An empirical study of commuters’ satisfactions with taxi service quality in Abeokuta, Nigeria

Abstract

Transport service provision in many urban landscapes in Nigeria is dominated by individuals and private organisations. In Nigeria, there is paucity of studies addressing commuters’ satisfaction with the service quality (SQ) of informal modes of transportation. This study examines commuters’ satisfaction with SQ of taxis in Abeokuta, Nigeria using household travel survey. The sample comprised of 272 commuters selected from 31 electoral wards in the study area. Data collected using SERVPREF questionnaire, were analysed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and multiple regression technique. The results indicate that the commuters’ satisfaction with taxis services is slightly above average (M = 2.69, SD = 1.29) on a scale of 1 to 5. The principal component analysis identified four factors which explained 59.06% percent of the total variance in commuters’ satisfaction with taxi services in Abeokuta. In addition multiple regression coefficients showed that only three of the factors (factor 1 (β = 0.098, P < 0.05), factor 2 (β = 0.154, P < 0.000), and factors 3 (β = 0.106, P < 0.05)) significantly influenced commuters’ perception of satisfaction with taxis.The study concludes that taxis service providers need to improve on aspects of services rated low by respondents and to embrace recent trend in taxis services provision as obtainable in advance countries, while the state government should plan towards introducing bus rapid transit system (BRT) in Abeokuta and other major cities in Ogun state in the nearest future.