METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH - Shodhgangashodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/22484/11/11...Chapter...

Chapter III Methodology of Research

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CHAPTER - III

METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH

3.1. INTRODUCTION

The data needed for this study are mainly first hand data on the opinions and attitudes

of the bus passengers on various attributes or features of bus service, which the

passengers consider and evaluate when deciding to travel and which might be

‘determinant’ in preferring or choosing a particular service/operator over the others, when

given such a choice, in a given route. The opinions and attitudes of the passengers towards

these service features or attributes may in turn determine the choice or preference of a

particular bus service, as gathered from the literature available on the earlier research

studies on this subject. This might also explain the general performance of competing

services on their marketing orientation and their responsiveness to the passengers’ needs

and preferences and from that the management initiatives and actions required for

improving the responsiveness of the competing services could also be identified.

Among such numerous features or attributes of a product, brand or service there are

some attributes, which predispose the consumer to action i.e., in the preference of the

particular product/service and to the actual selection or purchase, while the other

attributes/features do not. The consumers’ attitudes towards those features which are most

closely related to the preference or to the actual purchase decisions are said to be

“determinant” and the remaining features or attributes are not determinant(Myers,Alpert

1969). Though the word “determinant” has the same meaning as “important”, it is more


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specific in this situation as it implies “truly-decisive”. For every product, service, brand,

pattern, style or other individual offering to the public, there are at least two levels of

evaluation by the consumers. They are:

1. Overall attitude towards the item, in terms of its suitability or desirability. This

relationship of overall attitude to the subsequent action of buying the item has

been discussed by Palda(1966), Howard and Sheth(1969), etc.

2. The attitude towards each of the component features, attributes or characteristics

of the item presumably combine or sum up in some logical way to produce an

‘overall attitude’ towards the item.

3.2. DATA REQUIREMENTS

This study concerns with the important features, attributes or characteristics of the

passenger bus service and how these are ‘determinant’ in the actual selection of a particular

bus service/operator and how they combine to affect both the overall evaluation of a

service and the decision to travel in a particular service.

So the primary data required for this analytical study have been generated from

“passenger surveys” on-board the buses in selected routes in Kerala, where there are other

operators/services like TNSTC(CBE Dn.) and Private bus services, in addition to KSRTC

services.

For corroborating the findings from the primary survey data, the actual operational

statistics of the KSRTC and TNSTC(CBE Dn.) for the period under this study were also

collected from secondary sources like Trip sheets, Registers of Schedules and Operations

and the Daily Collection Accounts of the service/schedules of the buses of the operators.

Thus the methodology of this study consisted of data collection as follows:


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1. Primary Data generation from passenger survey on-board the bus services in two

selected routes in Kerala which included services of KSRTC, TNSTC and Private

operators in the same routes.

2. Secondary Data from the operational records of KSRTC and TNSTC for the period

under study, like the Schedules/Trips operated, trips cancelled, breakdowns and the daily

collection from the buses in the route. The different stages involved in these are explained

below:

3.3.GENERATION OF PRIMARY DATA

The Primary data needed for identifying the opinions, attitudes and determinant

features were generated from passenger surveys on-board the buses of the different

operators like KSRTC, TNSTC and Private Services in the selected routes using a

questionnaire/question-schedule (in English and Malayalam ) which were got filled in by

the passengers themselves. This questionnaire was developed after exploratory study,

pilot surveys and pre-testing in samples of 25 and 100 respondents in different stages, in

a few selected routes in Kerala, before the final survey was conducted.

3.3.1 Development of Questionnaire

1. Identification of Service Features /Attributes

The critical part of this research is the identification of the service-features/attributes

of the passenger bus services, which are determinant in the preference and subsequent

travel in a particular bus service, from numerous such features which are associated with

the service. This process of identification of the features and the designing of the


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questionnaire was done in different stages for refining the form, contents and structure of

the questionnaire.

