Laura Eboli

A Stated Preference Experiment for Measuring Service Quality in Public Transport

Abstract This paper develops a Stated Preference (SP) experiment that provides a way to measure service quality in public transport. The paper introduces an empirical procedure for optimising the SP experiment. This procedure permits the identification of the choice alternatives defining the experiment by simulating the choices of a user sample. By using the data collected from an experimental survey, a Multinomial Logit model was calibrated. This model is a way of identifying the importance of service quality attributes on global customer satisfaction and calculating a Service Quality Index, which provides an operationally appealing measure of current or potential service effectiveness.

A New Customer Satisfaction Index for Evaluating Transit Service Quality

This article describes a new customer satisfaction index that can be used to evaluate transit service quality. The index, named Heterogeneous Customer Satisfaction Index (HCSI), is inspired by the traditional Customer Satisfaction Index, but incorporates the heterogeneity among the user judgments about the different service aspects. The newer index includes features that can monitor service quality, identify causes of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and capture ideas for improving service quality. The authors present a case study of the HCSI applied to a suburban bus service offering connections between an urban area and several small villages north and south of Cosenza, Italy. In this case study, the highest contributions to overall satisfaction were ease of purchasing the ticket, security against crimes occurring on the bus, reliability of the schedule, and appearance of the bus agency personnel. The authors conclude that the HCSI shows some advantages compared to the others adopted for measuring service quality, because it can be more easily applied by the transit operators.

How to Capture the Passengers’ Point of View on a Transit Service through Rating and Choice Options

Abstract In this paper, a methodology for capturing the transit passenger’s point of view by using both rating and choice options is proposed. For this purpose, some discrete choice logit models are introduced; the models allow the probability of choice of some alternative transit services to be calculated, and the importance of each service aspect to be determined. The models are calibrated by using data collected by a survey in which a stated preferences experiment was proposed to a sample of passengers, and some judgements were expressed by them about their transit services, in terms of perceptions and expectations. The introduced methodology provides a relevant contribution from a practical viewpoint because it allows the identification of the most important aspects on overall service quality; it is useful to the transit operators for measuring service quality and for investing on the various service aspects in order to effectively improve transit services.

Heterogeneity in Perceptions of Service Quality among Groups of Railway Passengers

The aim of this work is to analyze the different perceptions among groups of users regarding transit service quality. We propose a methodology based on a classification and regression tree (CART) approach, allowing the characteristics that most influence overall service quality to be identified. The methodology is applied by using data regarding rail service in northern Italy, particularly suburban lines connecting different towns of the hinterland of the city of Milan. Passengers expressed their opinions about service characteristics such as safety, cleanliness, comfort, information, and personnel. We found that perceptions about service quality are differentiated among the various groups of users.

Key factors affecting rail service quality in the Northern Italy: a decision tree approach

AbstractThis work concerns with the analysis of transit service quality on the basis of the perceptions directly expressed by the passengers of the services. The transit services supporting the research are offered by rail operators of the Northern Italy, and particularly by regional and suburban lines connecting different towns of the hinterland of the city of Milan, and express lines connecting Milan with the Malpensa airport. The experimental data were collected in a survey conducted in May 2012, and addressed to a sample of more than 16,000 passengers. Passengers expressed their opinions about service characteristics such as safety, cleanliness, comfort, information, personnel. The tool chosen for evaluating service quality is a Classification and Regression Tree Approach (CART), useful for identifying the characteristics mostly influencing the overall service quality. We found that service characteristics like ‘Windows and Doors Working’, ‘Courtesy and Competence on Board’, ‘Information at Stations’,...

Relationships between rail passengers’ satisfaction and service quality: a framework for identifying key service factors

Increasing the use of public transport is one of the most convenient strategies for alleviating the problems resulting from the excessive use of the private car in most metropolitan areas (congestion, pollution, noise, etc.). In order to improve public transport, developing appropriate tools for measuring and monitoring service quality is necessary. Among the various methods for measuring transit service quality the authors choose to adopt a method based on customer perspective because they retain that customers have the right elements for appropriately judging the used service. Specifically, a structural equation model is formulated to explore the impact of the relationship between global customer satisfaction and service quality attributes, such as safety, cleanliness, main and additional services, information about the service, and personnel, and to verify which of these attributes are key factors of service quality. Services offered by rail operators in Northern Italy are analysed (32 regional lines, 9 suburban lines, 2 express lines). Data collected by a survey addressed to a sample of more than 16,000 passengers are used for calibrating the model. The proposed model can be useful both to transport agencies and planners to analyze the correlation between service quality attributes and identify the most convenient attributes for improving the supplied service. The main findings are that information, cleanliness, and service characteristics like punctuality and frequency of runs have the highest positive effect on service quality. In addition, the authors experimented with the introduction of indicators explaining the endogenous latent variable different from the traditionally used indicators, such as an index based on both satisfaction and importance rates.

