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Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

This portion deals with related literatures and background insights that are

relevant to the study. This review will focus on the presentation of specific variables

on the struggles of student commuters of Panabo City Senior High School with

regards to their correspondence, reliability, and availability.

Public transport that is convenient, safe and cheap services that are

accessible to the society are what make the transportation reliable. As a sector that

fulfills many people, the type of public transport vehicles must be operated in

compliance with the road hierarchy, capacity and transportation demand that it

served. A reliable public transportation is believed to reduce the population of private

vehicle operators in the transportation sector. As a result, this would benefit the

companies due to reduction of traffic congestion, reduce fuel wasted, and lessen lost

time which will also give benefits on public health and on the environment. The

travelling public has demand for transport. However, bus services are often not

reliable, not pleasant and harmful. It plays a major role in the provision of public

transport (Ab Manaf, L. 2015).

Aquino et al. (2012) emphasized on university students passenger’s

satisfaction commuting on tricycles in Koronadal City which focuses on drivers’

observance of speed limit; hygiene and grooming; charging fare; politeness/respect

toward passengers; and familiarity of places. It was revealed that among the

indicators, hygiene and grooming of drivers found not satisfied and it was

recommended to the local government on the said locality to enforced tight rules
 11

concerning the matter while the remaining indicators appeared to be satisfactorily

met by the tricycle drivers.

Bajado C., Irene E, and Laurilla F.T. (2015) on their study which stressed that

despite some complaints on tricycle drivers, commuters preferred to ride tricycle due

to having a cheap fare, readily available, quiet and friendly environment.

Empathy. In La Union, the tricycle drivers have given due recognition by the

city government for their honesty in rendering services to the commuters. Moreover,

the government encourage tricycle drivers to sustain and gave extra concern to the

commuters not just only to residents but also to tourists and non-residents as they

are ambassadors of goodwill and a role model of kindness, obedience and respect

(Beleo, T. 2017).

Reliability. In City of Bohol, the local government spearheaded the resolution

of revocation of tricycle drivers franchise upon accumulation of several traffic

violation and breach of contract of carriage. In fact, the basic responsibility of tricycle

for hire is to transport the passengers safely to their destination. Moreover, extra

care is required from tricycle drivers in conveying commuters as they are entrusted

the contract of carriage without discrimination as provided by transportation and

public utility law (Bohol Chronicle, 2017)

Summary on services of [Link] T. (2009) emphasized that in order

to atttract more commuters, public transport must have a high quality of service in

order to satisfy the passenger’s needs.

Moreover, ( Bwisa H.M. & Murambi D.N. 2014 ) stressed that, to level up the

utilization of public transport, the services must be designed and performed in the

idea that satisfy the required services by the commuters. Furthermore, it revealed on
 12

his study that drivers play an important role on the commuters’ satisfaction and

dissatisfaction, and since the drivers are unaware the passengers’ expectations it

leads to the drivers being indifferent. To address the concern, the combination of

information and the drivers is the way to success as the drivers is the main

interaction with the commuters.

Similarly, on the study (Godoy, O. 2015) 31 percent of the commuters in Lapa

City had a tricycle ride on daily basis which means that this was the typical mode of

transportation in the locality.

The basic target of the dimension is to afford more facilities for the current or

potential customers and enhance the services capacity, through personalized or

customized service. (Guga D. & Mudenda C. 2017) describe empathy as the caring,

individualized attention that the firm provides its customers.

On the other hand, the fare of habal-habal cost almost twice than tricycles

since it monopolizes some specific routes (Guillen, M.D. & Ishida H. 2003).

Harr K.K.L. (2008) proposed that service providers should be diligent and

voluntary in helping their customers and in providing timely service. This dimension

demands that the service provider should be more flexible in solving their customers’

problems and requests. Firms even should have a capacity to customize services for

dealing with their customers’ special needs.