2. Initial Exploratory Study:

The available literature on this topic related to passenger transport service and its

features or attributes and ‘determinant analysis’ as mentioned in the previous chapter, was

studied initially prior to proceeding with the field work for this research. Earlier, some

studies of similar nature had been done abroad especially in the U.S. on urban bus

transportation systems. Lovelock (1975) had identified some features and attributes as the

determinants of modal-selection in “San Francisco Bay Area” study. Lovelock had also

studied consumer oriented approaches to marketing of urban transit and identified major

market ‘segmentation variables’ and established the relationship of these segmentation

variables to the modal choice decisions, and had related the ‘transit objectives’ to these

variables. Some other studies of similar nature are also there which try to identify the

‘determinant’ service-features as above, like the urban bus service systems in Cleveland

and Virginia areas in the USA(1981), Telford in UK(2000) etc. These studies had been

done in different environments and in urban-mass transit scenarios and also with different

objectives. With this background information, an ‘exploratory study’ was first conducted

by interviewing the bus passengers without using a structured questionnaire to elicit

information about their general perceptions, views and opinions on different service-

operators. These interviews were conducted on-board the buses while travelling in

different routes in Kerala and also outside the buses, like at the Bus Stands. The persons

interviewed were frequent travellers in different bus-services along the routes of Palghat-

Calicut, Palghat–Coimbatore(TN),Palghat–Pollachi(TN),Palghat–Guruvayoor and Palghat-

Trichur, along which routes the bus services are operated by KSRTC, TNSTC(CBE) and

Private operators. So there was a good blend of different service-operators to assess the bus


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service-features. After these initial exploratory interviews, a ‘preliminary questionnaire’

was developed for the ‘passenger survey’ to identify the important service

features/attributes in the first phase of this study after a series of in-depth discussions and

subsequent modifications to the questionnaire format. Various phases of work in the

development of the Questionnaire as above, are described below:

3.3.2 1st Phase – Questionnaire: For identifying the Service Features/Attributes:

The first questionnaire used for this study in the exploratory stage as above had listed

in it 19 service features(+any other--optional ) and questions about the service,

demographics of the respondents etc., and was administered to 50 respondents who are

regular bus passengers on these routes . The service features listed in this for identification

as important by the respondents are as below:

1. Timings convenient

2. More trips with less inter time

3. Availability of seat

4. Economy of fare

5. Speed of the vehicle

6. More stops en-route

7. Two-door body

8. Luggage space provided

9. No standing passengers

10. Safety of travel

11. Bus station amenities

12. Reservation facilities

13. Right time arrival and departure


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14. Availability of season tickets

15. Sure of getting the bus in time

16. Crew friendly and helping

17. Cleanliness of vehicle

18. Good looks of the vehicle

19. Comfortable seat

20. ……….. ……… … any other ( to specify)

The respondents were requested to assign ranks for each of the features, in the order

of perceived importance to the respondents. The rank numbers so assigned were in turn

given score points at the analysis stage, like: the attribute which was ranked 1 was given

the highest score and so on and finally these score points were summed up. From these the

features/attributes which were ranked the highest most of the times, and which got the

highest score points, were taken as the important service-features which were to be probed

further and studied in-depth in the subsequent phases of the ‘exploratory study’ and the

“pilot survey” that followed. The 50 numbers given were received back, duly filled in and

completed.

3.3.3 IInd

Phase: Pilot Survey - Questionnaire

i. The second phase of this research was a Pilot Survey using a modified questionnaire.

The Questionnaire used in the ‘first phase’ as above was refined subsequently, using the

information collected in the exploratory study done in the first phase. This questionnaire

was redesigned/restructured and abridged for eliciting only the essential information as

spelt out in the objectives of this research. This survey was done using this questionnaire

given as Appendix-III and was administered to 100 Bus passengers, along four routes

viz.1) Palghat–Coimbatore 2) Palghat-Guruvayoor 3) Palghat-Calicut 4) Palghat –Pollachi.


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ii. The following service features which were ranked the highest by most of the

respondents in the first phase survey were listed in this questionnaire as the important

service features/attributes of the passenger Bus service. The score points for the particular

attributes were assigned, on the basis of ‘how many times’ a particular attribute came in

the ‘first seven ranks’ in the responses, and correspondingly score points were given for

each rank for each of the attribute and summed up. It was decided to include in this

questionnaire only ‘seven’ service attributes which scored the highest in the earlier survey,

as it was felt that more number of attributes, if included, would make it cumbersome and

might fatigue the respondents, and in turn, many of them might tend to skip answering.

