’s perspective in Dhaka city. For this purpose this study tries to identify the customer’s satisfaction level by assessing the service quality of the ridesharing companies where the service quality incorporates availability, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, comfort, empathy, price fairness, drivers’ behavior & attitude, etc. of the offered services. Moreover, as the mechanism of ride-sharing facility is fully app based, the service quality of apps (i.e., user friendly or not, whether the app provides real-time GPS location through efficient network availability, adequate information about the driver and the vehicle etc.) will also be evaluated from the user’s perspective. With the increase of ride sharing services, the matter of personal safety and road safety of the passengers has now gained attention. Many incidents of various types of harassment and assaults of passengers along with the inflicted injuries from road crashes are reported from those rides. Thus the safety scenario would be assessed from two perspectives, firstly, personal safety of the passengers and secondly, road safety. Satisfaction level on personal security (i.e., easy availability of driver’s identity, vehicle registration number, helpline number etc.) and road safety issues (i.e., speeding, overtaking, illegal lane changing, seat-belt and helmet usage etc.) will be evaluated from ridesharing users’ point of view. To assess the service quality, safety and security, 153 people have been surveyed by means of questionnaire forms. Through this questionnaire survey information on vii respondents’ socio-economic, demographic, trip characteristics etc. have been collected along with their satisfaction level on service quality and safety provided by ride sharing services. Linear Regression model will be used to establish a relationship between respondents’ characteristics and their satisfaction level on service quality, safety and security. The results of this study will reveal that the satisfaction level on the provided service and security greatly varies among the respondents based on their socio-economic, demographic and travel characteristics. Through this study the actual scenario of service quality and safety provided by various ride-sharing companies will be unveiled. The findings of this study would be beneficial to the policy makers as well as authorities of the ride sharing companies for taking necessary measures to improve the existing provided services and security offered to the passengers.