Hllabiso G. and Mugozhi F. (2016) revealed that the appearance and

disposition of vehicles contribute to the satisfaction of customers. This view was

justified by 89% of the respondents. This includes the space of the vehicle cannot

accommodate their required number of passengers to board. Another problem is that

most of public utility drivers are untidy. In addition, being well groomed is imperative
 13

in giving comfortable services to passengers. The absence of tangibles like bus

stops with shelters is another major criticism against this public transport service.

Hlabisa G. and Mugozhi F. (2016) in their research on customers’ satisfaction

on commuters’ transport services pointed out those omnibuses public transportation

is not reliable because the conductors are dishonest about their precise destinations

indicated by the high response of 96%. Comparatively on the study of Mammo, F.

(2010) is the unfixed time table of travels is also one of the major problems for most

respondents. It means that the first passenger who board on the vehicle must

patiently wait until it is filled up before it will traverse. As a result, this would delay

passengers in getting to their intended destinations.

Ninety-eight percent of the respondents was revealed in the study of Hlabisa

G. and Mugozhi F. (2016) that drivers, conductors, and operators are unresponsive

to the commuters in attending their complaints. This factor is due to the deficiency of

appropriate approach to do so in handling customers’ complaints. Moreover, no

suggestion boxes and cell numbers of bus operators can be used to address their

complaints. Again, there are no time tables for service delivery for the commuter

omnibuses. The other worth mentioning out coming from this research is that there

are no proper designated service access points for this service sector. Most of the

respondents pointed out that the commuter omnibuses stop everywhere even in the

middle of the road, and in no stopping zones. The other remarkable idea pertaining

to bus stops from the field is that these commuter omnibuses change the customer

service access points very frequently to the inconvenience of their clients. The

research findings also noted that these commuter omnibuses always shift their

customer access points for several reasons which include competing to get

commuters.
 14

Another concept came out from the research of Hlabiso G. and Mugozhi F.

(2016) that 95% of the respondents’ complaint is about the least empathy of drivers

towards their customers. In fact, they are courteous to passengers before getting into

their vehicles, however, they become ill-mannered towards passengers when they

are inside and have bought tickets. Also, they do not commiserate when passenger’s

property is lost. With that, they do not pay for it. In fact, on their ticket there is a

disclaimer to that effect. Additionally, the lack of empathy is also manifested when a

commuter forgot to collect his change, they eventually do not mind returning it to

their passenger voluntarily. Sometimes, the conductors of these commuter

omnibuses use subliminal strategies to hood wink their customers in telling them a

lower bus fare figure when one is not yet in the bus and only to be told a higher bus

fare figure when the commuter omnibus is already in transit and when is now

problematic for a passenger to then disembark.

Furthermore, a research on customers satisfaction and commuter transport in

Southern Africa revealed that 93% of the commuters comparing to only 7% indicated

that many of the drivers in several ways, do not instill assurance in their customers.

The commuter omnibus crew members in most cases do not have the required skills

to perform the required customer service and as such, it is no wonder why very often

they are rude to their customers. The main fact for this impropriety was that most of

drivers as well as conductors are not trained on customer care issues. Besides,

some of the drivers do not have the right driver’s license to operate the vehicles and

fleeing at high speed from the manning road blocks of police because of inhibition. In

this same light, the research exposes that faulty vehicles also push the drivers to use

dangerous and illegal routes to elude the police. The other lack of assurance finding

of this research is that the drivers pass through red robots as well as driving in the
 15

wrong lane and all these put into imperil the life of the passengers (Hlabiso G. &

Mugozhi, F. 2016)

Likewise, Horus E.N. and Yeboah S.T. (2015) in their study on minicab taxi

services in Ghana also revealed that the second highest influencing factor on

customer satisfaction is the reliability of the service. This implied that readily

availability of vehicles at the stations, timely arrival of vehicles, timely arrivals at

destination and notification of delays were measured by commuters. The finding of

the research shows that commuters placed much importance on on-time pledged

services and arriving on destination on the reasonable time frame.