Instead, blank space for entering one more service attribute was provided for the

respondents to fill in, and rate it, if he/she desired to include any other attributes as relevant

and important but not included in the selected seven attributes listed as above. The

features which came as important and thus selected for inclusion in this questionnaire in

the order of the total scores of each are:

1. Convenient timing

2. Punctuality (right-time arrival and departure)

3. Safety of travel

4. Reliability (dependability)

5. Speed (less travel time)

6. Economy in fare

7. Frequency of service (number of trips)

8. (Any other) ……….. ……………. (to specify)


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iii. Determining the level of importance of each service feature & Rating scale

In order to understand the level of importance that each of the respondents assign to

each of these service feature/attribute, a rating scale was used in the questionnaire against

the particular question on the importance of each feature/attribute (Q-6). As mentioned in

the literature survey/study in the preceding chapter, a good number of research studies

have been done on the ‘Attitude-Rating Scales’ in the past. Ordinal and Interval scales are

mostly used for this type of scaling. Though ratio-scales are used commonly in physical

sciences, the measurement of human ‘attitude’ is still much debated about, although efforts

have been made to develop attitude measurement scales which approximate to ratio-

scales. For practical purposes, the ordinal and interval scales are extensively used in

‘marketing research’. There has been a growing tendency to treat many ordinal scales, as

if they are interval scales and tests have shown that this is a reasonable assumption. The

degree of association between the most simple ordinal scale, rank ordering and an interval

scale has been shown to be very high and there appears to be little loss in accuracy, but

considerable gain in interpretability, if ordinal scales are treated as giving nearly interval

data. In this context, Haley & Case(1979)have tested 13 attitude scales for agreement and

brand discrimination and have reported that ‘Five-point Scale’ seemed to discriminate

better than ‘11-point scales’. More than seven points in a scale seemed to lessen its ability

to discriminate (Finn,1972). Two or three alternatives do not provide much information

and more than 9 alternatives add little or no information, but complicate the research

process. Jenkins and Taber(1977) suggested that five-point scales are good to measure

attitude and in reliability. In this background, it was decided to use a 5-point scale, for

this questionnaire with the following verbal labels and positive numerical values for

scaling the attributes:


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VERBAL LABEL ON THE SCALE NUMERICAL VALUE

Not Important 1

Desirable 2

Important 3

Very Important 4

Extremely Important 5

Against each service feature, the scale as above was given, so that, the respondents could

‘tick’ mark at the perceived level of importance of each attribute to them.

iv. Ascertaining the ‘Determinant’ nature of each Feature/Attribute:

To identify whether a service feature as given above is a ‘determinant’ feature for

selecting a particular bus service for travel, and to avoid ambiguities in interpretation and

possible errors in judgment (Myers, Alpert 1977,’80 ), a direct question about whether it is

determinant in the choice of the bus service, has also been included along side the scale,

for the respondent to tick ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. The attitude of the buyer/consumer towards

features which are most closely related to preferences or to the actual purchase/selection

decisions are said to be determinant and the remaining features or attitudes – no matter

how favorable- are not determinant. Hence the direct question on whether the feature is

determinant is included in the questionnaire.

v. Identifying Passenger-Market Segments:

The bus-passengers as a macro group are heterogeneous in nature as regards their

travel needs and their perceptions. The needs and wants of different sub-groups of this

larger or macro group, though small may be fairly homogenous as regards their travel

needs, perceptions and travel behaviuor, which we may call ‘market segments’ of the

‘passenger transport market’. Each of these segments might be different from the larger


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universe of bus passengers in their characteristics and their ‘desired level’ of the ‘service

features’ may also be different and this may reflect in their rating of the different

services/operators in a given bus route or sector. So in order to identify the different

segments of the travelling public, which are more homogenous in travel needs, wants and

perceptions, questions are included about the number of days a month they travel, average

distance travelled, nature of journey, time of journey, purpose of journey, etc. for

identifying different segments of users like regular users(travellers), occasional users

(travellers), long distance travellers, short distance travellers, heavy users, light users,

work-related travellers, non-work related travellers, leisure travellers, etc.(Questions 1,2,3

(b), 4 & 5). Further description about the methods of segmentation employed in this

research is given in the following section on analysis of data.

vi. Filter Questions:

In order to avoid respondents who travel very less(scanty users) and very short

distance(light users) and not used to travelling in the selected routes, built-in checks are

provided in the questionnaire, so that they do not fill in the questionnaire.

vii. Coding of the Responses:

With the objective of processing the Survey data electronically, provisions have been

made to code the answer to each question in numerical terms. The ratings-data also are

coded likewise for easy analysis.

viii. Rating of the Services of different operators:

The respondents were also required to rate different bus services/operators in the

route viz., KSRTC, TNSTC(CBE. Dn.) and Private services on a scale similar to that used

for ascertaining the level of importance of the service-attributes. A five-point scale is used

here also on the rationale explained above. The rating scores given are as follows:


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RATING OF THE SERVICE SCORE POINTS

Very good 5

Good 4

Average 3

Bad 2

Very bad 1

The bus services of the different operators as above were required to be rated

against each of the seven (plus one) service features given in the Question No.6 as

explained, which were later analysed to obtain their service profiles.

ix. The pilot survey using this questionnaire was done among 100 respondents and

simultaneously oral questions of a clarificatory nature were also asked to the respondents

to probe into their views, perceptions on the features, attitudes and the ratings to get more

descriptive information.

3.3.4 IIIrd Phase:Passenger Survey using ‘Malayalam’ version of Questionnaire

( probing & pre-testing)

In the third phase of the development of the question-schedule, the Questionnaire as

in the 2nd

phase was translated into Malayalam in the same manner and with the same

format/structure as it was felt that all the passengers might not be expected to read and

understand the questions in English. This Malayalam version of the questionnaire is given

as Annexure II with this. This was administered to 25 respondents in the same routes as

above and oral questions were asked about their understanding of the questions in the

Questionnaire. This was done also as a pre-testing of the questionnaire.


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Preliminary Analysis of the Pilot Survey data:

A preliminary analysis of the 125 responses as above was done to check the pattern

and the adequacy of the data for the proposed analysis and for inference on the

responsiveness and rating of different services in line with the objectives of this study, as

set out in Chapter1 (1.3). It was found necessary to add ‘Travel Comfort’ as an attribute.

3.3.5 Final Phase : Passenger Survey(Full Scale)

The passenger survey on a full scale as required was done after the above stages of

refinement and with a slightly modified version of the Questionnaire, given as Appendix-I

to this, adding the attribute/service feature ‘Travel Comfort’. The questionnaire used in the

Second and Third phases of the Passenger Survey was modified in the following aspects:

1. The routes to be studied were decided as :

1) Palghat-Coimbatore& 2) Palghat-Calicut(Kozhikode)(via.Mannarghat),

as these routes have all the three operators viz., KSRTC, TNSTC(CBE)and Private.

The route-length(chargeable) of the first is 52 KM and the second is 140 KM. The

characteristics of these routes are as follows: ( The Route map is given as Appendix –IV ).

Route 1 : Palghat-Coimbatore:

Route Length: 51 KM (up to Coimbatore-Ukkadam Corporation Bus stand)

(Chargeable distance: 52 KM). This is taken as a medium distance route for analysis

purposes in this study.

Type of Road: National Highway (NH-47 connects Trichur-Kerala& Salem-TN)

This Highway connects Palghat and Coimbatore town/city. In the middle of the

route, there is Kanjikode Industrial Area which has Indian Telephone Industries(ITI),

Instrumentation Ltd.(IL), Carborandum Universal Ltd., Malabar Cements Ltd, Premier

(Precot) Mills, Premier(UB)Breweries Ltd, a couple of other Distillery units, a few other


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Spinning mills etc. to name a few on the Palghat side. On Coimbatore side, ACC-

Madukkara cement plant, a few spinning mills and a good number of small and medium

engineering units are there along this road.. This route connects the Municipal town of

Palghat (population-2.00 lakhs)(approx) and City of Coimbatore(population-12

lakhs)(approx) the second largest city in Tamil Nadu state. Palghat historically has been

an agrarian-trade-oriented town. But now, new Industries in the suburbs have transformed

this into an industrial hub to some extent. However, it is predominantly a trading center for

agro-inputs and agricultural produce, mainly paddy. It is a District Head Quarters and has

Palghat-Railway Division Head Quarters(at Olavakkot, about 5 k.m. away) which is also

part of Palghat Municipal town. This town was part of erstwhile Malabar District, with its

HQ at Calicut till the states-reorganization in 1956. Coimbatore is the second largest city

and industrial hub of Tamil Nadu which is mostly connected with industrial, business and

trading activities. Coimbatore has about 100 Textile Mills and 400 foundry-cum-

engineering units and a large number of other industrial units. There is a heavy flow of

passenger traffic between Palghat and Coimbatore for business, trading and employment,

either way, throughout the day and till late night. Historically, these towns were part of the

erstwhile Madras State till 1956. Hence socially and culturally these towns have been

connected since a long time.