An ordinal logistic regression model for analysing airport passenger satisfaction

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a tool for measuring air passenger satisfaction and for identifying the critical service aspects available in the terminal in order to offer services characterised by a high level of quality.Design/methodology/approach – Statistical analysis of experimental data collected by customer satisfaction survey. Modelling by the logistic regression approach This paper explores a methodology useful for measuring airport service quality by taking into account the passengers point‐of‐view.Findings – The comparison between the extended and reduced model showed an insignificant impact of some services aspects on the passenger overall satisfaction, and particularly, the services linked to the helpfulness of personnel, airport appearance, airport signposting, toilets inside the terminal, and availability and frequency of bus links. The key to the reading of this results can be searched in the low correlation between the judgements expressed on some service aspects and the judgements...

Transit passengers’ behavioural intentions: the influence of service quality and customer satisfaction

ABSTRACT Knowing passengers’ behavioural intentions to use transit service can be a useful support for transit managers and marketers who can define the most convenient strategies to satisfy existing passengers and attract new ones. We retain that analysing passengers’ intentions to continue to use transit services in the future together with relevant concepts such as service quality and customer satisfaction is fundamental to understand passengers’ behaviour. For this reason, in this paper we propose a structural equation model for investigating on the relationship among some aspects influencing passengers’ behavioural intentions towards the use of transit services. The light rail transit (LRT) of Seville (Spain) offers the transit service supporting our work. We collected through an ad-hoc survey the opinions of the passengers about the used LRT system and transit system in general, and we propose a methodology to explain how passengers’ opinions influence their intentions to use the LRT again. Among the interesting findings from the model, we observe that behavioural intentions are mostly affected by passengers’ judgements about LRT service quality and their satisfaction with the service. Moreover, not only direct but indirect effects on behavioural intentions are derived, determining an accurate conclusion about the relationships of the other concepts with LRT’ users behavioural intentions.

Individual Attitudes and Shopping Mode Characteristics Affecting the Use of E-Shopping and Related Travel

Abstract New telecommunication technologies and services have caused important challenges on travel behaviour and trip characteristics. Existing literature studies show many different outcomes regarding the effects of the new technologies on the participation of people to their personal activities and related travel; specifically, e-shopping may produce the reduction of shopping trips (substitution effect), but also an increase of trips thanks to the reuse of the travel time saved for other activities and trips (complementarity’s effect). The focus of this study is to analyse the aspects mostly affecting consumer choices of purchasing goods by web or in-store, with the aim of understanding how to operate so that e-shopping can positively modify consumers’ travel behaviour. Our research findings show that individual social and economic factors, consumer attitudes, and shopping mode characteristics influence the usage of online shopping. An experimental survey addressed to a sample of Italian consumers is used in the study.

How to identify the key factors that affect driver perception of accident risk. A comparison between Italian and Spanish driver behavior

Road crashes can be caused by different factors, including infrastructure, vehicles, and human variables. Many research studies have focused solely on identifying the key factors that cause road crashes. From these studies, it emerged that human factors have the most relevant impact on accident severity. More specifically, accident severity depends on several factors related directly to the driver, i.e., driving experience, drivers socio-economic characteristics, and driving behavior and attitudes. In this paper, we investigate driver behaviors and attitudes while driving and specifically focus on different methods for identifying the factors that most affect the drivers perception of accident risk. To this end, we designed and conducted a survey in two different European contexts: the city of Cosenza, which is located in the south of Italy, and the city of Granada, which is located in the south of Spain. Samples of drivers were contacted for their opinions on certain aspects of driving rules and attitudes while driving, and different types of questions were addressed to the drivers to assess their judgments of these aspects. Consequently, different methods of data analysis were applied to determine the aspects that heavily influence driver perception of accident risk. An experiment based on the stated preferences (SP) was carried out with the drivers, and the SP data were analyzed using an ordered probit (OP) model. Interesting findings emerged from different analyses of the data and from the comparisons among the data collected in the two different territorial contexts. We found that both Italian and Spanish drivers consider driving in an altered psychophysical state and violating the overtaking rules to be the most risky behaviors.