Reliability is an important element of service quality, which determines the

level of passengers’ satisfaction as specified by Iles C. (2005) in his research in

London. Provision of reliable service enables service providers to retain passengers

for a long period. Passengers may be lost and may not be regained if the service is

unreliable. Those passengers who use urban transportation services are increasingly

sensitive to waiting time and they are more satisfied with scheduled service, which

habitually operates exactly according to scheduled departure and arrival times by

operating at the appropriate frequency.

Kimwetich C.J. (2012) on his study states that 87 percent of the motorcycles

operators have not given safety tools to the passengers. Thus, 96 percent of the

passenger’s disfavor motorcycles for not abiding traffic rules and regulation that

cause accidents. The remaining more than 4 percent are unhappy with the rude

behavior of motorcycle drivers.

In Pakistan, a study conducted by Khurshid S. et. al (2012) disclosed that

poor customer care is felt by commuters due to poor driving skills of omnibuses
 16

drivers which are regarded as lack of assurance. One of the reasons behind hapless

accidents is the driving manner of the driver. They tend to overtake other vehicles in

competing for customers. Their research also divulged that drivers drive recklessly in

desire to board more and more passengers that would cause a feeling of danger on

commuters while on travel.

Martinez R. (2013) which states that, in City of Mati, tricycles and habal-

habals are the major mode of transportation which able to travel at any destination

within the locality.

Mushi, L. (2013) on his study on public transportation proved that this service

quality dimension has the most significant effect comparing to responsiveness and

assurance. He stated that passengers came up with views on some few areas of

interest under this dimension. Physical appearance of drivers is another area which

boosted much the overall satisfaction of passengers.

Mushi, L. (2013) states that the willingness to help customers is one of the

statements regarding the responsiveness dimension which happen to be among the

most significant factors influencing customer satisfaction. This statement was rated

very low in the questionnaires results.

In addition, his study revealed that passengers find it difficult for them to

obtain the reliable information regarding the transport service provided by Dar

Express prior to travel since company does not use user-friendly printed material

such area-based timetables, posters and brochures.

Assurance. Nakamura, F., Okamura, E., and Tanphaisankun, G. (2009)

stressed that para transit would likely suffice the commuters need in terms of

mobility. Unfortunately, the quality of services does not satisfy the commuters though
 17

it was acceptable. This dissatisfaction started from unsafe, uncomfortable,

inconvenient and unreliable serves delivered. Despite, commuters still willing to

utilize para transit services.

Responsiveness. Olea, R. (2016) states that problems encountered by tricycle

drivers is not simple, instead of being disrespectful to the commuters, they just have

their patience and they just let it go without any hesitation

Moreover, in the study of (Rahman, A.R. 2012) states that few tricycles are

moving around due to its mountainous land area. Although fare matrix is regulated

by the local government unit (LGU) in km rate basis, the tricycle drivers in the area

are demanding fare price depending on the frequency of commuters. A commuter

will pay higher if he is the only one inside the tricycle.

Since tricycles can only be accessible on plain topography, motorcycle or

natively known as “habal-habal” is the only reachable transportation on the hilly

areas of the island. However, habal-habal fares demand higher price than any other

modes of transportation. Motorcycle drivers in the island demand their price

depending on the destination of the commuter.

Verasamy S. et. al (2013) identifies assurance as knowledge and courtesy

and the ability of the service providers and its people to build trust and confidence.

Competence, courtesy, credibility and security are four determinants of this

dimension.

Tangibility. Tangibles are the appearance of physical facilities, equipment,

and personnel of service providers (April, J. 2001). Since the tangible and visual

elements of the site will be critical to efficiency as well as to overall perceptions of

the firm and the brand, service providers are likely to use tangibles to enhance their
 18

image and convey quality service to customers. Most providers also combine

tangibles with another dimension to create a service quality strategy for the firm

(Zeithaml et al., 2006).