Nature of Bus Services

i. KSRTC Operate their bus services along Palghat-Coimbatore sector mainly from

their Palghat District Depot and it is the Controlling Center for this sector of their

operations. KSRTC is a monolithic, centralized and fully government owned corporation

with most of the administrative and management powers centred at the Chief Office at

Trivandrum. The District Depots and the officers in-charge are having very little

autonomy in the operational matters in their regions. This is the major service sector for


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Palghat Depot, which they operate with 13 buses and all of these are Fast Passenger(FP)

services with slightly higher charges than the ordinary moffusil services.

ii. TNSTC-CBE Division, formerly Cheran Transport Corporation Ltd.,(CTC) as it was

popularly known then was one of the 21 State transport undertakings in Tamil Nadu,

known in different names, like Cheran, Jeeva, Anna, Pallavan, Nesamony, Kattabomman,

Thiruvalluvar etc. till the late 90’s which were renamed and reorganized as TNSTC with

the Head Quarters-city name as the Division name shown in brackets, with a view to

reduce the operating overheads and to quench local parochial demands. It operates mainly

in the districts of Coimbatore and Nilagiris. Cheran Transport Corporation Ltd. (CTC) was

regarded as one of the best-run, efficient and profitable transport corporations in Tamil

Nadu. However as the bus charges in T.N. state are not increased corresponding to the hike

in diesel prices and as the bus fare in TN is the lowest among most of the states in India,

most of these transport undertakings have been running on loss in last few years, with

heavy accumulated losses. It runs Coimbatore City and mofussil services from

Coimbatore with services to Ootty, Mettupalayam, Erode, Salem, Pollachi, etc. It operates

the Coimbatore-Palghat route with 15 (13+2spare) buses.

iii. ‘SA’ Service is the only private operator in this route which is a Coimbatore based one

with a permanent(pucca) route permit since long before this route was nationalized.

Though the whole route is monopolized by KSRTC and TNSTC( formerly CTC), this is

the single Private operator in this sector, running 4 round trips (8 single trips) with one

bus. Generally these services do not carry over-load or standing passengers, at the time of

this study, except ‘SA’ which occasionally does. Being an inter-state route, only the

passengers up to the seating capacity are taken for this analysis ( recently, both State

Transport Corporations and SA have started taking standing-passengers also).


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Route (2): Palghat – Calicut (Kozhikode)

Of the two routes studied, the route PALGHAT-CALICUT is an intra-state route

running across three districts of Kerala viz. PALGHAT, MALAPPURAM and

KOZHIKODE (CALICUT). This route is dominated by private operators, with KSRTC

having only a few services and CTC having only a couple of services along part of the

route. KSRTC operates a total of 16 trips (of this, only 12 trips are passing through

Calicut-Palghat sector as part of other routes). There are many private operators, from

single-bus owners to fleet owners like KTC(Kerala/Kalpaka Transport Co.) operating

along this route. The route length is 140 Km. This is taken as a ‘long distance’ route for

analysis purposes in this study.

For a realistic assessment and comparison, the services of one operator only viz.,

KTC (Kerala Transport Co./ Kalpaka Transport Co., under the same management) is

considered in this study. The fare structure in this route (during 2000-01) is:

KSRTC (Fast Passenger Service) = Rs 43.50

PRIVATE (ordinary service only) = Rs 34.00

( ‘Express’ services of KSRTC & ‘Express’ Service of PRIVATE not considered)

The Passenger survey as above and data collection was done on-board the above

type of services only. KSRTC buses operate between KSRTC–Calicut Depot at Mavoor

Road and Palghat Depot(at Shornur Road) while the private services operate from the

Corporation Bus stand at Calicut and the Municipal bus stand at Palghat. The main

intermediate stations/towns on this route are Mannarghat, Perinthalmanna, Malappuram,

Kondotty, Ramanattukara and Feroke. Generally the long distance bus services like these

take passengers only from these stations/towns . The running time is between 3 1/2 hrs to


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4 hours for all these, as these services operate in effect as “Limited Stop” buses. There are

numerous other short distance and long distance services along this route, running between

the towns listed above and many other services with other destinations, originating from

Calicut as well as from Palghat, pass along part of this route.

Calicut is a commercial city of population of about 7 lakhs and is a major trading

center for hill-produce, spices, timber etc. There are many industries in and around the

city, and the nearby suburb of Beypore is a renowned center for boat and sailing-vessel

building. There is Calicut University, Regional Engineering College (NIT), Govt. Medical

College, Govt. Law College and a few Arts and Science Colleges in and around and

nearby the city.

Nature of Bus Services along Palghat-Calicut route

As CALICUT-PALGHAT route is not a nationalized one, it is dominated by private

bus operators, as KSRTC is operating only a small number of services, that too mostly

long distance services passing along this route.

Among the Private operators ‘KTC’ is an organized fleet-operator with a large

number of buses and operating many services in Calicut and nearby districts. To

avoid comparing the services of different operators under the general group of

‘PRIVATE BUS SERVICE’, only the services of KTC are considered in this study

and passenger-survey.

2. The Questions about the days of travelling, like week-end/beginning, working

days, holidays, etc. are included - Qn.5(b) and also a question about whether

travelling “alone” or “with others” included - Qn.5(c).

3. The question about the service features/attributes was also slightly redesigned

avoiding the line between the verbal labels and putting the verbal label with


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numerals, to avoid ticking ‘mid-way on the line’ between the point-scores. An

explanatory note was also added about the “Service feature” ratings and also about

whether it is a “determinant”, feature/attribute, to eliminate ambiguity.

4. The question on rating of the different services/operators also was modified as above,

putting the operators and service features in a matrix form for easy ticking by the

respondent. An explanatory note also is added to facilitate easier understanding of

the same.

Elimination of Position-bias :

‘Position bias’ of the attributes might influence the rating of the service attributes

by the respondents, as there may be a tendency to rate an attribute high which is placed

first in the listing of attributes/features and vice versa. In order to avoid this bias occurring

due to the ‘position’ of the feature/attributes in the questionnaire, the position of each

attribute was changed from 1,2,3,4,5,6&7th line, so that ‘each attribute appeared first’ in a

set of copies (28-30 no.) and in the second position in another set of equal number and so

on. So all the attributes appeared in all positions, from first to the last line in both English

and Malayalam versions, as the copies of the questionnaire were taken by changing these

positions in sets of about 28-30 Nos. both in English and Malayalam, for each route as

above.

3.4 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE:

The data required for this study have been collected as follows:

3.4.1 Primary Data Collection by Passenger Survey:

Primary data on the Bus passengers are collected using a structured questionnaire

as explained above after necessary refinement and pre-testing. The sample size for the

survey was decided as 400 Nos. in total i.e., 200 Nos. in each route. The questionnaire


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copies were taken out in English and Malayalam in equal number. The questionnaire was

administered to about 440 passengers on-board the buses, of which about 40 were rejected

for reasons such as: they were filled in incomplete, some were for less-frequent and too

short distance travellers, and the like. This survey started in November, 2000 and was

finished by January 2001 on completing 400 Nos. of respondents, i.e @ 200 respondents

in each of the route as above. The questionnaire was distributed to the passengers at

random, on board the buses along the routes of 1) Palghat – Coimbatore and 2) Palghat-

Calicut (Kozhikode) by traveling in all the bus services, viz., KSRTC, TNSTC(CTC) and

Private buses. As there are several private operators running regular bus services on

permanent and temporary route permits granted by Government (State Transport

Authority/Regional Transport Authority) in Palghat-Calicut route, for the sake of

uniformity and for avoiding the generalization of private operators as one category, only

the services of a representative and fairly large private operator viz. KTC

(KERALA/KALPAKA TRANSPORT CO.) was studied.. Along Palghat-Coimbatore,

only one private service is there viz., ‘SA’ Service who operates on a permanent route-

permit on this inter-state route along with KSRTC and T.N. State Transport

Corporation(Coimbatore Div). The survey was done along both the routes during the

same period and during all days of the week.

3.4.2 Secondary Data-Collection

The data on the operations of the services of KSRTC and TNSTC-CBE along the routes

were collected from the records and books of accounts of these corporations from their

offices at Palghat, Calicut and KSRTC-Chief Office at Trivandrum and TNSTC (Cbe-Dn.)

Head Office at Mettupalayam Road, Coimbatore. The data collected from the Secondary

Sources ie. the operational log/records included the following:


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1. Total number of Buses operating in the routes ( PGT-CBE & PGT-CLT)

2. Total No. of schedules/trips and trip-timings in these routes

3. Total No. of seats available/day in the routes

4. No. of trips cancelled each day from October 2000 to March 2001.

5. Total running KM -do- -do-

6. Reasons for cancellations (Breakdown, accidents, non-availability of buses, etc)

7. No. of buses run on time, onward and return, during October 2000 to March 2001.

8. No. of buses run late onward and return, during - do -

9. En-route break-down , accident and vehicle down time details of the buses -do-

10. Average load factor during - do -

11. Total passenger revenue collected/day/bus –do-

12. Earning per KM in the above routes -do-

3.5 ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY DATA ( from Passenger Survey)

The major source of data for this research was from the Passenger Survey done

along the two routes studied as explained above. This data are coded and tabulated for

analysis using standard computer programmes and analysed for determining the

following:

i. Service Attributes/features: Desired level of the various service features/attributes

identified, their mean values, variance/standard deviation, standard error and testing for the

significance of the score values and the Hypotheses concerning the service attributes.


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ii. Determinant nature of the service attributes: To identify whether the service

attributes are determinant in the selection or choice of a service/operator for travel and if so

to what extent and the implications of this for developing the management strategy of the

undertaking/firm.

iii. Rating of different operators/service-providers: To obtain a comparative rating of the

different service operators in the routes studied on the major service attributes identified

with reference to the ideal or desired level of the attributes and thereby to develop an

indicator of the responsiveness of different operators to the passengers’ needs and wants.

iv. Responsiveness of the service-providers/ bus operators to the needs, wants and

desires of the travelling public in a market-orientation perspective and to develop an

index/indicator of the responsiveness of different operators whereby it could be a predictor

of the physical performance of the transport undertakings/operators.

v. Computation of Responsiveness Index of Operators/service providers. The

responsiveness Index was computed using the desired level of the attributes, rating score

of the operator for each of the attributes and the aggregate of the scores for all the 8

attributes taken together. A formula for this was developed which would facilitate easier

computation of this index from this type of survey data.

vi. Market segmentation of the bus passenger/traveller market was done along viable

segmentation variables like, rate of usage, nature of usage/travel, purpose of travel, time of

the day and days of the week, etc to develop marketing strategies appropriate to the user

segments with a view to improve the overall economic performance of the operator. The


64

market whether for products or services, consists of customers and customers are likely to

differ in one or more respects. The customers are too numerous, widely scattered and

varied in their buying requirements. They might differ in size, resources, product/service

requirements, buying attitudes, buying practices, use pattern, usage rates, etc. Any of these

variables could make a difference in customer attractiveness or in the firms’/operators’

capability to effectively serve that customer (Kotler 1977;Lovelock 1980). Hence any of

these could be a ‘segmentation variable’. Market segmentation is a well-established idea

for guiding the marketing strategy of a marketer. It starts “not with distinguishing product

possibilities” but rather, with distinguishing “customer groups and needs”. Thus, market

segmentation is the subdividing of a market into distinct subsets of customers, where any

subset may conceivably be selected as a market target to be reached with a distinct

‘marketing mix’.

The research question addressed here were how to identify groups of consumers who

are ‘relatively homogenous’ with respect to their responses to marketing inputs and stimuli

and such groups were referred to as ‘market segments’. The lesser the variation in

responses within a given segment and greater the variation between the segments, the better

is the segmentation scheme. A ‘market’ comprises of all present and potential customers

of a specified type of product or service. It can be identified by the type of good or

service, the generic need being targeted to, the kind of consumers and its economic

potential. While segmenting the market, it is necessary to identify market segments in

terms of their descriptors (i.e. the characteristics of the customers they contain) and this is

the first step in the segmentation process. The next step concerns with determining

whether and to what extent there are differences in the needs or benefits being sought by

customers in various segments, by usage, situation, etc. This means that the saliency of

different product characteristics needs to be considered across the various usage


65

environment. The next step involves the evaluation of the present and future attractiveness

of each segment in financial terms, growth, competition, etc. With this theoretical basis,

the Bus passenger market was sub-categorized and the user-segments as follows were

initially identified for further analysis:

1. Occasional travelers (those who travel 5 to 12 days/ month)

2. Frequent travelers (those who travel 13 to 20 days / month)

3. Regular travelers (those who travel more than 20 days / month)

4. Short-distance travelers ( those travelling 30-90 Km/day)

5. Medium-distance travelers ( those travelling 91-150 Km/day)

6. Long distance travelers ( those travelling more than 150 Km/day)

7. Peak-hour travelers (“ travelling during 8.00 to 11.00 AM & 4.00 to 7.00 PM)

8. Non-peak hour travelers ( “ travelling during the time other than the above)

9. Work related travellers ( “ “ for employment, profession, vocation etc.)

10. Non-work related travellers( ‘ “ other than for “ “ “ )

11. Working days-travellers ( “ “ on Monday through Saturday )

12. Sunday and holiday-travellers ( “ “ on Sundays and general/public Holidays)

Market segmentation was first done in the conventional way as above using the

apparent segmentation variables as mentioned and subsequently more advanced approach

of ‘Cluster Analysis’ was attempted to identify homogeneous sub groups of travellers with

lower variance in the attributes among the cluster members but with wider variance

between the clusters. The analysis of the Clusters has been done as follows:


66

vii (a) Cluster Analysis for Identifying Market segments

The survey data from the passenger survey were tabulated and analysed using the

Standard Statistical Programme(SPSS) for identifying homogenous Clusters in the

respondents. Cluster Analysis which is also called Segmentation analysis or Taxonomy

Analysis seeks to subdivide the whole set into homogenous sub-sets with fairly uniform

characteristics. The objective in identifying the clusters is to minimize the variation within

each group and also to maximize the variation between groups. ‘Partitional Clustering’

and ‘K-means Clustering’ was attempted and the results of cluster details with

membership and the ‘dendogram’ obtained has also been plotted in a graph .

viii. Responsiveness Index and the Choice of Service/Operator

The responsiveness Index of each operator/service-provider was computed for each

passenger-segment as above from the passenger survey data by relating the

service/operator ratings by the passengers and the desired level of each service attribute.

Logically there might be some relationship to the Responsiveness Index of the operator in

a passenger/travel segment and the Choice of the service by the respondents in that

segment. In a marketing-oriented management approach this relationship may be fruitfully

utilized to develop the management strategy for the operator. An attempt was also made to

identify any ‘Correlation’ to these factors by doing a ‘correlation analysis’ of the segment-

wise Responsiveness Index and the Choice/selection of the service for travel as indicated

by the respondents falling in that segment as follows:

viii (a) Correlation Analysis

A correlation analysis was done taking the Responsiveness Index of different

operators in different Travel/Passenger segments and the respective choice of the services

as expressed by the passengers constituting that segment. The correlation coefficients have

been worked out and interpretation of the results has been done to ascertain the


67

relationship, whether a linear or otherwise existed between these criteria. A ‘regression

analysis’ was also be attempted as follows:

viii (b) Regression Analysis A regression analysis has also been attempted to find the

nature of the correlation of the Responsiveness Index to the Selection/Choice of service by

the respondents in each segment. The beta coefficient ‘b’ of the regression line has been

worked out using the statistical package on the computer and interpretation of results have

also been done.

ix. Semantic Differential – Profile of bus services

The profiles of different bus services along each route for each of the passenger

segment as identified above have also been developed on the ‘semantic differential’ scale,

using the desired level of the attributes and the comparative rating of the

services/operators, which gives a visual profile of different services vis a vis the ‘desired

or the ideal’ profile of the service. ‘Semantic Differential’ is a graphic scale used for

profiling company, brand, etc and it has been used in this study for a quick visual

comparison. These profiles will aid in the quick assessment of the Service/operator and for

taking appropriate management actions necessary for effective management and it is

comprehensible at all levels of management irrespective of the theoretical understanding

and comprehension of the rigours of the management tools.

x. Guidelines for effective management

Guidelines for effective management with a marketing orientation, with a

conceptual frame work has also been developed from the above and recommendations to

guide the transport undertakings and operators in adopting appropriate management

strategy and approaches for efficient and effective management of public road transport

organizations/undertakings have been made.

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